Originally Posted by
Garfield Cat
I would like to see how the other stores are doing. I mean the stores that carry bikes as well as other outdoor things. I call to mind REI and Dick's. Are these types doing lower bike sales volume?
Then there's the online shopping. Bikes are different than accessories, parts, and clothing. Bikes are more or less a durable good. Maybe consumers are holding off on new bikes.
Are bike manufacturers now offering online purchases? This will take away the local bike shop business.
They more or less are not, on the low end. Poorly built wheels, bikes poorly or improperly assembled bikes by dept store workers who don't know what they are doing, and so on. The are particularly not durable when left out in the elements and not maintained, which is most all bicycles everywhere.
Issue being there's no shortage of cheap nondurable crap deliverable right to your front door. One of my coworkers, is on his 5th or 6th crappy GMC bike he got of Amazon--in 5 or 6 years. It is cheaper to keep buying them and throw them away when the bearings blow and the wheels self-taco than it is to take it somewhere to have it fixed or maintained....tried telling him not to, lots, keeps doing it.