Why are so many LBS like this?

[youngoldbloke]

Not a great user of LBSs mostly because of lack of choice - my local shops seem to be tied to particular brands - in one most everything is Specialized, the other Trek/Bontrager. It is only online that I can source most of the stuff I require

 

[Matthames]

And that is why so many bike shop owners get pised off. I know I did. A few months ago one guy phoned to ask if we could beat the online price for a water bottle.

I know what I would like to say to somebody like that. Haggling over small items like that you will instantly swallow up any margins you have on the time it takes to close the sale.

Working in retail myself, I have a great deal of insight into the actual cost of things. A lot of the online retailers that you see selling really cheap are probably running their operation out of their garage so they can run things at a very tight margin. That is why they can offer those prices. They don't have the staff costs, rental, rates and every other expense that a shop has.

Customer support is also very time consuming, but for a retailer to compete it needs to offer good support to have that x factor. I do spare at the stories about people getting bad customer service from a shop when the economic climate is the way it is.

Although not a cycle retailer, we have people ring up at my work saying that our prices are higher than some of our internet competitors and try to haggle. We offer customer support, which is something our internet competitors don't do.

I also imagine that the way the market place is at the moment that a lot of LBSs are sailing dangerously close to the wind at the moment by trying to juggle keeping their prices competitive and their bank manager happy.

It is not just in the cycle industry that manufacturers are trying to protect their rrps. There are a lot of other businesses that are becoming more choosy on who they supply to, price they offer and the quantities, so the reality is that this would be a general trend for the future.

 

[DCLane]

- One in Ossett I've just found. Going there tomorrow.

Well I went back to the one in Ossett, looking to buy a pair of mudguards for the Raleigh Airlite 100.

I said I didn't want Raceguards as I'd got some already.

What did he try to sell me?

A clip-on MTB rear mudguard and a set of Raceguards

I won't be back and have had to buy them online.

 

[EltonFrog]

We live interesting times with regards to retail, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the future. Will the good bike shops survive or will they be beaten up by the big online shops? If the bike shops go, where will the consumer go to test ride a bike and to get good advice? Where will folks go to have their bikes serviced if the bikes shops disappear?

It could happen, who'd have thought a couple of years ago that the most successful retailer of the early 20th century, Woolworths would be off the high street?

It's not a happy state of affairs, but why would one want to pay more for a product in a shop than they can get it online, not me. I wonder if forum folk will be having the same discussion in ten years time.

For what it's worth I have bought two new bikes this year both from shops near me, after having done a lot of research, but I have also bought a significant amount of gear online too.

If all the bike shops do close, I'll be lost for someone to service my bikes, I suppose I'll have to learn how to do it myself.

I am currently in that there France, on the way home from a Cyling holiday, in the area that we are in there seems to be an epidemic of bike shops, at least ten within 20 miles, plus a Decathalon store the size of Croydon, and a Carrefour store with a cycle department, bigger than most LBS'. I'm curious to know how they are surviving in these trying times.

 

[trampyjoe]

In Luton the council are trying to shut down a LBS so they can rent the shop out for more money to one of the big bike chains. Unfortunately I cannot find the story anywhere I saw it on the beeb last week though.

 

[ACW]

front tyre burst the day before the freshnlo glasgow edinburgh ride, went to lbs for a replacement not expecting to get a schwalbe marathon racer 20x1.5 tyre but they had one and only charged £10 internet price is £20.
i am always suprised that they are so good on prices for some stuff

 

[ufkacbln]

We used to have a small local bike shop called "Butlers" in Southsea.

They then moved to a larger premise and a couple of the lads started doing mail order, and using the new fanged internet from the back of the shop.

Even when they moved from the retail premises to become a warehouse, you could still nip in and buy things. Then they got too big and won't talk to you or sell you anything. I had a broken derailleur and despite being outside their door they insisted they would have to post it and I had to limp home.

From Butlers to Wiggle!

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Eeee - I remember Southsea. I got my first tattoo on the pier there and got an unwelcome memento from a club called Joanna's.

 

[JoeyB]

Eeee - I remember Southsea. I got my first tattoo on the pier there and got an unwelcome memento from a club called Joanna's.

Herpes?

 

[Mugshot]

Herpes?

That'd be an odd thing for a tattoo, but each to their own I suppose

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Herpes?

Something like that. Strange, they seemed such nice girls.

 

[JoeyB]

Something like that. Strange, they seemed such nice girls.

Nope, not in Pompey lol

 

[Longshot]

My first tattoo was done in Poole but it didn't come with herpes. Should I feel left out?

 

[SportMonkey]

My LBS is a Cyclelife franchise, it's currently (slowly) closing down. I've been in there 4 times for bits and pieces for my Spesh, they didn't have a single thing, not even calliper brake pads.

 

[JoeyB]

Went to CycleWorld and Cycle Surgery in Portsmouth today. Managed to see the Cannondale Synapse in the flesh and it looked to be in my size, annoyingly it was fairly busy in CycleWorld so didn't get to speak to anyone, they also had a Giant Defy 1 in there. Cycle Surgery only had two road bikes on display, neither of which were brands I've heard of!