robbyville

First post in this thread and wanted to make sure nobody had already specifically answered some of the questions.

As mentioned the larger shops (chains) have the software to look up each others inventories, transfer, help their customer base out as best as possible to promote their shop brands, keep moving inventory (cash) off the shelves to the betterment of the company's bottom line. The smaller shops often help each other our in our neck of the woods but only to a point. We often receive emails from our reps asking if a particular bike is available for "a customer", it's kept pretty generic, but I know that often enough a shop wants to move inventory even if at direct cost so no margin gains.

Now to the logistics of a co-op, partnership, etc. there are some who do it well with things like cleaning supplies, labor, etc. But all that I've seen still tend to be pretty grass roots.

I deal with QBP a fair bit since my business outside of ski/golf is Mtn Bike rentals, repairs and some specialty retail (mostly downhill related), we purposely do not sell bikes so as to not alienate the regions LBS's who are our best source of referrals and with whom we refer sales to in order to promote dual suspension bikes.

The thing with QBP that takes the onus off a co-op concept is that it's so damn easy. You get online, see what they have in stock, and if you order it by 3pm you generally have the product the next day or sometimes 2 days later. Their margins are low enough to make the distribution channel reasonable but obviously volume must generate enough gross/net dollars to make it worth their while (I'm making an assumption here but they've been in business a long time and have 3 distribution centers nationwide).

For that very reason I'm sure most would not want the brain damage of creating a different partnership that would probably entail more "sharing" of knowledge than some may feel comfortable with. QBP's Prices are reasonable, service is incredible, and technology is up to date for the world we live in. FWIW, the major brands also distribute a fair bit beyond bikes, and clothing, with real time accuracy. In my work and world I would much rather pay a little bit more to have the inventory on someone else's shelves than on my own and too many of my peers are of the same mindset.

To make a short story long, could a co-op or buying group of some sort work? Sure, but I think the time where it would have been impactful for the participants and their customers is mostly gone.