Thinking of buying a bike shop and looking for advice...

JesseD

One LBS where I am has a coffee shop attached to it which works well, but what has really worked fro them is getting people to buy into the shop identity. They sell shop kit so you can effectively ride under shop colours and feel part of something, this in turn means the punters are more likely to buy from the shop rather than any other LBS locally.

They organise shop rides every Saturday for those who just want to ride, and these can attract upwards of 40/50 riders at times, most of which are loyal customers to the shop and spend a lot of cash there.

They also have a "race" team, these guys are not given any equipment from the shop apart from discounted club kit, they all ride bikes bought from the shop and have bought into the brand.

They have just started up a sportive team as well under different colours, they have a car branded with the team logos and colours and take it away to races/events etc, makes everyone feel part of something.

I don't ride for them but it does look impressive from the outside and the loyalty the shop has from its customers is mental!

They also have sussed the market, they sell some popular brands like Felt, Cannondale etc, but also have boutique brands as well such as Parlee, Storck, Lightweight etc, they sell quite a lot of these as nowhere else locally deals in high end brands like this and there are a lot of Finance houses etc around where they are located so a lot of people have a lot of disposable income.

The above probably didn't make make sense sorry, however good luck

ugo.santalucia

A cafe'/shop is a good idea. If you have good mechanical skills it can be a success... if you only want to sell bikes, it can be a failure. If you aim too high, it will be a failure... you have to target the local crowds... not everywhere Pinarello and Colnago sell... here in the Highlands everybody is very complimentary of my Shimergo bike put together with mismatched bits and pieces, for instance... stock brands that people want to buy, better if vaguely British

Good luck, most of all

bendertherobot

We have a new bike workshop/cafe thing opening on Park Place in Cardiff. That's a pretty busy road, commuter fare. It's the second such store to open recently (the first being on the Taff Trail in Tongwynlais). Seems to be a new type of niche.

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

here in the Highlands

Where are you now, Ugo?

The only trouble "here in the Highlands" is that everybody sells the same stuff. If you want Shimano cycling shoes you can "fill yer boots" but, say, Sidi and you can whistle.

Getting the balance right between the common stuff that everybody wants and something a bit different that will attract traffic away from the bigger chains is the challenge.

norvernrob

I think times are pretty hard for many shops, Adrian Timmis @ Cadence has (or is) gone it alone at his shop, making it more service based and laying off his staff.

He's posted on social media that he'll always try and price match, but much of the time he can't even buy stock for what the Internet shops are selling at.

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

here in the Highlands

Where are you now, Ugo?

The only trouble "here in the Highlands" is that everybody sells the same stuff. If you want Shimano cycling shoes you can "fill yer boots" but, say, Sidi and you can whistle.

Getting the balance right between the common stuff that everybody wants and something a bit different that will attract traffic away from the bigger chains is the challenge.

Last week in Fort William, now in Applecross!

FishFish

The best bike shop that I've come across had bikes and components for sale, workshop, gym and cafe bar. Three people and provided all sorts of services - fitting, sunday morning road runs, mtb club. In an industrial unit out of a small town which had another bike shop there.

Actually if this is a retreat from the corporate world and you do have the money then it may not matter if it does not work too well. But good luck anyway.

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

here in the Highlands

Where are you now, Ugo?

The only trouble "here in the Highlands" is that everybody sells the same stuff. If you want Shimano cycling shoes you can "fill yer boots" but, say, Sidi and you can whistle.

Getting the balance right between the common stuff that everybody wants and something a bit different that will attract traffic away from the bigger chains is the challenge.

Last week in Fort William, now in Applecross!

Ah great - there's so much great riding up here. I'm going to miss it after we've moved back south.

rolf_f

Here in Leeds, despite all the Yorkshire cycling boom stuff, we've lost the two Cross Trax shops and Bob Jacksons retail business. On the other hand, we've gained Evans and Cycle Surgery in the City Centre and others out at Ilkley and Harrogate but it's early days for the latter two. The new shops are all notably much bigger than the lost shops.

Personally, I would either work for someone else in a bike shop and accept a poverty stricken, low stress life or find an existing, vaguely profitable business to buy. Or I would just make sure I owned the property as the profitable part of most businesses these days seems to be simply down to who owns the building. The nature of the business is less relevatn

If I just wanted to serve customers in a shop, I would sell beads and make sure the online business was well thought out. Beads don't take up much space, probably have ludicrous profit margins, are unlikely to suffer much from returns. Bikes are just complicated!

markhewitt1978

The most important part is to be open! I see my LBS closed more than I see it open. Closed when I'm on my way to work, closed when I'm coming back, closed when I'm on my Sunday ride.

Having events and shop rides is also going to be critical, but it's something you can't do alone as what's the point of getting a gang of people turning up for a shop ride when the shop is closed! - As does seem to happen around here too.

In short, work all the hours got sends every day, get no time, off and no rest.