kuan

All bike stores are the same, at least in my neck of the woods. I went searching for wheels, everyone had the same stuff. Mavic, Zipp, Bont, Shimano. That was the case in most of the stores I went to, except for one which had my wheels.

Same with helmets. Everyone has the same darn helmets, nobody carries a good assortment. Bell, Giro, Trek. That's it.

Good news is that they can "get" it. Well, so can I off the internet, and probably faster, and it'll come right to my door. Problem is I wanna touch and feel before I buy.

cedricbosch

It's because those brands sell.

kenny!

Or is it that those brands sell because that's what the lbs has?

Hocam

They can only afford to stock so much. If you ask, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to show you a catelogue and consider ordering it so you could try it out.

tankman10024

I have to agree with the above reply, bikes shops are only going to stock what sells. Thats just the way buisness works. But i do agree that you can find some great deals online.

Ride Safe
tankman

shapelike

The problem w/ all those boutique/esoteric brands is that you're either purchasing from the manufacturer or a number of small suppliers. Since you're buying power has been spread out so much it's almost impossible to negotiate decent payment terms. Try being a struggling small business and forking over $5000 for your spring helmet booking on the company Visa - that **** hurts, especially when you're forced to pay for the order just to get it shipped to you (larger companys will give you terms like net 30 or net 60/90 to pay for the product). There's also the unknown of when stock will be available, how much shipping will be for initial orders and repeats and then the frequent lack of customer awareness of the brands carry.

A lot of shops would love to tell all the boutique stuff that bike geeks hunt for, but the bread and butter customers that actually keep the shop in business frankly don't care. They want something that works well, they don't care if it's Product X or not, but they'll certainly go somewhere else if the prices aren't competitive.

</2minutelbseconomicslesson>

BikeWise1

So, so true.

The vast majority of my helmet sales go like this: Customer:"You guys got helmets?" Me: "Yes!" Customer: "What's the cheapest one ya got?" Me" "About $40." Customer: "Cool. Ya got it in blue?"

That's it. Most guys (non-brand/image conscious non-enthusiasts) couldn't care less who made it.

We cater to enthusiasts to a point, but there are over 36,000 items in only one of my distributors catalogs. Gotta stock what sells.

Also, we stock stuff from companies that have it when we need it, and have exemplary warranty service. That, unfortunately, rules out a lot of companies right there...

kuan

There's gotta be a creative way to do this. I hate to suggest this but Walmart's Thru the Register (TTR) system might be the answer to this. Lemme first say I have no POS terminal interests, but the LBS can stock it and pay the company when it sells. This way the LBS carries no inventory and doesn't have to front the company for the product. The product manufacturer has a showcase for their product instead of having to rely on the internet. Everyone wins.

oopfoo

I had a friend who had a boutique cycling shop in the 80's. In a small town with 3 bike shops, full of Schwinn, Raleigh, Cannondale, and Trek, he carried Look, Vitus, Mavic components, and lots of Campy gear (to name a few things). When Lemond won the Tour, Bob had the same gear on his sales floor, and we were all amazed. He had some COOL stuff.

He didn't, unfortunately, last very long, though many of us tried to support him when we could with mechanic work and purchases. Just how often do you need to buy a Mavic 631 crankset? Hand-sewn tubulars? How often did the entire town's population of serious cyclists need to?

Some places just don't have the population density to support a shop that caters to a knowledgeable clientele exclusively; how would these shops make a living? Bob couldn't, and I think it messed up a good guy.

