Dave Cutter

Is even the classic and vintage threads turning into P&R threads now? Maybe that's why this forum is in it's own death spiral....

repechage

going to be tough- unless the closing stores were only bottom line generating losses, closing that point will reduce the overall sales volume accordingly, possibly reducing economy of scale. the situation appears quite intricate- waiting to see who arranges the debtor in possession financing. The working capital picture is going to be tough, the first closings will conclude in the dead of Winter. Spring is a long way away.

cs1

crank_addict

Got to love those marketeers.
Now its come to this.....
NATIONAL Bike Shop Day - Dec. 1, 2018

Spaghetti Legs 

natterberry 

slowrevs

The Performance Bike shop I dealt with a few times in Pasadena, California was generally over priced, while store personnel were rude and arrogant. When looking for components, their typical reply was, "It's over there," rather than providing help in finding what you were looking for.

If that was a country wide in-store attitude, they brought bankruptcy on themselves.

No loss as far as I'm concerned.

trailangel

I actually like the people in the Pasadena store. You want overpriced, rude and arrogant, go to Incycle.

merziac

Just got back from mine, the Mall 205 store in SE PDX, they went way above and beyond as usual, going to do everything I can for them no matter what happens they will go down swinging.

since6

Every store that closes is a loss, not only the people working at that store, but the suppliers who will lay off people with inventory they can no longer sell to that chain of stores. Sad day, GM laying off 14,000 plus and ending the production of multiple lines of cars.Which means suppliers laying off people and manufacturers for those suppliers laying off people and those who create the raw materials for the manufacturers laying off people, its a long chain of losses when a store closes.

As the Boss said:


My Hometown
Bruce Springsteen

Kevindale

Haha, my experience, too. When I decided to get back into riding in the mid-Aughts, I decided to get his and hers hybrids, but I wanted something reasonably light with good components (I had the naive idea that I could easily put drop bars on if I wanted to). I also knew I was clueless, so I wanted a place that had a lot of options. The Pasadena Performance store was large, had 3 different brands of what looked like quality hybrids, and they let me poke around and also test ride anything I wanted. The young guy who helped me was super chill, never tried to up-sell, and gave me honest opinions. I bought 2 Fuji hybrids.

Cut to a few years later, the wife's bike stolen, and she borrowing a Cannondale R2000, and I decide to get a decent road bike to help keep up with her (the vintage bug hadn't hit yet). I ended up doing it backwards - I picked a bike, then a shop, and ended up with a Cannondale from Incycle. If I hadn't done all my own research and fallen in love with that bike's paint scheme (and the ride, and the EOS sale price), I would have gone elsewhere. They tried to talk me into getting the next size down, and the day I picked it up and some twerp behind the counter (not even helping me) snarked on my cheapo helmet. I remember staring him down till he wiped the smirk off his face. I never went back, but continued to use the Pasadena Performance till we moved.

Dave Cutter

A loss yes. Sad... most certainly. But it is also an opportunity. As much bad as this all is..... in many, or most cases, more good will come from these normal changes.

Kabuki12

I went to the Oxnard store here in Southern California earlier in the year and they had already downsized quite a bit. I had an ominous feeling as I rifled through the tires looking for a decent pair. They didn't have what I wanted so i bought online (damn) . I did buy a Park tool headset wrench at 20% off. i felt bad for the staff, they were always helpful whenever I went in there. Sad....Joe

gugie 

Performance never seemed like an LBS to me. I don't think a chain store counts as "Local". To me, it's as sad as any other brick and motor store, no more, no less. The times I went there it was for a tube or cable.

