Originally Posted by
ButchA
Wow... what a thread!
Allow me to add my input (if possible, since I'm rather "old school", C&V, and perhaps a retrogrouch, etc..) Some LBS's are closing due to cost/pricing. People aren't buying. The general public (comebackers - those who haven't ridden a bike in 20+ years and want to get back into it) basically almost go into cardiac arrest if/when they stop in at a LBS and see all the latest, greatest, high tech, CF, Di2, setups along with a price tag of well over $5000! They can't afford that and or maybe they actually could but they will NOT spend that much for a bicycle. They'll probably go hit up the used classifieds in the paper, Craigslist, eBay, etc... Or worse, they'll get some cheesy dept store bike and ride that instead.
The problem for LBS is they really can't compete with the prices at the low end and still make money. Not much point in driving up the volume by selling cheap bikes if they're losing on the transactions. That said, if I go into a shop and they have nothing under $5000, I'm not staying there long. There's a very large range of pretty terrific bikes at a relatively small fraction of that price.