Can't bring myself to buy anything from Tesco, and the thought of buying my bike bits from them doesn't bear thinking about. What they have done to the UK high street is irrepairable. I am unlucky enough to work for a supplier who deals with Tesco, and the experience is not pleasant.
It's about someone brought them down to size. Their prices seem good in the short term, but once they have a dominant market share and can control things, having put smaller businesses to the wall, watch those prices rise. They aren't the consumer champions they would have you believe. Their primary goal is profit, not some benevolent interest in the good of their customers. This might be the short route to profit, but it isn't in the long term. They buy market share in new categories, devalue the market, commoditise it, then sit on their market share, knowing they are then too big to be challenged.
I know some of the same arguments could be levelled at the big bike internet sites, but not in the bullying, monopolistic way that Tesco do it.
Definitely a bad news day!
The retailer is also offering customers the option of having the bikes they buy built by trained staff, which BikeBiz believes is the first time such a service has been offered by a supermarket
So how do the bikes get built normally?
I don't think this will be good for people who are serious about cycling.
did you know that 1 in 3 bikes sold in the uk is via Halfords?
"Can't bring myself to buy anything from Tesco, and the thought of buying my bike bits from them doesn't bear thinking about. What they have done to the UK high street is irrepairable"
Ill second that - wouldnt consider buying off them for one moment. Oh deary deary me, next Asda will be selling Snowboards!
Bye Bye LBS!!
🙁
So how do the bikes get built normally?
By robot, it's fairly normal in many factories. Even wheels are built by robot. Quite frankly tesco won't offer anything a good LBS does, and if the LBS can't offer the same things but better quality then they don't deserve the extra cash they'll be charging.
Its gonna be Halfords on a bugdet - Tesco's Value brakes - lasts for one ride then throw them away 😉
Bye Bye LBS!! ... ONLY if mugs choose to spend their hard earned $$'s in Tescos!! 🙂
They'll appeal to the lower end market - bit like any of the supermarkets selling anything sporty, may encourage the chavs to get out of the car a bit more.
£2.5K bike, think of the Tesco points you could get for that!! 🙄
Lets face it though if you get the same stuff you could get from the likes of CRC/Wiggle etc but a hell of a lot cheaper, you are still gonna spend your cash there. Be a bit daft not to. And lets face it, if you get the majority of your stuff from CRC/Wiggle then your cash ain't going to your LBS anyway. Your bike will always need fixing, so LBS will be safe, or they just need to take initiative like 18bikes with their frame building etc...
Its $hit I know, but everyone will be able to adapt accordingly, its the way of the world.
Jesus, I speak like the end of the workld is nigh, get out on yer bike people ffs!! 😀
HOw much for Tesco xtr?
Bye Bye LBS!!
Not at all. In fact this is better. Tesco cannot 'afford' to offer service with their business model.
If anything this just helps LBS show what LBS'd do best.
Bring it.
If Tesco sold the bike bits I wanted cheaper than CRC/Wiggle then I'd have no issue buying from them. I wouldn't be happy getting work done by them, however that's no different from my experience at Halfords or at most of the bike shops I've used.
Bye Bye LBS!!
I doubt it- I'd say they'll be taking market share from people like Halfords. In the main I think the people that will by their bikes from Tesco would never have set foot in their LBS anyway.
I doubt it- I'd say they'll be taking market share from people like Halfords. In the main I think the people that will by their bikes from Tesco would never have set foot in their LBS anyway.
Totally Agree
Lidl sell bike stuff .Last year they had a cracking deal on an Ultegra kitted bike .I will buy from whoever is cheapest.I do my own servicing so don't need an lbs
rootes1 - bit of a revelation there! May I ask how you came by that information - am only curious - nothing more!
Hmmm it's fine for everyone to get excited when Lidl sell cheap bike crap but not for Tescos?
Bike trade will be fine.... when Decathlon arrived all those years ago everyone was running around like their arse was on fire!
I'll never buy from Tesco bikeshop unless I was stranded broken down etc.
If a local bike shop gives me a good deal then I will shop there not Tesco!
Welcome to planet Tesco... 👿
solarider - Member
Can't bring myself to buy anything from Tesco, and the thought of buying my bike bits from them doesn't bear thinking about. What they have done to the UK high street is irrepairable. I am unlucky enough to work for a supplier who deals with Tesco, and the experience is not pleasant.
Same here, we supply Tescos both directly & indirectly & its a good way to loose money.
rootes1 - bit of a revelation there! May I ask how you came by that information - am only curious - nothing more!
it was some bike sales stats posted on Bikebiz.. think it also include for every type of bike inc the £49 type for rug rats
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/30467/Halford-tops-a-million-a-year
It'll just add to the thousands of bikes bought, ridden once, and never used again.
