....what would you sell. I went into a little bike shop yesterday and ended up talking to the owner for about an hour. I'd gone in initially to see what kids bikes he had but well, we just got chatting. Anyway he was such a nice bloke I feel honour bound to go back and buy something. But it got me thinking. If I owned a bike shop which brand of bikes would I sell and who would I aim at.. Would I go highbrow or lowbrow. Top end bikes or middlin' Which kids bikes, anything unusual like folders and recumbents. What accessories, clothes, etc... Would I sell on t'interweb? You'd be in clover wouldn't you. C'mon what would yer stock it with?
Pegoretti Orange Italian road bikes Campag clothing, etc - team up with Prendas. Buffs Euskadi team kit and it'd have a coffee bar
Depends where I was opening it, and locale of the area. Places like Condor can get away with stocking high end products as they are in a High end area. If I were to open a shop in Watford, it would be more bottom to mid-range. But, preferably: high end - not city boy bikes (I like Bromptons, but they have, of late, been appropriated by a particular type of person in Central London): definitely a road focus. Perhaps Wilier, Enigma (love them, and if i had 4k would buy one in a flash), Pinarello and something like Colnago. Would stock the key ranges of clothing, including a widish selection of shoes and accessories (Ortlieb panniers for a start: my dad got some recently, and they're unstoppable). Thorn tourers.
I'd have a good range of road bikes and a small range of good mtbs. I'd dissuade the Xmas shoppers from the automatic equation of "buy bike = mtb" by letting them try a road bike, or let their kid try a road bike. I would let them even buy a bike for a kid without bringing the kid in. To stop myself from going out of business, I'd specialise in selling vintage cycling shirts to Mods (not moderators, but mods,as in music and fashion. They like cycling shirts you know.)
I'd like to stock Argon 18's A selection of wheels and I'd like to strike up a deal with Planet X to stock some of their bikes instore
Not arrived yet? Huh, the post these days. I sent it first class yesterday... Don't worry, I'd knit new ones for the shop, rather than reposess those already homed....
There's a 7,750 square foot industrial unit round the corner from me for sale. Close to the A38, north Bristol. Anyone fancy going into business building bespoke bikes for the moneyed classes? Something along the line of Vanilla bikes in the US of A. OK, it's back to work as normal then.
I'd have the full stable of HP Velotechnik stuff on display and available for trying out and a good range of commuting and touring bikes and maybe three road bikes carefully rigged to fall to bits when roadies sat on them.
If I opened a bike shop i'd go bankrupt within weeks. There'd be loads of posts on this forum complaining about the service.
I suspect in practice you'd be fine if you ran it as just a business, on proper business lines, but if it was your dream it would become a ruined dream and you'd go bust. Rather than selling the stuff that interests you, you'd have to sell the stuff that sells, i.e. £99 full-suss MTB's and bright-pink Barbie kids bikes and the like, but the fancy, expensive, exotic stuff wouldn't shift. A bit like opening a bookshop - you'd sell lots of Harry Potter and Catherine Cookson, but not high-brow 'literature'.
