'Decathlon partly blames Brexit for markups on e-bikes that can be up to £250 pricier in the UK than in France.'

[richtea99]

So says the Grauniad:

‘Brexit to blame’: UK shoppers pay up to 50% more than those in EU

From Zara to Ikea and Decathlon, stores charge more for same items, Guardian Money research finds

www.theguardian.com

Decathlon, the French sports goods retailer that operates 2,000 stores across 56 countries, charges £1,299.99 for a Riverside electric bike in its UK stores, equal to €1,525.
But in France, Spain and Italy, the price for the same item is €1,199.
The e-bike buyer at Decathlon’s Brighton store is therefore paying €326 (£278) more than if they popped across the channel and bought it in Dieppe.

Decathlon largely blamed Brexit for the price differentials. It said: “The UK’s exit from the European Union has made it more expensive to import stock. It also meant that Decathlon UK had to expand the size of the supply team in order to deal with the additional administration, costs and duties associated with Britain’s exit from the customs union.

“In the UK specifically, we have the obvious challenges involved in dealing with constantly changing exchange rates, coupled with the post-Brexit burden of having to pay import duties twice on a number of products (once as goods enter the EU, and again once they enter the UK).”

 

[guerney]

Can I pop over the channel and load of a van full of these for "Personal use", as I can for wine? Would the warranties be honoured from the UK? Wine warranties don't exist, hasn't been an issue.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

I've noticed some Decathlon bikes now are much less competitive in price and not worth buying. Same as many European brands but then what is the point of buying a mainly Chinese product that has rested in Europe and has had a chunk of money added. Your better off buying from a UK importer or a Chinese importer to maximise your value.

Typically Decathlon bikes have lower weight limits and they have had many recalls on their bikes.

The EU single market has been a disaster for the UK economy, we never competed very well in that market and had a huge trade deficit with the EU as well as making huge payments to the EU and paying extra for goods because goods from outside the EU were more restricted so we ended up buying more expensive goods from Europe. That's 4 reasons why we have the staggering debts we have that will take decades to pay back and mean much lower living standards.

At least now goods bought from the EU will have sales tax paid to our exchequer rather than to the EU. That in itself will hugely benefit our economy. Before goods sold from the EU to UK had sales tax go to the EU and goods sold from the UK to EU had sales tax go to the EU, not a great deal for us. Same with tariffs which were mainly paid to Europe but we have kept many tariffs but now that money goes to our exchequer.

Every working person is paying about £3k per year just paying the interest on our debts without paying back the debt itself. It's a staggering level of debt.

Ultimately if Decathlon want to charge us more because they deem the extra administration costs need a big extra chunk of money added their bikes are far less competitively priced and sales will reduce accordingly. I'm in the south west and there are no Decathlon stores here so its a mute point for me anyway.