LBS closing

Esher, is that Doddy with Rob too?
I always wanted to visit Esher, but I was too young to drive and didn’t have very willing parents.

The shop at BPW seems to do very well. I always stand in a queue whenever I buy something there. Some nice ideas there too, like the Enve demos. The whole centers well setup really with the Cafe, shop, rentals and uplift.

cokie – The shop at BPW seems to do very well. I always stand in a queue whenever I buy something there. Some nice ideas there too, like the Enve demos. The whole centers well setup really with the Cafe, shop, rentals and uplift.

If only all bike shops could start with a 2 million pound investment and be at a UK biking Mecca eh?

TBH most people who are remotely interested in cycling as a sport/hobby rather than a mode of transport generally aren’t LBS customers.

That’s not true, it depends on your LBS, my last two bikes and almost everything on them have come from local shops, the bike chain (now closed) and pedals in Edinburgh, both with a good following of regular customers as far as I can see. Conversely Edinburgh bike co-op stock absolutely nothing of interest to me whatsoever, it’s all commuter orientated stuff and cheap own brand tat that is listed on alibaba for a tenth of the price.

Maybe the way forward is for lbs’ to form links with others and buy OEM?

Like Euronics, where Indy home electricals buy as a (European wide) collective to be able to take on the big chains?

It’d be like herding cats trying to organize a load of LBS owners 😆 😉

@LoCo

agree, it works for convenience stores, but can’t see a buying group / co-operative working in the UK for LBS

different bike brands, different P&A brands, different customers doing different disciplines of riding

its certainly going to be an “interesting” year in 2016, many shop managers I regularly speak to in both LBS and chain stores, are keenly watching to see if there is the ‘usual’ pickup in sales coming out of Winter, or whether things have actually changed – what some retail analysts call the “new normal”

regarding the role of the distributor; they are in a hard place, they made considerable profits before the growth of internet retailing started to challenge the traditional supply chain model

I work in the bike trade and don’t bother buying any shimano goods from our store through our trade account, its always more expensive than buying from on-line retailers. I saved £98 by buying my Shimano road wheels from Wiggle than getting them from Madison at trade + vat.

Customers are not stupid, I’ve heard the phrase about the smartphone “free access to perfect information” (of course the internet has misinformation, but you get the idea). It’s not uncommon to see any customer pull out a smartphone and look for the best price when you give them even a discounted price in the hope of selling some stock.

When I speak to customers whilst quoting repairs I often hear the tap..tap of their keyboard in the background and they will question the prices we have given for components fitted to workshop jobs. If they want to supply the goods themselves of course I will fit them, we will charge them for our time and its the most profitable part of our business.

But why then hold anything but inexpensive service stock, for customers who don’t know enough to find an Acera mech cheaper on-line. I find customers owning bikes with 105, Ultegra, XT, Sram all know the prices and will shop on price when there is such a big discrepancy in price between what retailers can stomach and what the broken distribution model allows on-line retailers to offer.

a lean ‘just in time’ vertical distribution model is possibly the future, there are rumours circulating that Shimano may even distribute direct to retailers in the future cutting out current middlemen.

The people who race/ride hard/actually go out for the day to “cycle” rather than the cycling being a means of getting somewhere. *usually* do their own spannering. Most shops i’ve worked in the majority (85%) of bikes that come in are used for leisurely pottering or commuting.

It varies a lot, the last LBS I had was mostly servicing the bikes of the people who “race/ride hard/actually go out” there seems to be some snobbery about people who use bike shops for service/fixing despite having 95% of what I need to do all my own repairs lots of things mean I’ll get the shop to do stuff for me. It will be a bad day if that option is gone.

hence some of the smaller UK frame suppliers selling OE stuff after market

Always amazes me when I see this – our OE accounts are locked up so tight we have to ask permission to sell off dead stock, and don’t always get a yes. That said, there are bike companies out in the far east that specialise in over ordering stock so they can dump it on the grey market. Beats having to sell a proper bike I guess.

Agree with mikewsmith,I want to ride my bike.when I get free time, not service it. The local lbs look after my bike way better than I could and it means the bike runs well all the time. I value being sat on the saddle more than being stood next to a work stand.

Gutted.

Off the top of my head from Crosstrax I maybe bought in the last few years…

2 pairs of hand-built wheels. The second pair on the basis of the strength of the first.

Some bike wash I’d never heard of but they persuaded me was good. It is.

A Hope order for a bike build with an acceptable markup on the very cheapest that I knew I could buy it for, given the amount of time I spent in the shop choosing what I wanted.

Some gloves that I tried on to make sure they fit.

A jacket when it was raining.

Some Stans sealant when I needed ride that day.

Probably a few nuts bolts and widgets along the way too.

I’m very aware that over the course of several years that hardly makes me a great LBS customer. But for me Crosstrax was a great shop, run by great guys.

I love building bikes and sourcing exactly the components I want is not something that I would dream of a single shop doing.

Good luck Sancho and hopefully the plan that I heard about for cheaper premises a bit further out is something that comes off in the future.

I’ve got a question for LBS owners who buy their stuff from online retailers. What happens with warranty claims?

They probably have an account with them.

Account includes sending item away for warranty.

No & No

Sancho- no idea where you are in the country but well done on your business over the year’s and it’s nice to hear youve got a great deal of satisfaction out of your work both for yourself and the local community.

I have just bought a new bike from the guys at Delta bikes in Dursley (my LBS since moving to the area in 2014) & it did give me a great sense of reward that I handed over my hard earned £’s to a small local outfit rather than a huge online operator.

Good luck for the future.

No & No

I’m interested because I guess the LBS doesn’t have to tell the customer that the parts they are buying don’t come from the usual supply chain.

If an LBS sells parts they sourced from an online shop are they essentially selling second hand parts?

Technically they’re fourth hand.
Customer buys from shop ,who buys from retailer ,who buys from distributor ,who buys from manufacturer.

Second hand implies that the item has been used, i.e. are used goods, simply moving an item along the supply chain doesn’t make something second, third or fourth hand.

I Ronny.

Let’s say I’m a punter at my LBS. My LBS sources some of their stock from CRC. I buy a set of cranks and they snap first ride.

I take them back to the shop, who then send them back to CRC, who then send them back to the OEM supplier they got them from, who then send them back to the manufacturer?

Or does the LBS just have to swallow the cost and refund the customer because CRC say they only sell to the end user?

Generally the Lbs would leverage their relationship with the rep (aka blackmail) to get the distributor to pick up the warranty directly (I’ve certainly done it).