I think it's a great thought, but i'm in agreement with the number "1" conclusion.  You would have to set up a warehouse/storage area for parts that you receive from manufacturers. Then the problem lies in fulfilling "orders" from CBS's.  Someone has to process, ship, keep track of money, inventory etc.  To make it work out would probably require at least one full time employee.  The reason that distributors get stuff so cheap is because (what jonathan said) they order in bulk.  We'd have to have a lot of up front money to say, purchase 200 chain breakers, 100 27'' tires or whatever the minimum order is for every part to be stocked.  You'd still end up having to ship everything to a central location and ship orders to CSB's all over the country.

Perhaps if someone were to start a "benevolent distributor" that would sell to regular bike shops as well as giving reduced pricing and less account restrictions to community based organizations?  Shops that are geographically close could also form a purchasing Co-op, managed by one of the shops, to approach manufacturers with large orders.

My cents,
Brian

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 7:32 PM, 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

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