Specialized Concept Stores and Giant Brand Stores are franchises / licenses operated by independent businesses; they are not owned by the distributor nor employ staff directly
there has never been a proper mechanism for transferring warranty and post-service costs between retailers, the warranty always resides with the original retailer. its a shame, because as others said, the name is the name, and the public don’t know/care its not a brand owned store.
A number of companies like Starbucks and Hunter operate similar franchise systems, where things like loyalty card (starbucks) and warranty (from other Hunter stores) will not be honoured.
Spesh Kingston closed because it never made money, and since Sigma owned the building, after 6 years they pulled the plug, invested the money from selling the building back into their road store in Hampton Wick and their growing on-line business
Covent Garden turned back into a “cycle surgery” as it was not making money, no favourable terms were presented to maintain it as Concept Store, and the new owners of Surgery (Cotswold) are on a slash and burn with any stores not washing their faces…its actually closing in Feb as a bike shop as its a poor location with ever increasing costs, especially the business rates about to kick in soon
