Here in the USA they were only secondary players. We
sold them a couple of times in the 1960s and I worked at a shop in the
early 1970s that sold them briefly.
I dont think they ever had a distributor here in
California that carried them for very long. I think we first bought them
thru Pacific (Sales?) then they were bought out by Beacon and Beacon
continued with then till maybe 1970.
My rememberances were for French brand bikes here in
California, Peugeot was very consistent with United Bicycle Sales, then
Gitane which I think later slipped behind Motobecane. With the arrival
of the Mopeds both Peugeot and Motobecane went to Factory distribution
Mercier seemed to be an after thought available during
boom times and then becoming very low profile in between.
I would be interesting to me to see a timeline as far as
the individual distributors (what happened to United?) and some of the
brands we discuss from time to time like Mercier
BOB FREITAS
who just watched the Brazil/Portugal Soccer match on TV in MILL
VALLEY, CA USA