Central Sports New Shop

[JohnStevens]

I must congratulate Central Sports on a new site, it is much more becoming than the old one. www.centralsports.co.uk

[Michael Banks]

It looks much improved as far as finding what you want. The only issue I have is the massive focus on Yonex!! The Yonex shop for heavens sake, it can't be long before there are no other vendors!!

[Michael Banks]

posting again to make 400 posts :p

[Phil McBride]

I think it's the way badminton retailing is going nowadays, Yonex seem to have adverts and stock everywhere and there is not much discount off the retail, the top of the range shirts seem to be £54-£60.

It's almost if there is a strategy on the part of Yonex akin to the old if you don't do as we say you don't get the stock, and by the way you need to charge our price for it :rolleyes:

[SteveMiller]

Phil

I contacted Yonex about distrubuting their gear - and you wouln't believe the red tape envolved. It was all about if your shop was "good" enough to "host" their equipment.

Although I play and wear Yonex gear - I still think it's still a bit of "World Domination" mate....

Look at the All England in Birmingham...

"Yeah - you can have a stand - but you can't advertise anything apart from Yonex"

'nuff said!!!

[Phil McBride]

That one is bacause they pay the dough to support the event (actaully I would be interedsted in knowing exactly what they contribute) and will not allow anyone else to come in and steal their thunder. It's very simillar up here when the Scotish Open is on.

"Bag of glory" anyone?

[Phil McBride]

Further to this I was looking for BG80 after a nice coach type bloke pointed me in the direction instead of constantly shelling out on gut, I looked at Central and thinking it was the only place that would have it I ordered it and it was £90 per 200m roll, I later done a bit of looking about and found it for £75 and later £65 on another site with no additional mailing fee.

£25 difference on a roll of string (large profit margin anyone)

Way overpriced methinks :mad:

[SteveMiller]

I got an Armortec 800 for £109 (£5,993,182,283 RRP) under similar circumstances - having paid an arm and a leg one a couple of weeks earlier...

[Phil McBride]

Their policy is very odd at times! They advertise stock they do not have and then act, the heat capsule tracksuit was to be sold but only in limited numbers and they had to advertise it at £130, the agreed Yonex price, the decision to release it was made in August for a delivery date of September which in actual fact was yesterday because of the Yonex distribution problems this year.

Another oddity from the guys and gals from Central Sports.

Their prices rise and fall whenever they want leaving other sites in the lurch to compete and at stages have been madness, after the release of the AT 700 last year the site had them for £150 and then slashed them to £110 (probably becasue no one was buying) only for them to go back up to £130 a few days later.

A simillar story with the SHB98 mens trainer this year.

Is it Central Sports or Yonex themselves to blame for this?

[Loafer]

I agree, you do have to keep on your toes to stay ahead of their pricing (good practice for playing anyway) But I think it is partially reflective of the internet shopping revolution. they can use the net to offer at certain times nice dicounts. bear in mind that if you were to buy in a store you would (99.9%) of the time, have to pay RRP (150 on a AT800), so lets just say CS aim to ship at 130 consistently, sometimes they will be able to offer lower prices, shops do this all the time. the diffence is, on the net it is far easier to quickly implement discounts or sales and your margins are bigger due to lower overhead etc. I KNOW they also have a store but they are focused on the internet/mail order market so their margins etc are aligned to that shopping model.

it is frustratin when you just bought a racket at 130 only to see it a week later at 110 or 100 but that happens in the high street all the time. at the end of the day, you still saved 20 over a store price!

the thing to be wound up about is the markup all the manufacturers are making!!

my freind is a golf pro and stocks dunlop (they are tied to carlton) When he gets the full catalogue it has trade price for ALL of their ranges not just golf

Top of the range Carlton racket RRP = 150approx TRADE PRICE = 65 - i kid you not that is a MASSIVE >100% markup!!!!!! how on earth do you justify that!

this kind of margin from the manufacturers demonstrates how retailers can afford to have some fleixibility around prices.

Larry