Cycle spares-what can cycle shops do to compete with online retail?

[night cycler]

I think a key aspect is the local cycle shops that are willing to do a price match. E vans cycle shop in Sheffield have helped me a couple of times this way. Better a smaller profit than no sale at all, but the employment costs and business rates etc still have to be paid.

I usually wait while I’m going in the area though as the round trip is about 20 miles and half a gallon of fuel in the car-no problem if incorporated into a ride though. It was good to deal with a shop face to face when my mini pump failed.

It must be getting more difficult all the time for retailers of most products due to online competition. Probably easier to do price matches on heavy items as online have to either absorb or pass on shipping costs.

I know some of you guys have a loyalty thing going on with your local cycle shop-you maybe pay a little more for the item but they look after you in other ways.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I think a key aspect is the local cycle shops that are willing to do a price match. E vans cycle shop in Sheffield have helped me a couple of times this way. Better a smaller profit than no sale at all, but the employment costs and business rates etc still have to be paid.

I usually wait while I’m going in the area though as the round trip is about 20 miles and half a gallon of fuel in the car-no problem if incorporated into a ride though. It was good to deal with a shop face to face when my mini pump failed.

It must be getting more difficult all the time for retailers of most products due to online competition. Probably easier to do price matches on heavy items as online have to either absorb or pass on shipping costs.

I know some of you guys have a loyalty thing going on with your local cycle shop-you maybe pay a little more for the item but they look after you in other ways.

Evans Sheffield is my first port of call, but I didn't know they price matched in the store. For me the bigger value is the clothing. Being able to try stuff on is worth a lot. The problem is that online will beat that for price most of the time.

If you're in Rotherham you've got JE James on Erskine Road to try too.

 

[Jody]

Evans Sheffield is my first port of call, but I didn't know they price matched in the store. For me the bigger value is the clothing. Being able to try stuff on is worth a lot. The problem is that online will beat that for price most of the time.

If you're in Rotherham you've got JE James on Erskine Road to try too.

They will also price match after you have bought something if you find it cheaper online. They will refund the difference.

As for Rotherham and if you want good service from a LBS try Expert Bike Repair in Whiston. Cracking little shop.

 

[classic33]

Only two cycle related purchases made from other than my local shop in the last three years.

One thing I've noticed is some physical shops won't match their online store price. Evans being one that have done that.

 

[Cycleops]

Interesting that you've chosen Evans as an example. Of course they also have a very good online shop but have seen a dramatic downturn in profits which looks to be due to lack of new bike sales. Their overheads are still the same so I'm sure they are hurting.
I also visited the Sheffield shop recently and was a bit disappointed by the lack of spares stock so to answer your question there's not a lot that can be done. Most people will simply order on line as there is better availability and its delivered to your door.

 

[classic33]

Used to have Two Wheels Good, Leeds, then Paul Milnes(just outside Bradford) when Two Wheels Good went. Moved all bar the two to CycleGear.

They've sourced parts for a Brox and one or two other odd cycles over the years.

 

[KneesUp]

Well I wasn't expecting this to be (so far) about Sheffield bike shops. However, I would mention that Evans is in a pretty locally competitive area. It is near enough to Halfords, JE James and Butterworth's, and until relatively recently there was an Edinbugh Bicycle Co-Op too. Halford's has longer hours and often better prices for parts, and JE James and Butterworth's are local independents (albeit with differing size and markets)

Butterworth's is a delight to me, and he has all sorts of parts, but even so there are some bits you have to get online really. My last few bike bits have ben springs for inside Campag shifters, and a Sturmey drum brake fork clamp - you can't reasonably expect anywhere to pay retail-space costs to store things like that. I do wonder about the profitability of somewhere like the large Evans store - I know it's not exactly prime retail space, but it's pretty good space, and it always seems to have a few staff on, but whenever I go in there are very few if any other customers - which is not true of James and Butterworth's. I think about 10% of the times I've been in they've just been broken in to as well.

 

[byegad]

Frankly I don't think there's anything they can do. I've had shops offer to order items in for me, but if they're ordering it, so can I and so wait less time.
I understand that this can mean the shops close and so service is harder to find, but price is all in the market place. The problems with high street department chains slowly closing more and more branches illustrates this I'm afraid.

 

[snorri]

My feelings of loyalty towards a series of lbs in my locality went unrequited, they've all closed down.

 

[Smokin Joe]

There will always be a call for local bike shops. But there will be considerably fewer of them and those who need them will have to travel further afield.

 

[KneesUp]

I had a chat with a chap who owned and ran a bike shop in another town a few years back, whilst I was filling time waiting for my car to be fixed. I got from him that small bike shops can't buy the stock cheap enough to ever price match the big online retailers. In fact, in some cases he was able to source stock cheaper by buying it as a retail customer from other retailers than he could get it wholesale. That can't be right.

Small bike shops have to survive by offering servicing and being more convenient than online. I suppose too that generic parts can be as cheap - a small shop can't perhaps get in branded things cheap enough, but I buy everyday consumables (cable inners, nuts, bolts, fasteners, parts for bikes that don't have owners pretending they're in the Tour de France etc)

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Seems to me the only future business open to the LBS these days is to offer maintenance/fettling services. To avoid the overhead of a static shop in the high street or wherever best to work out of a van maybe. Order the parts when required for a job and hey presto.

 

[winjim]

If it's Sheffield bike shops we're discussing then here's a quick shout out for Tony Butterworth's in Middlewood. It's owned and run by the nicest guys on the planet, they will price match if they can, are always happy to rummage in the spares box for you and what Mike the bike whisperer doesn't know about bikes probably isn't worth knowing. It's also worth a visit if you're a fan of massive fluffy dogs.

Note that this is a different Butterworth's to the one mentioned by @KneesUp and is on the other side of town.

 

[KneesUp]

If it's Sheffield bike shops we're discussing then here's a quick shout out for Tony Butterworth's in Middlewood. It's owned and run by the nicest guys on the planet, they will price match if they can, are always happy to rummage in the spares box for you and what Mike the bike whisperer doesn't know about bikes probably isn't worth knowing. It's also worth a visit if you're a fan of massive fluffy dogs.

Note that this is a different Butterworth's to the one mentioned by @KneesUp and is on the other side of town.

Same family orginally I believe, although 'your' Butterworth's is now an independent but not run by Tony or any other Butterworth anymore - is that right? I've heard great things about it, but it's not 'my' side of the city, whereas A.E. Butterworth's is on my commute, so I've only been there.

 

[winjim]

Same family orginally I believe, although 'your' Butterworth's is now an independent but not run by Tony or any other Butterworth anymore - is that right? I've heard great things about it, but it's not 'my' side of the city, whereas A.E. Butterworth's is on my commute, so I've only been there.

Yes, the Butterworths were brothers. Tony sold the shop some time ago but it wasn't doing too well so the last owner sold it to a couple of friends of mine about three years ago. They've been building it up again, focusing a bit more on the MTB side of things (it was originally lightweight racing bikes) but happy to chat about anything bike related. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever that side of town. (But I would say that.)

They stock Surly, KTM, Kinesis and Bosch ebikes IIRC.