A sad day

[roeroeyerboat]

Today i popped into my local tackle shop to see if i could pick up a lure for a fellow forum member. I had a quick look at what he still had left of his older stuff and noticed that most of them had had there price tags changed ( i never thought to much of it ).
I found the lure i was after and went to the counter and had a chat with the guy behind the counter as i always do. After a quick chat that involved him trying to get me to buy the new so called hot lure and me telling him how i preferred the smaller jointed rapalas over them
He mentioned to me that last week he had seen the new rapala reps. And how after the rep having a look at what he had left in stock he had told them that if they wanted to keep getting there rapalas through them that they would have to put up there prices. Now i've heard of tackle suppliers doing this quite a few times in the UK and i find this really sad as i cant understand why manufacturers are obsessed with trying to rip off UK anglers & price small independent tackle shops out of business.
I always try and support my local shop but other than getting the odd hard to find lure rapala Uk can forget about getting any more money from me. I don't know if its the same for folks elsewhere in the world, but i find this kind of stuff wrong on so many levels

[90collector]

The only sport shop I know of that has old fat raps still raised his prices this year, needless to say i wont be going back to buy the remaining ones at $10 each

[dutchie]

Here in The Netherlands Rapala lures are becoming harder to get because the main supplier Shimano Benelux are asking the shops to buy very large amounts of lures at one time. They also have to pre-order several months in advance wich is very difficult for the shops because they never know what they need in the months to come.

Almost every tackle shop I know around here has stopped with buying there stuff from Shimano, that also includes the Rapala lures. Another problem with the Rapala lures is that the shops are not getting what they ordered, it looks like Shimano has hardly anything in stock, and when they do it seems like the shops who are selling the most lures are getting the first choice.

I think that the amount of tackle shops who are selling Rapala lures is about to drop enormously in the next coming year.

[riverrat]

My favorite tackle shop will only carry Floaters, Husky Jerks and Shad Raps. He can't afford to carry anything else. The prices are just getting to be too much.

[walter]

i agree. rapala lures cost a lot and are getting difficult to find here in italy, too. prices have increased a lot, the same lure that costed 6000 lire (3.11 euros) now costs 9 euros. i'm not willing to afford that, since i can get cheaper lures that still work enough for my needs.