Velocult going under, now that hurt. Every time a cycling visitor came to town, they always wanted to take the pilgrimage.

rhm

I'm more upset about the demise of Niagara Cyclery. I think I was in a Performance store only once, and didn't buy anything. I did buy from their catalog sometimes, fifteen or twenty years ago.

mstateglfr 

nothing the poster statred was political or religious.
it was simply commentary based on observations of societies.
it was actually quite general in annoyance.

is this forum in its own death spiral or is that how you want to perceive the forum?

noglider 

I never had much of a relationship with Performance. I've never been near any of their stores. I saw them as one of the corporate behemoths in the industry. So it surprises me that I'm sad that this is happening. I don't mind economical darwinism, but it seems that huge numbers of people and businesses are being left out to freeze and die. If your business model is more than five years old, you are dead. The same is true of your job skills.

I bought from Nashbar from time to time. Buying their clothes was always a mistake for me, yet I repeated it. But they often had nice sales on things such as tires.

jon c. 

Love the Nashbar crochet gloves. And was always pretty happy with whatever I bought from them. But I suspect they may survive and if not I don't expect I'll really miss them. There is no shortage of discount online retailers.

merziac

I never would have expected them to be anything but corporate, chain. That being said, their prices got me in, their service, attitude and willingness/ability to offer help and advice always kept my attention. They have always maintained this through complete turnover of staff so not an anomaly in the beginning or now after 7-8 years with the current crew being great as ever. The company may not be local but the people are and their hands are certainly tied by corporate rule to a large degree often, but make no mistake, they constantly have my back every time I walk in the door which will be as much as I can from here on out, sinking ship or no.

I too mourn the loss of VC as well, horrible loss for us, PDX, C+V and much more. My Performance would/will be as big a loss albeit in a different way.

Dave Cutter

Maybe.

No.... traffic has fallen considerably here.... and at most forums. Forums are little more than whiteboards.... and many/most have switched to social media formats.

Much like most things.... change is eternal.

Bikerider007

The Performance near me never had that small shop feel but had great people. I rode many a Saturday from there so I would buy consumables and support. But, it's the one of four in the Phx area that is closing. I was surprised as it seems busy enough. The manager told me they make as much and more than a couple others but he believes it was due to fixed cost (lease?). I also rode out of SD. Not sure of the fate of that one but it seemed slower that this one.

repechage

The GM announcements could have been orchestrated better.

Some was done no doubt to posture prior to Union negotiations. For instance, the two Cadillac models announced to be dropped are going to be replaced by one new vehicle. That has to get assembled somewhere- and no announcement of that. A sizeable chunk of the layoffs are white collar staff- think designers and engineers, production support personnel.

The Cruze going away is too bad as it is the final admission that GM cannot engineer an inexpensive entry level car. I have rented one, I was pleasantly surprised. Never would have thought, and that is a problem.

The Volt is curious, but the sales volume barely climbed after a redesign and that was only short time compared to the original's numbers. Abandoning the hybrid powertrain is I think risky. America is too spread out for being so dependent on electricity dispensing points.

Electric is coming, no doubt. Problem I see is at this point the "recharge" time. Sure, with a big charger a modest recharge is possible, but it effects battery life. There are not enough charging stations.

Tesla advises you to not frequently recharge to 100%, go up to 90%. Max it out prior to a long trip. Your 300 mi range car just became a 270 mi range car on average.

mstateglfr 

maybe? What was political or religious?

as for traffic on the forum- if whst you say is correct and its happening everywhere, then you answered your own question from earlier- traffic here isnt in a death spiral because p&r has crept into c&v. It's because traffic is down everywhere...as you pointed out.

I'm gping to try to remove myself from this part of the thread now as it has nowhere tongo but down thst death spiral you referenced.

slowrevs

Have to agree with you on this one. Visited their website recently and it appeared stalled. Thought they might have closed. Bummer. They provided good products and excellent service. I will miss 'em.

themp

My local Performance Store had a person on the street with a 50% off sign this weekend. I have been going in weekly to look for savings, but it seems like they are marking things at full retail and then giving 30 to 50 percent off. I have been watching a rear rack bag that was $29.95 prior to the bankruptcy, now is listed at $39.95 with 40% off. That is close to what I paid for the same one a year ago when it was 5 dollars off $29.95. The store is being picked over pretty well at this point, however.