We lost two bike shops in Fort Worth at the end of last year. One was my favorite. I knew one of the owners before they opened up. They are in their late 50s/early 60s, ran the shop for about 3 years, made enough to cover the bills but not enough to actually make money off the venture (despite 50% increases each month compared to same month previous year). They said if they were in their 30s, they would have stuck it out. But at their age, they checked the box and moved on.

The other shop had kind of an odd story. It was opened as a partnership. One partner had another opportunity in another field and sold his share to the other partner. A year or so later, he was back and opened up another shop a mile or two from the original. within a year the original shop closed his doors. He wasn't doing as well as they originally were as a team, and when his former partner opened up nearby I think it killed what business he had. He wasn't exactly a people person, and toward the end he seemed to lose his bearings. (No, not a pun)