Originally Posted by MNebiker

Typical reaction, and like most generalizations, wrong.

Out here in the real world we have mom & dad, 3 kids, a dog, a mortgage, and probably one or two car payments - and perhaps a student loan or credit card debt. They cannot afford to buy their kids a high priced big-name LBS bike to beat it up jumping curbs and leaving it out in the rain. Mom & dad don't need an exotic or pricey bike for casual riding. They drive a Ford Escape - they can't afford an Land Rover Evoque. The price point of department store bikes meets their situation. It's that or they don't ride.

The vast majority of our bike sales were decent and solid products. Not fancy or highly refined, but far from junk - basic steel "mountain" bikes for kids, comfortable bikes that older adults enjoyed, lighter aluminum hybrids that mom & dad bought to ride with their kids. We carried a few more serious mountain bikes and a few road bikes, but had little demand for them. The only real issues we had with them came from the typical abuse or lack or maintenance.

But I will grant the point that some department store bikes are junk. Every Black Friday we got a batch of $99.00 specials that were so bad that you could barely call them bikes. Fortunately they were advertised as "limited quantity" and we only got about 10 or 12 units. I never "sold" one of those bikes - I used them to sell up to a decent model. I told the customers exactly what they were and did everything but call them stupid if they bought one. But - there were always those people who saw only price and would not listen. I can't imagine putting my kids on one of those, but . . . .

Now I do contend that anyone who would buy a department store bike from a big-box store or wholesale club that does not have a service and repair facility in store is making a dumb mistake. Some of the "Schwinn" bikes at Target are probably OK, but there is no support. And I could relate a bunch of horror stories I heard about the LBS support, so they are not perfect either. A great new car experience can be killed by a poor service department. Like most things in life, it comes down to the person.

Of course, this is BF and I have the audacity to defend that most evil of products, the department store bike. On top of that, I am one of those terrible ebikers! So flame on guys!