The Warehouse selling bike oil

[BikerDazz]

Possibly the guy i had to deal with in a Honda shop recently should be working in one,wanted a throttle cable for granted a bitsa race bike made up of an NSR250 frame and XR600 motor,after he fucked me about with "i cant read the numbers on the cable" for what seemed an enternity i said "theres a better than fair chance all things considered (told him about what bike the broken one was off) that it was either an NSR or an XR,more head scratching and shoulder shrugging later i gave up called into a differently branded dealership and picked up an XR one they had lying about with a simple "try this Mike if its no good bring it back and we will go from there".Service eh,wonderful.

You've hit the nail on the head there.
Poor customer service is, in my mind, a huge problem in NZ.
Personally, I'd prefer to buy from a place where I get knowledgable and friendly service even if the price is a bit more than at a 'super store'.
I think that's the point of difference that small businesses should focus on.
Seems basic as to me, but some bike shop staff seem to have an arrogant attitude and I think fuck 'em, I'll go elsewhere if you aren't fussed about receiving my trade.

[avgas]

Quick flick through tells me that sometimes we are a bit black and white.
The grey area here is the good part. You should support you local, but contrary to the idea that it supports the local economy.
You should support your local because of the feel good factor. Because of the premium service offered.
I still drive out of my way to go get fish and chips, for the very simple reason that they have always offered me exceptional friendly service.
Likewise, love or hate the warehouse - they do offer service (not the best etc). If you don't believe me go to Walmart or IKEA........
In reference to buying oil at the WH, big wow - I will buy any sort of product from them if I know they sell it and they are cheaper. I won't be buying oil from them for the simple principal that they don't sell the premium product I require. And they NEVER will as this is not their strategy. They are under "Operational Excellence", which crudely means move-as-much-product-as-possible. We do not pay for their service, we do not pay for their technology........we pay the lowest dollar for the cheapest crap.
For the local bike shop to feel threatened by this is concerned, as they feel they too are selling cheap crap, with no service involved.
So support your local for what they do. Not because you feel bad if you didn't.
I mean heaven forbid if 2 local small players opened up in the same area in NZ - would you split your funds 50/50 so that you didn't feel bad?

[carver]

They offer Excellent feel and are very comfortable, I only spent a year developing them.

sweet, sounds like they should pass a "carver" review then

[Quasievil]

sweet, sounds like they should pass a "carver" review then

If it held any relevance sure

[carver]

If it held any relevance sure

so when is the test date?

[Robert Taylor]

I am only making educated argument here and anyone who wishes to engage me might. So from the last few posts I infer that consumers must continue to support "bike shops" that charge 30-40% more than overseas simply to keep these businesses a-float. That inference is starting to sound like those businesses are not businesses and are in fact charities, and the consumer is in fact underrtaking charity work by purchasing those items.

Of cause I see the big picture - it is quite clear. However, most views here are biased from business owners themselves. Views in the end are just that - views, they do not sway or influence decision. Facts on the other hand give a very lucid explanation as to the course the future will take. It is not really my concern what the mark ups or gst a shop has to pay, as I don't benefit from it. Nothing personal - it's just business. After all is that not what you (bike shops etc) are in? When taxes or gst or the exchange rate drops - pass those costs on to the consumer - easy. Well the educated amongst us find that hard to digest.

I expect fair equitable prices, for I am a consumer and without me you will fail. Fact.
I will shop around for the best deal. Fact.
I understand the laws of demand and supply. Fact.
It's nothing personal. Fact.


Perhaps the younger generations are the ones who actually see the Big Picture and see past the horizons of New Zealand.

Engage me logically if you will. don't just take a dig.

Cheers Tony.
Its a vaild point about exchange rate fluctuation buts its not as clear cut as many think. Very often stock has to be committed to months in advance and is purchased at the prevailing exchange rate. ''Negative exchange rate shifts can only be insulated against if the busioess has enough capital to buy foreign currency when the exchange rates are more favourable for importing.
$US are of course what many people relate to, personally Id like to see our exchange rate against greenbacks at between 55 and 60 cents, good for our exporters and better overall for our country as a whole.

[Robert Taylor]

Of course, when you buy from overseas, you will often save money.

Remember, that in our modern world, we can move products across borders at will.

The only thing that we cant easily move is people.

So when you buy overseas, if you have a financial advantage from doing so, the reason is that you are actually buying the labour content of the product.

When you buy from asia, its actually their cheap labour you are importing.

Or it may be that you are taking advantage of the economies of scale, and higher productivity, such as when you buy from the USA. And of course your US based supplier does not have a minimum wage to pay, does not have ACC, and does not pay tax to provide universal health care, pensions or unemployment insurance.

But one thing is sure.

If you keep importing cheap labour from asia, then you will eventually face earning less. Thats supply and demand law you are so familiar with.

If you keep importing from the US, eventually there will be no free ride on the health care, pension, or unemployment fronts.

You may remain a consumer, but unless you are very skilled, and very productive you will have no income with which to consume.

For if you import everything from overseas, you will import their incomes. And unless you are evry skilled thats not going to be a nice place.

