I talk to a lot of people about snowboarding, the industry, retailers, you name it.  I get to spend a lot of time learning the ins and outs of how things work, how boards are built and all kinds of fun things.  I’ve heard lots of rumble throughout various industry insiders about the effect of Sierra Snowboard on the masses.  I didn’t pay much attention to it until recently.

I know SierraSnowboard.com is known for their “deals.”  Riders and skiers a like flock to the site in order to win free skis, or a snowboard, and take advantage of the 50% – 70% off sales they usually have.  I think what’s happened now though is that pricing has become so discounted over at Sierra that people are taking that to heart as to what pricing should actually be.  I don’t know if you all know how much really goes into producing the goods we use.  The R&D costs, the material, labor, taxes, and more tend to affect the cost of goods. I find most people are under the assumption that a snowboard costs about $50 to make.  While it may only cost $50 in materials (this is just a figurative number) you have to factor in the cost of the labor, factory overhead, shipping, taxes, and even more to get the real cost of a product. People have been over at SierraSnowboard.com so long now, I think they feel entitled to a 50% discount on snowboards, and get somewhat disgruntled when they don’t get it. The proof of this can be found on their forum, when may users complain that discount pricing has changed, or ask why something isn’t priced at 50% or 70%.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to categorize everyone into this group, but there are numerous people I’ve run into who appear to have this thought process.  I like to call it the “Sierra Effect.”   It’s essentially “I’m not going to buy from you, when I can go online and get it at 50% off” attitudes.  While I myself, much like everyone else, loves to get good deals on products, there is a realistic side of me that says, people need to eat, and this industry needs to survive.  Think about it.  Do you look at the price of an item at your local shop and go.. “hrmm that’s too high, and I can get it cheaper online?”  Or do you wonder why your local shop isn’t discounting 50%?  A lot of times companies have dealer agreements, which prohibit insane discounts such as 50% or 70% on some goods during a season, or during certain times.  This is done to protect not only the companies product integrity, but also it’s resellers who put their faith into a companies products. It’s not fair to walk into a local shop, and complain that you’re not getting the same pricing as an online discounter gives you. Also please don’t feel free to complain when your warranty is not honored due to you buying from an unauthorized dealer, or at a steep discount circumventing distribution channels etc.

The next time you’re out shopping for a board, think about what goes into getting that board made, and stocked into your local shop, and think about how that shop owner may feel when you’re asking him for 50% off the price of the board.  I’ll tell you in most cases, that shop owner is taking a loss with a 50% discount.  Take some time to meet your local shop owners, and staff.  In most cases the local shop kids are all riders, and love the products they support.  They’ll be able to help you pick out boots,boards, and bindings and provide after sales support, which online stores such as sierrasnowboard.com really don’t do.   We all want good deals, especially in this economy, but we also need to understand, we’re not being price gouged by companies, and not being ripped off by most of the shops out there.  A good deal from time to time is awesome, but steep discounting year round (on current products) is dangerous and unhealthy.