Regarding foreign brand bike pricing,
the claim that "it's only expensive in Korea"
and "importers are gouging profits" seems to come up way too easily.
But if you look even a little into the actual distribution structure,
it's not as simple a problem as people think.
Most foreign brand bikes
get imported with country/region-level pricing policies already largely set at the headquarters level.
Domestic importers on top of that have to absorb logistics costs, tariffs, exchange rates, certification costs, warehouse operating costs, AS infrastructure, and inventory risk.
The bike industry in particular is a market with very heavy seasonal influence.
If you miss the selling window, tens of millions to hundreds of millions of won worth of inventory can end up stuck,
and you also have to directly absorb losses from exchange rate fluctuations.
Also, a lot of people simply compare overseas direct-purchase prices,
but US MSRP often doesn't include tax,
and there are quite a few cases comparing local discount/clearance prices against Korean domestic list prices.
Of course, for some brands or models, the price can genuinely feel too high from a consumer's perspective.
But interpreting every pricing issue simply as "Korean importers gouging profits"
I think is an oversimplified view of the actual market structure.
And one of the reasons for the current strong dissatisfaction with pricing
is that large volumes came in at high prices during the post-Covid supply shortage period,
and I think those effects are still lingering in the market.
That said, unlike before, supply has increased quite a bit now,
and market competition has also gotten much more intense.
As time passes and inventory cycles through and the market stabilizes,
I think there's a good chance prices will also gradually settle back to a level consumers can accept.
Criticism is necessary.
But I think we also need at least some balance—looking at the market structure and the real cost factors alongside it.