Great post, and of course there is already p;lenty of evidence that we are importing their low incomes.

[Robert Taylor]

ya gotta wonder why the red shed or similar haven't started up big box motorcycle shops yet.

would it work? They could put one or more in every significant town/suburb. They would have a larger buying power than the individual shops and could import direct bypassing the distributors. They would benefit from national advertising campaigns. Maybe even sell bikes.
It could slow down the internet sales, but a lot of the profit will still go to China and overseas shareholders etc.

What a lot of nonsense. The factories ( the real ones, not the shonky mainland Asian ones ) demand a proper distributor in every country

[Robert Taylor]

Yes I agree. So the question begs then who exactly can really afoard to pay this premium? Common joe blogs earning a 50k salary and a mortgage? I think not. You will find most people agreeing to pay the surplus over foreign suppliers to support local business will be the 'older' generation - by that I mean people 55 years + who are on descent money too say 100 k + with a couple of rental properties and a near freehold mortgage to rely on for financial stability. It is then not fair or equitable to expect the common biker on median wage to be able to pay the same prices as the latter. Again , its so fundamentally flawed the more I think about it the angrier I get.

Interesting conversation, what often brings me back to reality is thought about why so many goods are so cheap. Its because so much of it is made with sweatshop labour in Asia, conditions and poor remuneration that are abhorrent to Kiwis. So in one way or another we are all hypocrites???

[Robert Taylor]

You've hit the nail on the head there.
Poor customer service is, in my mind, a huge problem in NZ.
Personally, I'd prefer to buy from a place where I get knowledgable and friendly service even if the price is a bit more than at a 'super store'.
I think that's the point of difference that small businesses should focus on.
Seems basic as to me, but some bike shop staff seem to have an arrogant attitude and I think fuck 'em, I'll go elsewhere if you aren't fussed about receiving my trade.

Not only in NZ.....

[Ixion]

Well, that model dates from at least the 1930s. It is certainly overdue for change. And it doesn't seem to work very well , so probably the only reason it continues is the good old "we've always done it that way"

The three essential elements are marketing , distribution (right product at the right place at the right time), sales (Buy ours, not theirs), and support .

They all need to be there, but there's no inherent reason why the same business has to do all four . And very few busineses are good at all four . Indeed, very often already the marketing component is separated out. No reason why the others couldn't be split off (apart from WADITW of course) . The Red Shed is very very good at distribution -lousy at the others. But other business could do the sales and support bit (third party support arrangements are very common in the electronics industries).

[Woodman]

Interesting conversation, what often brings me back to reality is thought about why so many goods are so cheap. Its because so much of it is made with sweatshop labour in Asia, conditions and poor remuneration that are abhorrent to Kiwis. So in one way or another we are all hypocrites???

Totally agree with you, but if a business is to survive they are almost forced to go the cheap route because that is what their customers demand. The market decides what is right and wrong in the end. Like voting , just because it is popular, doesn't mean its right.

[Robert Taylor]

Totally agree with you, but if a business is to survive they are almost forced to go the cheap route because that is what their customers demand. The market decides what is right and wrong in the end. Like voting , just because it is popular, doesn't mean its right.

Not all market sectors demand that everything has to be cheap cheap cheap. In my world there are people that sell cheaps shocks that have cheap performance. Not everyone wants a cheap shock, they want a shock thatactually works and they want to talk to someone that understands the product they are selling

[98tls]

Not all market sectors demand that everything has to be cheap cheap cheap. In my world there are people that sell cheaps shocks that have cheap performance. Not everyone wants a cheap shock, they want a shock thatactually works and they want to talk to someone that understands the product they are selling

The reality is RT that people like yourself have nothing to worry about as i am sure you know.Theres plenty of opinions posted here that have merit but many more that are nothing more than rubbish,the world isnt going to end tommorow if i purchase something outside our little country,child/cheap labour has been around for a lot longer than anyone posting here or there grandfathers for that matter,it wont end if i solely buy Kiwi made.Did a bit of research in the last few days and to sum up i stand by my earlier posts as in when what i want/need is avaliable at a resonable price from someone local (shit ive even made allowances of a few $hundy at times) i will purchase from them,but to be quoted a price for a set of aftermarket rims a $1000 more +post than i can and did buy a set +chain+sprocket+post+GST (yes i chose to pay it despite being offered a way round it) then f$ck em,talk about taking the piss.

[jonbuoy]

The big four Jap bike makers outsource or import "labour" to cut costs and overheads, Triumph and Kawasaki do the same. Manufacturers of other goods in NZ have outsourced production to cut overheads you can´t blame or guilt trip joe public for not doing the same and cutting their own overheads to play fair and be nice to the local guy. You can´t stop progress - internet buying isn´t going to go away, the younger generation are growing up with it and will turn to local shops less and less. Businesses will adapt or change or go bankrupt. The only way they can compete is with superior service and local knowlage or to make it MORE convenient to buy locally, would anyone bother to buy online to save 10-15% probably not but when people see they can save 20-40% online it really is worth the hassel and risk.