Doesn’t Ben’s have a brick n mortar store? Doesn’t that make them a LBS for somebody? Why would that make them bad?
Ever heard of Alfred E. Bikes? You know, the guys with ads all over brianforums. They are my LBS. Right here in little ol Kalamazoo. Are they too bad because they were able to find a niche, expand their sales, and hire more employees to handle the extra load? No.
[quote=beartrap]
Why cant bike shops specialize in service and repair vs. parts sales?
Ultimately if you spend less on parts be it bike car or whatever, you’ll have more money to spend elsewhere, like say being able to buy organic foods and supporting local farmers. Ultimately who would you rather see stay in business a bike shop making 30-40% on parts, or dude growing tomatoes.[/quote]
Not everyone is comfortable buying bikes they’ve never ridden or parts they’ve never seen in person. You have to have a selection that appeals to those people and that costs money. You also still have to have a certain amount of stuff in stock to fix shit in a timely manner.
“Save money. Live better.” is Wal-Mart’s current tag line. It looks great on paper, but let’s be real. How much of bike parts savings is going to tomato guy? I think this is more a justification method than a way people actually behave in practice.
I have this same conflict with my local skate shop (yeah, I know… more skate talk, sorry).
I’m very picky about the size and brand of decks I skate, so I generally will buy them online. I was, at one time, buying three to five decks at a time directly from the Distributor, which cuts out the shop directly. The prices are pretty much in line with buying it down the street and although I have to pay for shipping, the no tax deal makes it an alright deal for both of us. I’m willing to fork over a few extra bucks to actually get what I want. To me, there is nothing worse than having to set-up a board and wheels and not being able to find exaclty what you’re looking for.
I tend to support my local shop by buying my softgoods (i.e. shoes / clothes / videos) there. Softgoods have a much higher margin for the shop and if I buy a couple pairs of shoes at a time to keep a stock pile of the particular shoe I like to skate in, I can justify my online hardgood purchases that way.
I always run into trouble when I get close to depleting my stock piles and have to run all over looking for what I want. Then whatever I’m riding, whether it be a board with the wrong grip on it or a shoe that I’m not too thrilled with, doesn’t last very long. My fucking madness wins every time.
I think common sense would say that Ben’s is something more(for better or worse) than a local bike shop. Yes they have to keep the front open to keep their contracts with the wholesalers, but no that isn’t the bulk of their business at this point.
Oh and Kalamazoo is awesome. What’s that brewery across the street from some coffee shop? Amazing beer but their glasses don’t hold 12oz.
anyone heard of Harris Cyclery
If there’s something that your local shop can’t get, or can’t get for a reasonable price, then I don’t see a problem going online. I just hate to see people buy online the same tires they can get at the LBS just to save $3-$4. If you enjoy having a local shop, sometimes that means you have to sacrifice a little to keep it.
Yet another reality is that in many cases the savings of buying online is lost once you add the charge for shipping
[quote=skipbrakes]I think common sense would say that Ben’s is something more(for better or worse) than a local bike shop. Yes they have to keep the front open to keep their contracts with the wholesalers, but no that isn’t the bulk of their business at this point.
Oh and Kalamazoo is awesome. What’s that brewery across the street from some coffee shop? Amazing beer but their glasses don’t hold 12oz.[/quote]
Its far more awesome to not live here.
but, Bell’s for the beer and WaterStreet Coffee Joint, both best of breed imho.
For the most part, I’d rather pay for shipping and have the part I want sitting on my doorstep in a few days rather than traveling around to a bunch of bike shops looking for said part. Right now, I want some 28c Gatorskins. I don’t think there’s a shop in town that has a pair of them.
My shop always has 28c Gatorskins in stock (as long as they’re available from Continental). The problem that arises then is that when you’re big enough to keep a lot of inventory like that in order to make customer’s happy, everyone under 25 thinks you’re the “Wal-Mart of Bikes” and refuses to shop there. You can’t win with young people.
People under 25 are morons. And they need to stay the fuck off my lawn!
doofo writes poems.
Fuck the young people (as a target demographic). It’s not like they have a lot of disposable income anyway. If I wanted to run a bike shop, I’d likely run it as a boutique, stock the shit I liked, sell crazy expensive bikes, and charge outrageous rates for service.
Sounds like Montano Velo.
Was in there today. The Pegorettis, they made me erect. This one:
http://www.competitivecyclist.com/road-bikes/frame/2009-pegoretti-love3-1844.html
They had it. It was hot fucking sex. Or “love #3” as the case may be.
I don’t get what the big deal is with Pegorettis. $4000 for some TIG-welded steel and non-custom geometry is pretty fucking ridiculous. I’m sure he makes some nice bikes, but so does Waterford, and their TIGed frames cost $3200 less. You can even add custom geometry for $200 extra, and a steel fork doesn’t cost $700 from them.
I don’t really care how much they cost, they’re beautiful to look at, much like the Cervelos and the Mootssesses that I also drooled on while I was picking up some bar-tape. Tomorrow, I’ll go by the other shop and drool on some Waterfords, Gunnars, and Bob Jacksons. I’ll measure the drool output and let you know whether it correlates to cost.
LOL at you for failing at capitalism.
You want to support the local cycling community in any way that you can find but you’re furious that its members may just get deals on cycling stuff? Those sneaky bastard cyclists, we gotta tell them they must live by your rules already!
Supporting the local shops is great as long as they offer something other than expensive parts, expensive half-assed repairs, poor advice, condescending attitudes and whining about people buying shit online. As far as i know only the last of these applies to you, I just slapped on the rest to elucidate why people buy shit online in general.
Manufacturing/distributing anything is made more efficient and thus cheaper by cutting out people which always means people lose their jobs. If it’s you getting stuff cheaper you’re happy, if you’re the one losing your job, you go smash some looms.
I guess one reason is that Waterford never made frames for the likes of Indurain and Pantani. You may argue that this doesn’t make pegorettis superior but it probably does make them fetch more.
When you shop local more of the money stays in the community which is a plus in my opinion. Sales tax is collected as well which is also beneficial in my eyes. This is why I make an effort to buy local (and from small business) whenever possible. When Ben’s reaches into other markets they are taking those dollars out of the region not just the store they compete with.