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quite interesting reading everyone's views on this, over the years my view on wiggle and CRC then wiggleCRC have changed, so here's my 2pence worth.
when i started in the trade in 1997 wiggle and CRC in terms of online were obviously in their infancy, initially i remember the thought was they'll be a flash in the pan, cut to a few years later and what you had in stock in the shop had changed, you actively tried to stock products that they didn't, frankly as companies they were annoying, every other person seemed to walk in with a print out of a screen shot and demanded we price match, quite often it was impossible, best case you would offer a bit of discount and free fitting if it was an actual part, it was never enough for the customer, it made me and likely every other bike shop employee/owner hate them.
this went on for many years, but after a while shops learned to just deal with it, and customers settled in to separate styles, 1 type continued to use shops, 1 type only used the internet and youtube videos etc, then there was the passive aggressive guy, "i want to buy it off my local shop and support you but wiggles price is so low it's hard not to buy it", quite often these were the worst type as they literally whined until you gave in and did whatever price or went out and bought from wiggle then complained that shops were a rip off, we were just trying to make a living, nothing evil or rip off about that, they bought tyres in 1000's, we were buying in 5's or 10's, we were never gonna get near the prices.
cut to when i left the trade, obvs i was capable of fixing my own bike and being in the trade meant i got discount, which obvs i lost when left the trade, i looked on line as many do and found CRC to be the best option, i felt the website was easy to navigate and they had the brands i mostly preferred, wiggle on the other hand i found the website annoying, when you searched for something if it didn't have it it would show you an option as opposed to saying we don't have that which i found immensely annoying, i never even set up and account with them, thought it was rubbish to be honest.
obvs then i started my shop, i actively tried to avoid stuff that they did, not that it was a major issue as obvs i set up as repair based which obvs the internet suppliers aren't really, i wasn't doing clothes etc so i never really found either of them to be an issue. obvs by this time i wasn't getting the price match people in, except for one guy, he was relentlessly passive aggressive, but also demanding, some may know the story of this guy, i've told a few people on here about it in person, he got sat down, handed a cup of tea and i explained to him why i thought he was a see you next tuesday, it worked (for a while), he shook my hand at the end of the conversation, he still comes in, he's still a pain, but not quite as bad.
now i will also point out that one of the former owners of wiggle comes in my shop, i used to work with him in another shop in the late 90's and he's still local. we have had various conversations about his time there, what he thinks of them now etc, i haven't seen him for a while, it'll be interesting to find out what his view on the situation is.
but here's what i think, do i find it sad that wiggleCRC might be at an end? honestly no, not upset that the business is gone/going at all, i feel incredibly sorry for the staff, and if you don't feel sorry about that then you're probably a crappy person yourself. do i think it will help local bikeshops? no, not at all, all the wiggleCRC customers will go to the next online seller of their choice, won't make any difference whatsoever to local bike shops.
why do i think it happened? as i understand it wiggle was sold originally then sold again to Signa, now i think that part of the reason there was so much debt was that i heard that it was bought by Signa for 263 million, not sure if that was pounds, euros of dollars, anyway what i heard then happened was WiggleCRC then borrowed millions to pay back Signa for buying it, so Signa gets the guts of it's 263 million back and Wiggle has a massive loan to repay, also Signa then takes a bunch of the Wiggle profits leaving it short to buy stock and still having a loan to repay. then obvs Covid etc, so yes there was a shortage of stock, now Wiggle bought CRC apparently because CRC had access to buying OE parts from the far east in a way that Wiggle didn't, but obviously that supply stopped during Covid, which meant all of a sudden the main reason why people bought on WiggleCRC wasn't there, no cheap parts available! so people bought stuff wherever they could get it, all of a sudden shops could sell to those mail order customers again, it was a shock to be honest, customers you hadn't seen in ages reappeared, i had a former rep come in the shop, he's a tosser to be honest and he wanted a new drive train, he basically wanted it at trade, i enjoyed telling him no, it was one of 3 12speed cassettes i had in stock, i wasn't gonna give them away when people were desperate for them, i sold everything at listed retail price, i didn't price gouge like i saw some shops doing. so with all that in mind, yes i think WiggleCRC was badly managed during covid, but wasn't helped by Signa, and it's supply chains were cut, add to that the rise of Amazon, Wish, Ebay, Alibaba and Brexit, loads of counterfeit products being sold super cheap as if they were the actual products meant it was gonna go the way of the dinosaurs.
overall i am not surprised by all this, i hope the staff get sorted, i hope that mike ashley doesn't try and buy it, he's a vulturous piece of crap, if he gets it he'll find a way of losing the debt, keeping the assets and binning the staff to the absolute minimum.
anyway, good luck to the staff.
when i started in the trade in 1997 wiggle and CRC in terms of online were obviously in their infancy, initially i remember the thought was they'll be a flash in the pan, cut to a few years later and what you had in stock in the shop had changed, you actively tried to stock products that they didn't, frankly as companies they were annoying, every other person seemed to walk in with a print out of a screen shot and demanded we price match, quite often it was impossible, best case you would offer a bit of discount and free fitting if it was an actual part, it was never enough for the customer, it made me and likely every other bike shop employee/owner hate them.
