Over the many years of being in the bike business, I have experienced strongarm tactics from almost, if not all the "A" line companies. Since money has always been but one of several motivating factors in my quest to squeeze a living from this great sport, my response to arm twisting was to dig in my heels. I dropped Cannondale in the 80s, Specialized in the 90s, and FUJI in the past 3 years because they got too full of themselves. No one tells me how to run my shop or how many bikes I will buy.

Trek's tactics are nothing new. They want more of the small bicycle pie. They are flush from years of success and the "Lance" effect. The smaller shop may lose bike sales with a mass merchant type store taking over for Trek, but Trek loses in the long run IMO. The small independent shop is still the backbone of this sport. To cast them aside in their search for profit over quality is so very typical of the American retail mindset.

That holds true for any small business CRUM. I was in the knife business for years. Any mfg that sold to any of the Xmarts was comprimised. Schrade was one of the most successful and oldest U.S. cutlery makers in existence. They had a big contract with an Xmart. They increased their production and wound up having Xmart being close to half of their production. Xmart gave them new terms unilateraly. They could produce that cheap. Now their out of business. A sad but true story.

Tim

I think what you guys are forgetting is that the people running/investing in Trek probably want to cash in NOW. They could give a sh1t about the brand's reputation with retailers 15 yrs from now.

That is true. And that is what is fundamentally wrong with the American mindset when it comes to money and how to really make it. Instant gratification and short term thinking have handed our king of the economic pile over prematurely to the chinese.

this thread has more lives than a cat

It's just one more reason you need to learn how to do your own wrenching. Small LBS's are being run out of business by big box stores all over the place. The worst of it is that at big box stores, the wages paid to employees are so low that thinking is not included. Terrible for the customer. bk

Some of the wrenches at Scheels are talented but they don't ever stick around more than a couple years and they don't have a clue when it comes to bikes over ten years old.

This might work out best for the LBS. Scheels sells a lot more bicycles but cannot service them properly. Buyers discover Albrechts and take their bikes to them for service. Albrechts does not have to carry inventory and sell bicycles at low margins. Albrechts even gets to charge for services that they normally do for free with a new bike sale. And when it comes to upgrading/installing higher margin components and eventually bikes, then Albrechts get the sale of a Giant, Specialized or other brand bike. Scheels does not meet Trek's expectations in sales and service and begs Albrechts to take them back. Albrechts drives a hard bargain and gets Scheels contract terms. What do you think?

+1. That's no joke.

But on the subject of the LBS, I had a similar problem, but in reverse, sort of. The shop I bought my Cannondale from was bought out and became a Performance store. They liquidated all the high end bikes and I think they even replced some of the staff, er, some of the staff left. About a year later the store closed. Performance claimed they were "consolidating" stores in the area.

I went to a LBS and was told they couldn't do anything for me in my price range, Knowing very little I asked if I could get a decent bike at K-mart. The Lady (she was very nice and really wanted to help me but their lowest started 250 more a bike then I wanted or even could spend) pointed me to scheels. The guy I talked to there was very knowlegable or at least could act like he was and offered what I think is a good deal on a couple of low end Treks. Still a little more then I should spend for bikes but at least doable. I will probaly go for it.

Super Wally World!
 

My town had a Wally world for a while, and the only places that fell to them were some children clothing stores, Ace Hardware, a pool chemical retailer. A few years ago Wally World built a new giant building and now it's a Super Wally World. Since then a grocery store went bankrupt and a shoe store in the mall. Could be more, but that is all I know for sure. Oh, and the old building is vacant. I'm sure no one can buy it ever though it is listed for sale. Fun stuff. I hate Wal-Mart.

Edit: I should say that my town had a LBS, but maybe a decade ago they left. So our town has no LBS and the closes is at least 40 miles away.

Scheels recently opened a new store in Sparks NV. Per their web site Sparks is their furthest west store so far. They are carrying a large inventory of Trek bikes but it has not yet caused any of the other local dealers to drop the Trek line that I know of. The store is huge and I find it kind of strange to have such a large sporting goods outlet in a relatively small metropolitan area.

We actually now have two very large sporting goods outlets in the Reno/Sparks area, Cabelas and Scheels. They, or the crappy economy, have put some smaller sporting goods stores out of business. I can only figure that they are partly aiming at the tourist trade who visit Reno though Vegas would seem to be a bigger market if that is the case.

A 6 year old thread by a banned poster, brought back in 2007 and now again in 2009.
WHY?

Why not?

There's your answer!

Only 23 now, 2 years later.

From RGJ.com Jun 15 2009
"Among the displays are water falls, fountains, mist pools and 6-foot long outdoor fire places. Those elements , plus the 65-foot Ferris wheel in the massive Scheels sports store, are among the reasons the Legends’ open meeting areas could become locations for community tours, convention parties and summer concerts."

But apparently that last is a doozy.

And they're not all bad.

From INFORUM.com Jun 13 2009
"Three Fargo-based businesses – Border States Electric, Tharaldson Lodging and Scheels All Sports – have been named among the 100 largest majority employee-owned companies in the country.

Tharaldson Lodging ranked 26th with 4,600 employees, Scheels All Sports was 37th with 3,000 employees, and Border States Electric was 80th with 1,300 employees"

I think you are being generous, I did some bike building there last year, the only training I witnessed was when I gave pointers to the the other knumbnuts they had building.