Cyclist0383

Wal*Mart has opened an LBS in one of their stores. The Kryptonite blog as a little blurb on it here. I wonder if the build quality of the bikes is better than the standard X-mart build quality...


https://unbreakable-bonds.blogspot.co...-in-texas.html

wahoonc

Interesting...I wonder if they will actually check over the cheap crap they sell? I was in a WalMart the other night for an emergency purchase and swung thru the bike section. They had a bike on the rack with a cracked frame I left a message for the store manager, but they probably will depend on their return policy to CYA. Cheap crappy bikes is cheap crappy bikes even if they do have a fancy place to sell them. And I seriously doubt they will be hiring any type of certified mechanics, like some LBSes do.

Aaron

Ornery

I'll be danged if this isn't $120.00 worth of bike:

I'd like to see the LBS duplicate that bang for the buck!

They sell Canon, Sony, Michelin, Remington, Dremel, Levi, Bunn, Dyson, Wilson... The items sold under those brands don't become inferior just because they're from a Walmart.

wahoonc

Maybe not, but quite often they are built specifically for Walmart and ARE NOT the quality you may purchase somewhere else. As far as Bang for the Buck Bicycles I bought a gently used Staiger Trekking bike for $175 that sold for over $700 new. Also show me a WM bike that is still hanging around in ridable condtion in 30+ years like my 1972 Raleigh Superbe. And I have a 197? Raleigh Sports Standard that has seen over 15,000 documented miles (and probably that many more undocumented) and still has most of the original parts on it. I am not going to get into the social issues side of Walmart. But you get what you pay for.

Aaron

Ornery

I'll get into the "social issues" of Walmart, as well as address the "built specifically for Walmart" folklore. The retail packages purchased at Walmart are EXACTLY the same as those purchased elsewhere. Stores like Sears rebrand their Michelin tires and such, but that's not the case at Walmart.

I can buy a box of 100 washers at Walmart for a fraction of the price charged by the local mom & pop hardware store for the EXACT same package. Volume buying power has that effect. Not to mention, the local mom & pop shop didn't feel too guilty about gouging their customers when they were the only game in town. Sucks when the tables turn, eh?

When it's worth their while to start stocking high end bikes, the Treks sold at Walmart will be the EXACT same units sold at the LBS. I saw my first Snapper riding mower at Walmart a couple years ago. It was the EXACT same model offered by the local mower dealers, except it was the lowest in their line. If you wanted a larger engine, deck or bagging sytem, you had to go the local mower dealer instead. Take some vaseline (sold cheap at Walmart) with you!

I-Like-To-Bike

What's dat? Who's dat? And how many $69 - $189 bikes do they lay wrenches on?

wahoonc

I'm glad you are such a fan of Walmart...but I guarantee you that when they are the only game in town they raise their prices, I've seen it. Also I have this GE iron that my wife purchased...read the fine print on the label it says "built to Walmart Specifications". Tell the 2,000 people in Erwin, NC that used to work at the Swift Denim Mill how great it was to lose a job that paid an average of $14 an hour (in 2000), to have only 1/4 of those jobs replaced by Walmart at an average wage of $8 an hour (in 2006). As far as the mom and pop, they pay taxes on the building they rent or own, they typically spend their money with other local merchants. Walmart gets incentives to come to town, only to move 5 or 6 years later leaving a huge empty retail space that quite often goes unused. And all the tax money that was used to lure them is wasted. Another thing that people don't want to see...people that make $8 an hour don't pay taxes at the same rate as people that make $14 or more. They actually use more tax dollars than they pay in, but that is what the American public wants...cheap products at cheap prices regardless of the cost.

Aaron

wahoonc

My LBS has mechanics that have been trained at either Barnett Bicycle Institute or Park Tools School. Every bike that comes in that store for sale, new or used is torn down and checked prior to going out on the sales floor, even the trade ins. I worked there as a part time employee for a couple of years to support my cycling habit. I was allowed to perform minor repairs but they were checked by one of the other mechanics. If I had wanted to continue I would have had to attend one of the schools.

Aaron

RadioFlyer

I'm not surprised as two of the Walton sons are big into cycling. Another spent a few summers as a whitewater rafting guide. One son cleaned up land in Alabama (maybe Arkansas?) and created a mtb park. The other son is roadie.

Yes, WM has problems, but all the positive stuff WM is doing -- eg. trying to become environmentally responsible -- is all a result of the offspring pushing to become a better global citizen.

Ornery

The mom & pop shops around here have handled the Big Box influx just fine. They offer products not sold by the giants. In the mean time, since I don't buy into the hype of "high end", I can obtain products at a fair price. If you're performing a service that can be done for half the wages by somebody else, it's time to get into a new line of work. I do NOT support protectionism of any kind.

bac

Video killed the radio star, and now Wally's gonna kill the LBS.