DocRay

+, these esoteric European companies are a total PITA to deal with. They insist you buy stock at the beginning of the season, during the season, the distributor rarely has anything stocked (yet take their cut), and they won't take back unsold stock at the end of the season, making it worthless for the next season. All this, at ridiculous prices and thin margins.
Trek, Giant, etc. all have good regional distributors and can get stock to a LBS fast if needed, without expecting the LBS to float the company.

for the Toronto area of 5-6 million people, there are only two-three shops that can function selling euro bikes and parts.

shogun17

We stock 2XU and Exte Ondo primarily for clothes. Wheelcraft, Ritchey and Pro-Lite for wheels. catlike, Fox and MeT for helmets. Orbea, BMC, Parlee and the general big sellers (Giant, cheap bike brands etc.) My boss has a dislike to Trek, anything associated to Trek, and Mavic. It also means I get to ride nicer stuff. So keep looking, not all bike shops are the same, and we are in a pretty remote location. (I share the same)

operator

Er. What do you want? For a store to carry an entire catalog? If you can't find what you want at your local LBS, they can either

1) order it for you
2) tell you to order it yourself off the internet

It's usually less hassle for you to do it yourself anyways.

kuan

At least something different from their competitor. Kinda like cars. You wanna sit, touch, feel, drive.

FIVE ONE SIX

the problem with that is that you may be the only person that wants that something different, and if you don't buy it than the owner is losing money, and that's not why they're there...

like others here already said, stores are only going to stock what sells the most, for obvious reasons. if you need something special, that's what the internet is for...

af2nr

Kinda like cars though your not going to get all of this from one place. The smaller markets are all going to have the same things, like Chevy, Ford, etc, where as you may have to go to a larger market for other stuff like BMW, Lexus, etc.

kuan

Yep that's why they need a different model. This whole business of having to carry inventory is bad for business for both the retail and the manufacturer. The manufacturer should be able to use the retailer as a showroom and warehouse without the retailer having to first purchase the inventory. When the item is purchased, the manufacturer gets paid.

rufvelo

..that is because Canadians prefer to buy Canadian. So if it has to be Italian exotic, it better be a Marinoni.

rufvelo

Two other options for these 'dumb LBS' types are to stock the entire QBP catalog in a 10,000sqft store in the same mall opp Macy's, or specialize in every possible cassette combo - all in stock. e.g rumour has it there is a demand in larger metros for 11-20 10sp Ti cassettes. Should address the 'lack of uniqueness' issue.

DocRay

Like most of your posts, wrong.

Marinoni went out of business 10 years ago, resurrected recently for the name, but now selling mostly Chinese-made frames.

Per capita, there are more cyclists in Canada than the US, and they tend to spend more on bikes. Recently, the trendy frame is a Cervelo (made in China), but before that, Italian frames cornered a huge amount of the Canadian market.
The only real Canadian bike manufacturer left is Guru, which is the only company that can make you a custom monocoque CF frame, but at $5500.

FIVE ONE SIX

sorry, but consignment never works, because the store always benefits and the manufacturer usually ends up getting the short end of the stick. if the store carries what's popular, everyone benefits, so no one gets the short end of the stick because there isn't one...

I_bRAD

And then the manufacturer tells you to sell more, and they'll tell you how to do it. Perhaps they'll stop shipping to you if you carry the competitors product. I think people who want to be the man's ***** don't typically run bike shops, they open Subway franchises.

kuan

It does work. Online retailers who drop ship have their point of sales systems directly connected to the manufacturer's remote warehouse. When you order online, manufacturer gets paid within an hour. Same thing can happen with our LBS.

Anyway I'm not saying I know how to run a bike shop. All I'm saying is I wish, from a consumer's POV, that there was more variety in LBS's. Someone should be able to come up with a more creative solution.

kuan

That's poor business practice. The Gap exists next to iZod next to Express because consumers want variety when they shop. Jewelry stores exist catty corner from each other at shopping malls. The presence of different varieties in the same market niche and physical vicinity serves only to bolster traffic and sales. Stick a Taco Bell out in the middle of nowehre with no competition and see what happens. Stick a McDonald's next to the same Taco Bell and see business increase 10x.

I_bRAD

And if you want coke, you go to mcdonalds. If you want pepsi you go to taco bell. Try and sell coke at a taco bell franchise and see how far you get.

roadfix

Part or most of the 'uniqueness' should be with the personal service they provide. That usually puts one shop up above all others.