i love the idea.

what about creating some sort of blanket national/international organization/club/something that community bike shops could belong to, and then creating accounts for that group, the members of which would then reap the benefits?

i dunno how chain stores--rei, performance, etc--get their accounts set up, but surely every brick and mortar store that is a part of a chain doesn't have to go thru the hassle of getting an account set up?

i also love that jonathan called grease "wearable." it certainly is at community cycles...

there was some talk of this at bikebike! in 07, perhaps we should get a discussion group going, and have a workshop about it in 08?



On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 9:41 PM, Vyki Englert <vyki.englert@thekickstand.org> wrote:
Love the idea, if there is a shop willing to set themselves up as a distributor, I'm sure the kickstand would be interested in being on the distribution list. 
We are still so very new, I doubt we could set ourselves up for that position.  Though down the road, I'm sure we would be able to help alot more.
-vyki


On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 9:59 PM, 1304bikes <1304bikes@gmail.com> wrote:
I really like this idea as well, mainly because we here at 1304bikes fall into the not established enough to get a distributor account.  This means we usually have to pay retail prices for anything we happen to need.  A lot of the local bike shops to give us a nice discount, but we still pay some markup on wholesale. 

I agree with option 2, that it is worth doing.  I'm just not sure how one would go about doing so; but i certainly love the idea. 

-Doug
1304bikes
Raleigh, NC

On 3/12/08, Jonathan Morrison <jonathan@slcbikecollective.org> wrote:
Distributors (http://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/index.php?title=Distributors) are just the middle men separating manufacturers from retailers.  Just like food cooperatives that buy in bulk and disseminate food at bulk rates, we could do that with bike parts.  For those of us that buy using distributors it would save an roughly 25% off of wholesale, and for those community bike shops that aren't established enough to get a distributor account -- we would be providing an option that is 75% off of MSRP.

Ideally we would get accounts with tool manufacturers like park tool, pedros, hozan, etc.,... as well as wearable items like grease, bearing, chain lube, patch manufacturers, and then lower-end (but quality) parts manufacturers for things that we don't get enough of donated, or that aren't worth re-using.  This will be different for each shop, but as an example in SLC we don't re-use bearings, spokes, cables or housing -- they get recycled and we put new ones on bikes.  We also buy new road tires (27" & 700c) because we don't have enough decent ones donated, either they are too worn or dried out.

I can think of 2 conclusions:

1) It isn't worth doing.  The 25% cut a distributor gets is worth paying given the hassle and it is just another random thought that might result in spending $5 to save $3.
2) It is worth doing.

--
Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison
Executive Director
Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective
2312 S. West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
w: 801-328-2453
c: 801-688-0183
f: 801-466-3856
www.slcbikecollective.org

Get Addicted to Crank!
http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/
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--
1304bikes
2419 Mayview Rd.
Raleigh, NC
1304bikes.org
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--
Vyki Englert
"sprocket" acting Director of operations
Member Board of Directors
Gainesville Community Bicycle Project, Inc "the Kickstand"
722 South Main Street Gainesville Fl 32601
www.thekickstand.org
vyki.englert@thekickstand.org
850.819.8808

'every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.' --h.l. mencken
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