Originally Posted by
surreal
Then why, pray tell, do bike shops lose so much market share every year? How do bike shops hope to survive if ppl can get nice parts online, or get cheap/free service at co-ops?** The price-gouging business model has buried plenty of shops already; it's going to get harder and harder to make that work as time goes on.
-rob
**Before you start in on how co-ops produce some terrible hack-jobs (and, admittedly, co-op repairs can be pretty abysmal), try to recall some of the LBS repair horror stories that have been recounted here and elsewhere.... Shops are far from infallible.
I can't speak to the industry as a whole (actually I could, but I won't), but we've opened 3 new locations in the last 5 years, and comp stores are up double digits year to year over the last 12, So I'll stick to the way we're doing it, thanks.