I invited a friend to lunch with the hope that if I paid for her food she'd drive me to North of the Border Bicycles so that I could pick up the XTR Hub Nut. She agreed, so after eating an over-priced burrito at Wholefoods, we headed over to find the tiny little bike shop tucked away in the corner of a nondescript business park. It's not a place you'd expect to find a bike shop, and upon entering the store the first thing I noticed is that the space isn't set up to really be a showroom. But, they had the part I need, so what do I care if they're in a bad location.
When I walked in I saw a man in a mechanic's wardrobe in the back room. He walked out looking like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and greeted me. I assume that this was the owner of the shop who is also the salesman, mechanic and everything else. It's a pretty small space, so I can't imagine more than two people being in the stoe at a time. I told him I was looking for the XTR hub nut, and he instantly knew what I wanted and retreated back to the workshop to grab the part. I asked to use the bathroom, and as I pushed open the door, he asked me how many hub nuts I wanted.
I asked him how much they cost, expecting to maybe hear $1.50 since I could kind of tell that this shop wasn't a high-traffic/high-sales sort of place and I'd pay a premium. (Trek said that they should be about $0.80-$0.99 each). Instead the guy tells me that they are $5.00 each. What the fuck!?! $5.00??? I forgot all about needing to pee, certain that he was quoting the price for some other part. But he held up the bag and said, no, they were $5.00 each (he had two left), and that the reason the price was so high is because 'my buddy only bought one spoke from him and he had to order $100 in parts.'
Not having this part really screws with my riding abilities for the weekend. However, based on principal alone, there was no way I was going to give this guy $5.00 for a part that should cost less than $1.00. His attitude and blaming my friend for his lack of profit was unacceptable.
I won't be going back to that place.
How do you Find Mountain Trails you Want to Ride?
-
We want to know how you find inspiring mountain bike trails to ride.
The article How do you Find Mountain Trails you Want to Ride? appeared
first on Sing...
18 hours ago
0 Comments:
Post a Comment