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Interesting new policy at American Cyclery in SF.....

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Interesting new policy at American Cyclery in SF.....

Old 09-17-22, 08:24 AM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by 3alarmer
...I'm not going to work for the customers that American Cyclery rejects. My standards are just as high as theirs are.
Dunno, seems like @Chombi1 is a nice enough guy...
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Old 09-17-22, 08:26 AM
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Originally Posted by repechage
the takeaway I thought was interesting was the reluctance to raise prices to reduce demand for fear of offending the customer base.
taking the longer view that the surge in demand will drop off. He also stated it already has declined some.
the wedge is the problem of not finding capable mechanics. The most capable or interested now cannot get past e- verify, have little or no English.
I was a sales rep in the Bay Area back in the 80's, so I got a chance to see how a lot of different shops did business. One of them had a rainy day discount to encourage people to come in when it was slow. I discussed my idea about having seasonal pricing for labor, but to my knowledge no one ever took it. With higher pricing a shop could afford to have a seasonal labor bonus, and perhaps lure other mechanics into working there.

The problem of wages in a very expensive city is, and always will be a tough way to run a business.

But the OP started this thread theme about a policy from a shop that reduced the number of repair bikes to manage the workload. If more people want your services than you can take in, raising prices would allow for a bonus wage (increasing supply of mechanics) and reduce the backlog. Still think that seasonal labor pricing would be doable.
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Old 09-17-22, 12:32 PM
  #53  
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Since someone mentioned about hair color and being good to go, just wanted to say you dont necessarily need it, but yeah. Sorry if my hair offends you, Yune_Garage
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Old 09-17-22, 12:39 PM
  #54  
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Originally Posted by gugie
Dunno, seems like @Chombi1 is a nice enough guy...
...if I'm in the driver' seat in the supply and demand equation, why would I take the chance ?
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Old 09-17-22, 01:23 PM
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Originally Posted by gugie
The problem of wages in a very expensive city is, and always will be a tough way to run a business.

But the OP started this thread theme about a policy from a shop that reduced the number of repair bikes to manage the workload. If more people want your services than you can take in, raising prices would allow for a bonus wage (increasing supply of mechanics) and reduce the backlog. Still think that seasonal labor pricing would be doable.

...there's another problem with scaling up a business that has been a fixture in SF as long as this one has. They are, from what I recall, somewhat limited in space. So even if they can hire more personnel who possess the skill levels required to adequately serve their expanded service customer base, where do they work ? And I, personally, would be reluctant in such a situation, to aggressively expand in the hopes that this new demand demographic will be the norm for the future.

I do not know the first thing about ebikes, other than that it appears you need to plug them in to recharge them. And some of them cause fires, which seems to be a slowly increasing problem in NYC, where they get used a lot for food delivery sorts of jobs.

But I easily imagine some issues with the increasing space required for stocking normal service parts for them, which are presumably quite different from the bicycles that have supported this business over the many years of its existence. Mostly, this woiuld not be the first business owner to say, "I've been doing this for a long time in this location. I have a business model and a customer base that seem to work, long term. I don't need or want the increasing hassles that this new model might present. It might turn more profit in the short term, but I'm not at all certain I know how it will turn out if I need to sink a lot of cash and resources into this new business model of multiple ebike models and makers. Let someone else deal with it."
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