On Sat, 1 Apr 2017 19:22:04 GMT, Tekkie? > wrote:

> +1 on that!

I think I figured out how they can do it.

In researching how many tires TireRack sells in a year, I found that the
average online profit on a tire is about $25.

On a typical ultra high performance tire which is, say, $75, that means
that 1/3 the cost is pure profit online.

If they sell that UHP tire for $100 at a local brick-and-mortar tire shop,
then their advantage can be 1/2 the price (although they probably have
higher costs too).

Everything depends on the math, but I have to rethink my theory that tires
are a commodity, since commodities aren't sold generally for anything near
1/3 over cost.

It's basic economics for a manufacturer to have a marketing team turn a
commodity into a specialty item, and then they can command such prices.

So, I guess, for the most part, tires are a "specialty item" since selling
for 1/3 over cost is not how commodities sell.