this went on for many years, but after a while shops learned to just deal with it, and customers settled in to separate styles, 1 type continued to use shops, 1 type only used the internet and youtube videos etc, then there was the passive aggressive guy, "i want to buy it off my local shop and support you but wiggles price is so low it's hard not to buy it", quite often these were the worst type as they literally whined until you gave in and did whatever price or went out and bought from wiggle then complained that shops were a rip off, we were just trying to make a living, nothing evil or rip off about that, they bought tyres in 1000's, we were buying in 5's or 10's, we were never gonna get near the prices.
cut to when i left the trade, obvs i was capable of fixing my own bike and being in the trade meant i got discount, which obvs i lost when left the trade, i looked on line as many do and found CRC to be the best option, i felt the website was easy to navigate and they had the brands i mostly preferred, wiggle on the other hand i found the website annoying, when you searched for something if it didn't have it it would show you an option as opposed to saying we don't have that which i found immensely annoying, i never even set up and account with them, thought it was rubbish to be honest.
obvs then i started my shop, i actively tried to avoid stuff that they did, not that it was a major issue as obvs i set up as repair based which obvs the internet suppliers aren't really, i wasn't doing clothes etc so i never really found either of them to be an issue. obvs by this time i wasn't getting the price match people in, except for one guy, he was relentlessly passive aggressive, but also demanding, some may know the story of this guy, i've told a few people on here about it in person, he got sat down, handed a cup of tea and i explained to him why i thought he was a see you next tuesday, it worked (for a while), he shook my hand at the end of the conversation, he still comes in, he's still a pain, but not quite as bad.
now i will also point out that one of the former owners of wiggle comes in my shop, i used to work with him in another shop in the late 90's and he's still local. we have had various conversations about his time there, what he thinks of them now etc, i haven't seen him for a while, it'll be interesting to find out what his view on the situation is.
but here's what i think, do i find it sad that wiggleCRC might be at an end? honestly no, not upset that the business is gone/going at all, i feel incredibly sorry for the staff, and if you don't feel sorry about that then you're probably a crappy person yourself. do i think it will help local bikeshops? no, not at all, all the wiggleCRC customers will go to the next online seller of their choice, won't make any difference whatsoever to local bike shops.
why do i think it happened? as i understand it wiggle was sold originally then sold again to Signa, now i think that part of the reason there was so much debt was that i heard that it was bought by Signa for 263 million, not sure if that was pounds, euros of dollars, anyway what i heard then happened was WiggleCRC then borrowed millions to pay back Signa for buying it, so Signa gets the guts of it's 263 million back and Wiggle has a massive loan to repay, also Signa then takes a bunch of the Wiggle profits leaving it short to buy stock and still having a loan to repay. then obvs Covid etc, so yes there was a shortage of stock, now Wiggle bought CRC apparently because CRC had access to buying OE parts from the far east in a way that Wiggle didn't, but obviously that supply stopped during Covid, which meant all of a sudden the main reason why people bought on WiggleCRC wasn't there, no cheap parts available! so people bought stuff wherever they could get it, all of a sudden shops could sell to those mail order customers again, it was a shock to be honest, customers you hadn't seen in ages reappeared, i had a former rep come in the shop, he's a tosser to be honest and he wanted a new drive train, he basically wanted it at trade, i enjoyed telling him no, it was one of 3 12speed cassettes i had in stock, i wasn't gonna give them away when people were desperate for them, i sold everything at listed retail price, i didn't price gouge like i saw some shops doing. so with all that in mind, yes i think WiggleCRC was badly managed during covid, but wasn't helped by Signa, and it's supply chains were cut, add to that the rise of Amazon, Wish, Ebay, Alibaba and Brexit, loads of counterfeit products being sold super cheap as if they were the actual products meant it was gonna go the way of the dinosaurs.
overall i am not surprised by all this, i hope the staff get sorted, i hope that mike ashley doesn't try and buy it, he's a vulturous piece of crap, if he gets it he'll find a way of losing the debt, keeping the assets and binning the staff to the absolute minimum.
anyway, good luck to the staff.
What did you tell him? How did you explain it? Rent prices and sales volumes and all that eh?
), yes I had a cool LBS. I would go in there and they'd basically give me 25% off (without me even asking). I was that good a customer. I'd also order my own stuff now and then too from abroad. I had no time to install everything myself. They pretty much wouldn't charge me any fitment fees whatsoever. I'd go in there with a frame, and they'd build it up for me.
Plus, they don't seem to have many you know ACTUAL COMPONENTS available for sale like cranks and whatnot, only 'accessories'. 
I got home and realised it was in fact scratched. Now, sometimes I accidentally damage parts myself. It happens. I don't get angry. But if I was them I'd have owned up to it. They didn't.
