Hypothetical new bike shop.... brands to stock?

[Roman]

neil_bolton said:

Look at mud dock: They make far more money in the cafe/restaurant upstairs than they do with the bike shop below...

The bike shop / cafe bar combination seems to be an increasingly popular model for driving footfall - especially if you can park your bike in view outside.

It would be quite easy to offer 'own branded' carbon items such as bottle cages, seatposts, forks and even frames sourced directly from manufacturers in China/Taiwan at competitive prices I'd imagine. I think I'd impossible to resist creating and offering my own brand personally!

Cube and Ghost both seem to offer excellent quality/value/brand/showroom appeal for road, mtb & hybrid lines currently though once a brand is adopted by a few discount on-line stores they obviously become subject to more discounting and price matching (e.g. Commencal).

As soon of any of the brands stocked by our family retail business (not cycling) are offered by large multiples they are dropped like a stone these days.

It will be interesting to see what Boardman can offer independent retailers.

£500 and £1,000 (C2W) seem to be the key price points for many buyers so I would want to concentrate my buying on providing some excellent offers at all disciplines at these levels.

[Engineer1]

I'd also say there may be a market for a £100ish pub/shopping bike, similar to the ones you hire abroad to ride canal tow paths. Basicly a good honest solid cheap working bike, the sort of thing that people on here asking for cheap bikes should buy, like the basic B'twin.

[anonymous-user]

i think it was a hypothetical question from the OP.... its a pretty cut and thrust inductry at the moment and between the massive multi chains like evans and the online giants like wiigle and CRC the market is sewn up...

as for mud dock, the cycle shop could make more money than the cafe/restaurant if the staff gave more than a rats ass whenever you walked in through the door... they have the worst attitude of all the cycle shops in bristol, they will never get any of my money if they maintain their "i am oh so superior to you because i work in a trendy cycle shop and i'm not even going to ask you if you need any help because you are clearly not worthy of that bike....." wkers.

[option click]

okgo said:

I'd love there be more places like sigma sport, but the more I think about it, they are in a fantastic place and I doubt it would work many other places!

Wait until you see their new shop next month!

[okgo]

option click said:

okgo said:

I'd love there be more places like sigma sport, but the more I think about it, they are in a fantastic place and I doubt it would work many other places!

Wait until you see their new shop next month!

Can't wait, I work just up the road and cycle past daily and can see the progress, think it opens in Novbember?

[option click]

Nov 12th IIRC.
They've got their work cut out to get it finished in under three weeks though, having walked through the site on Friday.

[Pupp]

Sigma is certainly a class act as far as road sport and tri is concerned... another more widely focused one would be All Terrain in Saltaire. Proof its not all grim oop north!