one piece crank
1pc Cranky
Change is good. Enjoy your new life!
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE!!!!!!
- Thread starter Bike N Gear
- Start date
VanDbtRiver
Well-Known Member
Thanks for everything over the years Gary. I always found great comfort in having your shop close by and being able to pop in for a talk after work. It will be sad to pass by on the way to 6m and not be able to grab those last minute items or talk trail conditions. Good luck, looking forward to the next time we cross paths.
iman29
Well-Known Member
question @Bike N Gear - I know tomorrow is the last day. will you be around still later in the afternoon maybe like 4 pm ish? I happen to be down that way for work where normally I am not and can take the long way home if there's any last minute deals worth stopping in for - or even just to say Hi and good luck in person for the first time and wish you good luck.
This situation for bike shops is not fantastic these days. Every fixed cost to operate a bike shop is on the rise. Profit margins are shrinking in every category.
Rumors of insurance rate doubling because of perceived dangers of ebikes may in fact be true.
Large brands have been seen selling to the public for less than what they sell to dealers. Vendors actually can be a competitor. It’s hard to know who to trust as a shop buying inventory.
I’ll put this in very simple terms: if you have a local shop that you like, you must find a way to support them now. This does not mean buying your inner tubes or GU packets there. If you ride any of the direct consumer brands, you are basically digging a hole for your local bike shop to fall into. Every shop is struggling right now.
There are many bike shops that are on the bubble this year.
Rumors of insurance rate doubling because of perceived dangers of ebikes may in fact be true.
Large brands have been seen selling to the public for less than what they sell to dealers. Vendors actually can be a competitor. It’s hard to know who to trust as a shop buying inventory.
I’ll put this in very simple terms: if you have a local shop that you like, you must find a way to support them now. This does not mean buying your inner tubes or GU packets there. If you ride any of the direct consumer brands, you are basically digging a hole for your local bike shop to fall into. Every shop is struggling right now.
There are many bike shops that are on the bubble this year.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Even the Manufacturer Owned Shops are going through it right now. While profit on product may be healthier, those profits are going into a deep pool of middle management and support staff salaries and not to any of the folks trying to make a living...
I'll be here till at least 6 tomorrow. Still have 8 bikes. All could be yours for the right price.
Seriously, still have one Allez in a 56, one Diverge in a 58 and one Jamis Renegade in 56. Plenty of shoes left and some decent tires too.
Can I like this twice? This is the discussion I've had numerous times every day since I hung up the going out of business sign.
That's the manufacturer's own doing. Hard for me to feel sorry for your boss. I really can't wait to see how the direct sales model plays out in the long run for the industry.
Jason and Jim are absolutely spot on with what they are saying here, and are in fact (I believe) holding back in being a bit of what every shop owner is thinking right now.
I have been in the industry for over 40 years now, and can only think of 1 other time it has been this brutal. And that was before the suppliers were being less up front with competing directly with the dealers for sales.
I have just received the pre season booking plan booklet from one of the largest brands in the industry. On one page of the booklet they actually list ways we as retailers can "solve friction points" to make the customer experience better....(supposedly to make customers more loyal/want to shop with us). These include such things as offer riding lessons for people that are not that confident riding their bikes, pickup and delivery for all e-bike services, 24 hour turnaround and loaner bikes because customers don't like being without their bikes, roadside assistance with pickup service, and once a week we should serve warm cookies to provide a nicer environment...and do all of these things for absolutely free! THEN, 4 pages later, they state they believe there are to many retail stores today, there will be fewer in the future, and that (and I am directly quoting here) "a shrinking margin doesn't mean you can't be successful. Some of the most profitable shops we've seen have low margins."
It is these kind of economic illiterates that are running our industry. How are we supposed to afford the extra staff to perform all of these free amenities, as well as buy a fleet of loaner bikes, (and don't forget the warm cookies...), while working on shrinking margins, higher costs, and battling the same people that are opening up company owned stores ? They admit there are too many shops, yet they open up company owned stores! I actually called this company and asked them when they are sending me free loaner bikes, and when they were going to close their company store and lower THEIR margins so we can at least maintain our already shrunken ones. I was told that wasn't going to happen, and I should speak with my outside rep (who never shows up). I am expecting to incur the ramifications of asking such insane questions of them pretty soon....but I have many other quality brands, so we will soldier on.
None of the IBD's I know are asking for charity from our customers. We know we need to supply them with a good experience with products they are requesting at a fair price. It would be nice to maybe experience even a smidge of loyalty for all of the things we do extra for our community, like taking time away from our families to do a ton of trail maintenance and building that are enjoyed by many (thanks, Jay). Or the local NICA/Little league/tricky trays/food banks/tri teams/races/(fill in your own blank here) donations that we donate to on a regular basis. And we CERTAINLY aren't keeping the lights on because of the enthusiasts...Sure we may be a couple of shekels more than Amazon...or Canyon...or some stupid online e-bike maker...and we are not for everyone. But the only guys I know of becoming wealthy in bike shops are likely doing so because of real estate purchases.
I commend Gary for fighting the good fight for as long as he has. He is the kind of good guy we need more of in this industry, not less. I hope he gets to ride more, have fun with his bikes, and relax a bit. Job well done, Gary! Thanks for everything you have done!
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
The Middle Management people I speak of also spent their first weeks in the Company firing all of the Staff that provided those extra services to make the shops they oversee a better place to shop in order to hire more people that work from home to help oversee the middle management and write up tasks that take up the 2 Employees they have left's time so they can't help make customers have a better experience better either.
Exactly!
The SRAM CEO was on the MTB podcast and he said before the pandemic there were 5500-6000 bike shops and today there's 5500-6000 bike shops and he'd bet in a year there will be 5500-6000 bike shops lol.
Dave Taylor
Rex kwan Do
Covid to thank for all this BS. Dumbass politicians making the 1%ers even wealthier by printing $6 trillion. Well what goes up must come down. Is it coming down now? Has it started to fall yet? Only underneath…
I’d love to hear what people on MTBNJ think about bike shops.
I’m sure they could tell you shop owners and employees a thousand reasons why they buy all their shit online and I bet it’s not always because of the price.
Nobody will give honest opinions because they will be publicly shamed.
Edit - personally I go online because when I started riding I realized I couldn’t afford to keep paying someone else to fix my bike
and I really didn’t want to go a week without my bike. So I learned to be relatively proficient at working on it myself.
I’m sure they could tell you shop owners and employees a thousand reasons why they buy all their shit online and I bet it’s not always because of the price.
Nobody will give honest opinions because they will be publicly shamed.
Edit - personally I go online because when I started riding I realized I couldn’t afford to keep paying someone else to fix my bike
and I really didn’t want to go a week without my bike. So I learned to be relatively proficient at working on it myself.
The same can be said in reverse...there are plenty of threads that bike shops would NEVER chime in on because of the risk of being publicly shamed and ostracized (with a few exceptions...).
I'm glad they exist, I wish they were generally ran more efficiently, I wish the industry had better customer data and influence on public infrastructure, I wish mechanics/independent owners were paid a living wage, I wish I could open my own shop instead of sitting in front of a computer all day but such is the world.
I mean, the customer is always right. Right?
Obviously we all know otherwise, but there’s no benefit in the shop telling customers why they suck.
Nope