Seriously, it's just as well Little 5-year-old Chow Meo can sure lace up a set of wheels - and he doesn't even need one smoke-break on his 16-hour shift.

... Brad

Doug5150

I would second this.

Every time Wal-Mart offers another sales contract to a vendor, Wal-Mart almost always insists a lower unit price than the previous contract. So what happens with a lot of items is, the manufacturers start cheapening them just to offer a lower price that Wal-Mart demands. Sometimes this is a special "lower-quality/price" production run just for Wal-Mart, and sometimes the product manufacturers cheapen their entire product output and sell the lower quality stuff to everyone else (for the old prices!) too.

I know someone IRL who is a chemical engineer in the soap industry--and they knew for a fact that this is true for some of the soap products that Wal-Mart sells.
~

ajay677

They do when the item is manufactured to meet Walmart's ongoing need for lower and lower prices from their suppliers.

ajay677

I might be wrong but I think Snapper told Walmart to go pi$$ up a rope a while back.

Edit: Nope, not wrong.

https://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/...n_snapper.html

I-Like-To-Bike

Is that your response to a question about your statement about alleged certified mechanics tenderly crafting together inexpensive bikes sold at the typical LBS?

Ornery

If the Model Number/SKU is the same, it's the same product.

KDL-40S3000 VS KDL-40S3000

Dyson DC07 VS Dyson DC07

UPC: 0088697115132 VS UPC: 0088697115132

Yes, Snapper bailed on Walmart as an outlet, but they did offer some for a while. It was great for the consumer while it lasted. You still can't buy Stihl at Home Depot or Lowes either, but I still shop at both those stores, as well as Walmart. I'll buy bike accessories and parts online as well. If you don't need the hand holding of the LBS, why not?

Abneycat

Perhaps the mom & pop stores are price gouging, perhaps what you're experiencing is simply a natural order of the economic market, EX:

mom & pop order 150 boxes of nails.

Wal-Mart orders 250,000, and distributes them out to their stores nation wide. Oh, and some off to Canada too.

When you deal in the extreme end of bulk, you can retail at bulk prices.

Ornery

Of course, that's the point! It's good for the consumer, of which I'm one. Used to be, you'd go to the local hardware store to by a widget. They'd tell you the price, and when you balked, they'd say, "Take it or leave it", knowing they had the only one within a 30 mile radius. Now we have Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart and can shop online. Do I feel sorry for the prick who had me over a barrel 20 years ago?

Our local electronics store felt the pinch when Sun Appliance and Best Buy rolled into town. Did they piss & moan and cry to the local representatives to keep them out? Nope, they just went high end, and they're thriving. Gotta be light on your feet, which should be easy for a small business.

v1k1ng1001

Dahon.Steve

This bike can't compare with the Trek Lime or Electra Townie. You can't sell a BMW at Hugo prices

Ornery

You don't understand. Walmart workers don't
want to stop the exploitation. We want to find
ways to become the exploiters.


"You can't sell a BMW at Hugo prices"

My that's deep. If I walk into a bike shop with $125.00 for a bike to use at say, a summer cottage for the month, what will I get? I know what I can get from Walmart. I know what I could possibly get used. I want to know what the LBS has to offer besides a used bike. I don't need a LBS for that.

I-Like-To-Bike

Maybe you will get "certified mechanics" subjecting the LBS product to an intensive, top to bottom 100% inspection and rebuild of every component to meet the exacting standards found on every item sold there.

Then again, maybe you won't.

leinad

As you sighted in a post "if you want a cheap bike for the cottage" well I wanted to try mountain biking and didn't want to spend a lot if I didn't like it so much to the dismay of my friends I bought one of your so called "bikes" at a big-box retailer (spend a whooping $150) three rides later with less than 50 miles on the bike, while climbing a small hill I ripped the cassette and rear derailer completely off the bike. garbage in, garbage out!! Quality costs money dude, but do as you see fit, it's your nickel.

Ornery

The hub alone is over $50.00 without the coaster brake. A MTB is a ludicrous application for fragile derailleurs*, let alone the dime store variety, but that's another topic.

If I were a contractor, I wouldn't buy a Skil electric drill from Walmart either. I'd head on up to Home Depot for something beafier. But, a home owner could make do with a $20.00 drill from Walmart for decades. Doesn't take much to hang a picture or two. It pays to be a smart shopper.

*Singlespeed bikes are also considerably more sturdy and reliable than multispeed bikes. There's no derailer to catch on the underbrush or to get overshifted into the spokes.

CB HI

Many of the ones bought at Wal-Mart that were not properly built.

A co-worker bought one as a Christmas present last year and asked me to check the brakes. The brakes were set OK but it was easy to tell the cones on the hubs were not properly adjusted, making the bike dangerous. I had no idea where my 13mm cone wrench was and did not have time to look for it before Christmas. So the co-worker had to take his brand new present to the LBS.

Not to mention the LBS across from the Sports Authority. They fixed up the poor assembly and quick failures all the time.