Might benefit LBS if people truly interested in cycling buy first from Tesco, then recognise the error of their ways and try the little place down the road.
Sadly another example of Tesco wishing to rule the world. Locally to me is a small town, been on its arse for a long time, walking down the high st on any day it's like a ghost town, even a small shopping centre that is less than 20 years old that used to have some of the bigger names present. tesco opened a big store within 5 minutes walk of the town, and currently all of the business leases on premises that come up are reputed to be bought by a "large company", presumably so that the town centre remains dead, or close to.
The retailer is also offering customers the option of having the bikes they buy built by trained staff, which BikeBiz believes is the first time such a service has been offered by a supermarket
Does ASDA-Walmart there not sell bikes? Walmart here certainly does (well did before they sold their stores to Real).
"Trained staff" can mean anything from normal shop staff that's been shown how to do final assembly of boxed bike (which is probably just pop in wheels, turn bars/forks, screw in pedals and maybe check brakes)... up to genuine trained/certified bike mechanic.
rootes1 - many thanks for that. Hadn't thought about kiddies bikes though - good point! G
Tescos sell more bikes = more people cycling.
I'm failing to see the downside of all this.
I assume they will be selling "Oranges"...........
IGMC
Ah but will they be trained which way round the forks go?(which is probably just pop in wheels, turn bars/forks, screw in pedals and maybe check brakes)
I see sooooo many supermaret specials with forks the wrong way round.
They were selling track pumps for a tenner a while back. Bought one for the kids. Does the job.
whats the problem with it? i personally dont see it.
most of you all have a bike and if not then you wont ever buy a bike for £200 anyways!
i think its a good idea they can bring in a cheaper market of bikes for people who cant [b][u]WASTE[/b][/u] their hard cash on a bike that costs £500+ and to maybe get into riding again or start.... The likes of people riding their orange bikes wont ever need anything from there anyways unless track pumps etc which btw are great value.
common sence tells you when you pay £10 from tesco for a pump or lbs wants £15 where your going. People who say im loyal and go to the lbs, well good for you but i think most people would take the cheaper option unless your totally again the tesco revolution.
If lbs gets 'out muscled' by tesco then tbh i think its a shitty lbs. There is no way i would take my bike to get serviced in tesco and if there is a lbs that costs more than others and are not up to par, i just go to another lbs untill i find one thats both cost effective and more importantly good.
surely its a good thing people will be able to become more active and have an incentive?
planet tesco will always rule untill people stop buying, which lets be honest is NEVER going to happen.
Ours already sells bikes in boxes, helmets, clothes, pumps, locks, lights, tubes, cables, etc. Also stocking SIS GO, REGO, PSP, four or five sorts of energy bars and shots. What's not to like? Most won't go to a proper LBS anyway for that stuff, and LBS might get spinoff work for repairs. (Mind you with £60 bikes, it might be cheaper just to get a new bike for anything significant)
hahahahahaha £60 bike lol now thats a bargain!
Whats the difference between TESCO selling bikes and bits and a internet company like Amazion or any other bike retailer selling them, absolutely nothing, only perhaps TESCO will be open 24 hrs a day and give clubcard points.
I used to work in a small computer company. When PCWorld opened up just down the road we thought it would be a nightmare, but actually business boomed, they didn't have the experience or the skills.
TescoBikeshops won't be a deathblow for proper bike shops either.
It really sounds like they're targetting the bottom end of the market- still selling supermarket bikes, just assembled instead of off the shelf in boxes. I know a lot of LBSs make good money off this end of the bike trade but none of the ones I shop in do, tbh it always seems to be the hopelessly s**t ones.
If Tesco decide to go into higher end bikes, that'll be interesting but it'll be a head-to-head with Decathlon and Halfords not so much the little man- somehow LBSs manage to survive with those 2 already out there.
It's no bad thing, it points to a growing industry and the fact that cycling is a booming right now, bike retailers were generally some of the least affected by the recent high st downturn. The majority of bikes sold in the uk are sub-£150 so there's the interest for Tesco.
and there's one good reason that mid to high end bike retailers are independant businesses - bikes are complex, it's a specialist market and without an real understanding of / interest in bikes you'll fail at that level. Tesco's will never threaten good IBDs, if anything it just puts bikes in front of more people.
Sounds like a good time to open a bike workshop. All those Tesco bikes are going to need continuous maintenance. 🙂