why can't you buy bicycle wheels/rims at most "Regular" stores?

The so-called bicycles they sell in discount stores use the CHEAPEST components possibly found. Many times these parts aren't even listed on the suppliers website. Shimano (for example) makes lots of these no-name derailleurs for Wally World bikes.

On top of that...if you buy in HUGE quantities, you get HUGE discounts. Now - who has more pure buying power - a multi-billion dollar company like Wally World - or the local bike shop? That's another reason.

Reason 3...Discount stores don't want to be bothered with selling individual specific parts. Yeah...they sell tubes & crappy tires & lots of other crappy after-market parts. But they're not going to get down to the nitty-gritty of selling individual wheels, shifters, derailleurs, brake calipers, etc. Too much hassle for their feeble-minded, minimum wage "associates" to handle.

Lastly...the parts you get at a REAL bicycle shop are often twice as good, if not ten times better than the original part! I remember the first time I walked into A&M Bicycle shop in St. Louis. It's a small one-man shop. A customer was picking up a repaired bike & asked Karl, "Good as new?" Karl sarcastically replied, "Nope...(long pause)...better. I don't use those crappy parts Wal-Mart installs on bikes from the factory."

Buy a good bicycle from the start & you won't need any replacement parts.

http://www.raleighusa.com/archive/2011-steel-road/...

2011 Raleigh Sojourn - now well over 2,000 miles on the bike. It hasn't spent a single day out of service. NO flat tires - ever. Not one single breakdown. Total maintenance cost so far? Two new tires when the originals wore out - replaced with the same kind, and an eight dollar bottle of chain oil. Cost of the bike? $1,200 + tax. Worth EVERY single penny!!!

In my part of Scotland the local shops and supermarkets usually sell stuff for people who do not care about their bikes, a mountain bike here can last only a month from new a year at most. Cyclists who use the internet usually care about their bikes and are savvy when it comes to bikes. Get my wheels from websites not anywhere else as these even in budget form are usually quality branded, my own mountain bike uses Halo Combat budget rims, none of the local places sell such affordable quality wheels as what they have is rubbish or simply a daft price and when you are on the Social these shops can refuse low end customers in high end shops. Stick to the internet and do not buy the first thing you see and avoid being ripped of on e-bay stick to Amazon or any good bike website such as woollhatshop.com or billys.co.uk for quality wheels at affordable prices.

They sell junk bikes for $100 you can buy another one.