Originally Posted by
Primitive Don
I think that's a pretty accurate description. This guy was a very active flipper back when the market was much hotter and single speeds listed on Craigslist sold quickly. He tried to pursue his dream of going legit and running a bike shop out of a real storefront as the economy soured and more and more flippers got in on the action. Plus more bike shops opened up within blocks of his, one of which took a BIG bite of the pie for everyone, including well established shops. Plus it's difficult to survive through the winter when you have the overhead of a shop, especially when business ain't great even in warmer months.
+1...from my experiences with the industry, you're both right on point. It used to be Performance was also bleeding the LBS, but now you have Performance AND Bikes Direct. A shop owner I know just cut a deal where Bikes Direct will send him their bike, he'll put it togetherfor a $35 charge back to BD, and the customer comes and picks up. It MIGHT work out ok for him (short term), but to me, the writing is on the wall. A higher and higher percentage of new bikes I see are BD.