Re: Dear LBS

there is one LBS that has impressed me..."Yellow Jersey" in madison, wi.
they have everything that you cannot find anywhere else

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 4:54 PM, Miles Whelen <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hello Andy,
>
> On the brakes you seek. All bikes are supplied with brakes and even cheap
> ones rarely wear out. Upgrades are just that.  Most stores will tell you
> they almost never sell brakes of any type in quality and there are hundreds
> readily available.  We do but usually they are sold as part of a  in full
> bike component kit when we built from the frame up; something we do a lot
> of.  We can often get precisely what a customer needs overnight at no extra
> charge so keeping a large selection just raises the cost of everything you
> sell.  Now derailleurs; they are disposable as they fail often, wear out all
> the time and are exposed in crashes and manufacturers and models and types
> are relatively scarce.
>
>
>
> I don't want to sound unkind but it seems to me that the local bike shop
> you describe 5 miles away has made a much larger commitment to you by
> investing hard earned dollars in products you value than you have to them.
>  I'm sure many people on this list would love to have  shop within five
> miles that supported touring equipment.
>
> Now I do a national business as rare items need  broad church to support
> their interest but my local customers usually drive over an hour to my
> store; others fly in from around the country.  Having stated this I stock
> some very rare and often odd  hard to find items that make it worth a visit
> I like to think. Then again when we we located in a large city we shipped
> routine parts like tires and tubes across town to customers with next day
> delivery cheaply by post.  The customer saved time, parking and fuel and got
> a ride in in the afternoon rather than fight traffic and waste time looking
> for parking in town and saved money to boot. Better for us, better for them.
>
> Having been active in cycling since the early 1970s, a bike club president
> for several years and a shop owner/employee for almost all of that time most
> people on this list would be surprised to know that we have have half as
> many bike shops in the USA today than we had 15 years ago. We might have had
> four times as many as today in the early 1970s.  Even with todays internet
> cycling tends to be an urban phenomena for most of the USA as this is where
> the bike shops are.  Despite there limitations local bicycle shops are where
> people get into cycling, where the event promotion is supported and where
> cycle clubs evolve from.  When the local shops are gone so goes the sport;
> the sponsorship, the bulk of the organized rides, events and races, the
> innovation, the advocacy, the product selection and the things that we now
> treasure about cycling.
>
> <<It made me think that this is really a chicken and egg problem. >>  You
> are right. Now if you are a serious legitimate customer and you see the
> product right there in the store on a bike, I'd get those brakes for you
> quickly and affordably and start a relationship. You as a customer would be
> expected to pay an agreed upon price for an agreed upon delivery. Every shop
> in America has shelves full of expensive specialty items ordered for people
> that were never paid for of picked up. Over the last several years the
> number of otherwise good people that kindly request a shop to order a few
> hundred dollars worth of hardware for inspection that after arrival spin
> around and ordered the same item by mail order/internet to save sales tax of
> a few dollars is common. Stores go out of business if they get caught up in
> this to often and it raises the cost of everything they sell. Chicken or Egg
> again?
>
> Sometimes it's hard to believe what goes on.  I have a fellow that shopped
> with me regularly and wanted to look at a certain touring bag.  I made sure
> I got one in (it was popular and in short supply) in the color he wanted and
> held it for a couple of weeks missing a sale to someone else that wanted the
> last one.  He drove an hour to my shop looked at it an told me it was
> exactly what he wanted but said he needed some time to afford it. He poked
> around the store for 2-3 hours. Two weeks later I see him on a club ride
> with the same bag. He had purchased it from the factory and after tax and
> shipping saved almost exactly four dollars. Now he could have saved shipping
> by picking it up when he was in the shop and I ship most local purchases for
> free but this fellow drove two full hours in a car that uses gas and thought
> he saved four dollars  after begging me to get this bag in just for him.  I
> was able to easily sell the bag and many more like it but what do you next
> time? Nice guy, I like him but he has to go on the list of the people I
> can't bother to talk to about anything technical or product related because
> he is to expensive; I can't afford him.  Anyway folks just a little
> perspective from the other side of the counter.
>
> <<Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:06:04 -0500
> From: Andy Goodell <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: Dear LBS
>
>
>
> That's really surprising. I thought cantis were pretty common, since all
> the
> cyclocross and many commuters on touring/cx bikes have them (maybe this
> area
> just has a lot more of that?). Really this is just one example, but this
> happens nearly every time I go to the shops. Even when I went looking for
> just brake shoes several months back, the selection was extremely poor, and
> just no name generic things that were not suitable for riding in winter.
>
> There is one shop that tends to have these parts, but unfortunately they
> are
> 5 miles up the biggest hill from here. For some parts, it's worth the trip
> up there (for example when I got a dynamo hub system on a new wheel), but
> generally that's just too far of a trip for me on weeknights. I know 5
> miles
> sounds like nothing, but I rarely have my car on this side of town, and
> going to the shop makes my commute home 14+ miles in the dark.
>
> On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 1:57 PM, John Wood <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>  Hi Andy,
>> When your looking for a niche product, most LBS will not have it in stock.
>> Just not
>> a good business decision to devote limited space to something that you're
>> only going
>> to sell once every year or 2.  Can't remember the last time we had a
>> customer walk in
>> off the street looking for cantilever brakes.
>>
>> John
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 7:40 PM, Andy Goodell <[email protected]
>> >wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>  I needed new brakes. My old cantilever brakes just weren't cutting it
>>> anymore, and my commute and rides in general too often see large hills
>>> ending in high traffic areas, so I couldn't put this off any longer. I
>>> looked around online to see what I might want to buy, and thought I
>>> should
>>> check a few local shops first. If they've got the parts at a reasonable
>>> cost, I'd just buy them locally instead of waiting for shipping.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately of the many brakes out there, wide cantilevers was just
>>> something not in stock around here. Ithaca is pretty big on cyclocross,
>>> and
>>> I even saw one of the bikes on the stand with exactly the type of brakes
>>> I
>>> wanted to buy. But when I asked for them, there were none to be bought.
>>> Neither store I went to stocked what I was looking for. Now, I know not
>>> every store can stock everything, but you'd think that not stocking an
>>> decent variety of brakes would be a good idea. I ended up going home and
>>> buying them online.
>>>
>>> It made me think that this is really a chicken and egg problem. If they
>>> generally had the parts I needed, I wouldn't rely on buying parts online
>>> as
>>> much. But since I've been let down nearly every time I went to buy
>>> locally,
>>> it's become normal to just buy the parts online for cheaper.
>>>
>>>  >>
>>
>
> Yours in Cycling,
>
> Gilbert Anderson
>
> North Road Bicycle Imports
> PO Box 840
> 166 Court Square
> Yanceyville, NC 27379
> USA
>
> Our newest direct local Yanceyville Area phone is 336-421-4054
> Toll Free Research Triangle Area, NC area 919-828-8999
> Toll free Nationwide 800-321-5511
>
> email: [email protected]
>
> www.northroadbicycle.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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