How do you know they were still making money on the $739? How do you know the bike manufacturer wasn't offering incentives, much like with a car dealership?
It's a business - you don't sell stuff if there is no money in it. It made you more money being out of the store for that price than sitting in the store... whether it was through rebates from the manufacturer, some contract deal, etc is irrelevant - the business made money.
Not necessarily true. Old stock is sold at a loss quite frequently because keeping it will cost even more than getting rid of it. Space is a real problem in bicycle stores (and capital an even worse one) if you can't show next years models in March then you're not going to be selling any bikes at all.
