Tom's bike shop Blessington....

terrydel

Heard last week it is closing down. Anyone know if this is true? Not had a chance to get down there to find out yet. Would be a real shame, hes a really nice guy and great value for money on the servicing.

rollingscone

terrydel wrote: »

Heard last week it is closing down. Anyone know if this is true? Not had a chance to get down there to find out yet. Would be a real shame, hes a really nice guy and great value for money on the servicing.

Yep. He's still going to do maintenance though.

I think it was just the sales side that wasn't really giving enough of a return.

terrydel

rollingscone wrote: »

Yep. He's still going to do maintenance though.

I think it was just the sales side that wasn't really giving enough of a return.

Sorry to hear that. Will he still operate out of the shop? The sales side must be tough what with online dominating, and to my knowledge the margin on bikes isn't great, especially the 1k or so bikes that probably make up the bulk of sales what with bike to work. Especially now it's all thru a fecking agency/middle man

rollingscone

terrydel wrote: »

Sorry to hear that. Will he still operate out of the shop? The sales side must be tough what with online dominating, and to my knowledge the margin on bikes isn't great, especially the 1k or so bikes that probably make up the bulk of sales what with bike to work. Especially now it's all thru a fecking agency/middle man

I think he's going to work from a lower cost site.


He's doing alright for himself I think. Just the shopfront wasn't worth it.

terrydel

rollingscone wrote: »

I think he's going to work from a power cost site.


He's doing alright for himself I think. Just the shopfront wasn't worth it.

What's a power cost site?

magicbastarder

lower cost i guess.

rollingscone

terrydel wrote: »

What's a power cost site?

Yep. My phone keeps autocorrecting words just as I'm posting

velo.2010

Had a chat with a bike shop owner recently (outside Dublin). He said he was just managing with the few sales and the repairs.

Apparently the game has changed recently with shop owners expected to front up even more money to the manufacturers/distributors. Essentially, they have to buy up tens of thousand euro's worth of certain branded bikes in advance. It used to be easier for smaller shops to acquire a smaller order of bikes.

I think that would explain the Centro situation and their closure after the loss of the Trek business.

Are there certain brands pushing that ? I certainly wouldn't want to be supporting ones that are and tyre kicking has begun for a new bike for my partner.

Weepsie

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Are there certain brands pushing that ? I certainly wouldn't want to be supporting ones that are and tyre kicking has begun for a new bike for my partner.

I know of one independent place who lost their supply from a rather large bike company as they only realised after 5 years dealing with them they were a mobile business but registered at their home address.

They sold plenty of the bikes, and the distributor here had no problem with the situation but someone further up didn't like it so they lost their supplier at short notice

terrydel

magicbastarder wrote: »

lower cost i guess.

D'oh, should have guessed that.

terrydel

Deleted User wrote: »

Are there certain brands pushing that ? I certainly wouldn't want to be supporting ones that are and tyre kicking has begun for a new bike for my partner.

Totally agree, big business across all walks of life is just killing small busines.
Not to get into a politcal or economic debate, but the whole neoliberal, capitalist world is shocking cold, ruthless and cruel, and generally not condusive to a happy society in my humble opinion.

velo.2010

terrydel wrote: »

Totally agree, big business across all walks of life is just killing small busines.
Not to get into a politcal or economic debate, but the whole neoliberal, capitalist world is shocking cold, ruthless and cruel, and generally not condusive to a happy society in my humble opinion.