Originally Posted by
prj71
I will say that the bike shops in my area that are still making it are multi sport dealers. I think that's what keeps them in business more than anything. In addition to bikes....they sell snowshoes, ski equipment, some decent non-bike apparel etc.
The really good LBS in Watertown MA has one floor of bikes and another of small engines, which includes things like lawn mowers and chainsaws. They do repairs on both categories, so it's a really great use of their overhead of maintaining a shop area.