People have said I should go to a coop but I don’t know what that is or how it works. Assume it’s kind of like a store but not sure if you pay a fee to belong and then just start looking around for what you need? Any insight appreciated.

They are different in different places and the level of organization is widely variable but essentially you can pay a small membership fee or do volunteer work to be a member. Once inside ours it becomes the coolest garage sale ever.

Most are volunteer operations, that run off the donations of others. They mainly serve to educate and repair, they have used parts. Some will have new consumable products. Most are not a pay membership based.

Thanks for the info. I guess given variability of local coops I’d have to go to a local coop to get familiar. But I’m trying to understand if it’s like a store with clerks and a counter, or cal you look thru parts bins yourself? If you find what you need who sets the price?

Again it varies, but , in my limited experience, you can usually get permission to look through the bins andt he staff sets the prices.
Brent

My experience is that they are typically charities. You go in just like it is a bike shop. Prices are sometimes a bit higher than private sales, but the money goes to good causes. WorkingBikes, in Chicago, ships excess bikes to countries where they can be put to good use. I happily paid a bit more for a bike for my wife to ride. I will be unhappily selling it or giving it away soon, because she can no longer ride and never did.

...all are different. My local one has self service bins, and a small glass case where the higher end stuff gets displayed. You select what you want to buy, lay it all out in fromnt of the day's manager, and he tells you the price. There is a higher end resale shop in San Rafael, where a lot of the stuff is marked in price, run by Trips for Kids. The one in San Fran, in SOMA, used to have a plicy where you could only access the parts bins if you were working on your bike in the shop.

Thanks for all of the help.

After you visit, why not report back on this thread what you found and how it worked? Good advertising for the co-op, and a fitting closing to the thread from which others may learn.

If I do find a local coop and end up visiting it, I will definitely report back on my experience. Not sure what options exist in the suburbs near me. It looks like some coops exist in the city of Chicago, which are probably better stocked, but I’m not inclined to venture that far.

If I do find a local coop and end up visiting it, I will definitely report back on my experience. Not sure what options exist in the suburbs near me. It looks like some coops exist in the city of Chicago, which are probably better stocked, but I’m not inclined to venture that far.