Originally Posted by
surreal
Add 1.32 to whatever numerical value you've attached to "killing", divide it by 2, and you'll have the average salary of some guy who runs an LBS.
Are we really having this conversation? The LBS owners I know make better than minimum wage, so I'll decline any invitations to the make-believe world where they spend half an hour to make a buck and a half on a $30 transaction. Get real.
A typical spoke costs a shop less than a dollar, including brass nerp. The typical wrench makes, on average, $12.15 an hour. So, there's $25 or so of the $33 after the parts&labor come out. Sure, shops have to pay overhead like rent/mortgage, insurance, utilities, initial costs for equipment, etc. But guess what? Those are mostly fixed costs that will exist whether you replace that spoke or not.
Those are the costs of doing business, and most every brick-n-mortar business will have similar expenses. To charge a lot of markup is one thing, but to make believe that the markup doesn't exist b/c you gotta keep the lights on and pay the rent is simply dishonest.
I've been in the bike industry for 30 years. I made more when I worked for someone else as a wrencher. There's no money to be made here as an owner unless you have access to significant capital. But banks don't need to loan money anymore to make money since Glass-Steagal went away, so they don't. I've been told by multiple banks that their underwriters now "frown on small business loans". And I can't think of another industry where customers so often expect things for free. More than once, I've grabbed a wheel someone brought in, trued it on the spot so they didn't have to make two trips, and when I walked over to the register, was greeted with an indignant "you're gonna charge me for THAT?" Or "can I watch you work on my bike so I don't have to pay you next time?" Or my favorite: can I, like, borrow a tool real quick?", which to my ears sounds exactly like "can I, like, have $10?"
Now, conversely, I have some truly awesome customers who value my expertise, but they are older and wiser. They see the value of having a knowledgeable, reliable shop nearby and are willing to pay for it. The young guys that come in are often clueless about how their bike works, but don't want to have to pay to get it fixed, so they run them into the ground then seem mad at ME because youtube couldn't fix their bike for free.....