themp

It is not completely over for them:

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/bu...nk=latest_side

skidder

It'll be interesting to see if they keep any stores open or just go to a pure web-based business model. The closest I can think of is Jensen USA here in California. They have only one brick-&-mortar store in Southern California that (from what I know) is used to satisfy bike company requirements for having a physical store to supply maintenance and repair, but the majority of Jensen's sales (something like 80%) are from web purchases. Head Sports might be able to get away with no stores if they actually own the bike brands they sell (Kestral, Breezer, SE, Fuji) so they can just do web sales.

Flip Flop Rider

maybe they can be like bass pro shop, some mega stores spread out and huge online business

2wheeldeal

I never saw a need for a national chain of bike shops to go with a mail-order bike business. And I remember when they got hacked a few years ago, and didn't realize it for six months.

musicmaster

IMHO, national chains (or at least regional chains) are going to be the future. They can leverage lower operating costs (by combining budgets and consolidating positions) and have a larger buying power for further discounts on stock. In theory, this leads to higher margins.

The two big things that Performance provided that other LBS's couldn't are:

1 - Competitive pricing. The Fuji bikes, especially with the semi-frequent 20% off sales were a lot better than what other LBS's were offering. If you were lucky and could stack a clearance price with one of those discounts, you could get some killer deals. I picked up a 2016 Fuji Tiagra Disc for $440 or so last fall. Yes, I was lucky with that purchase, however those deals did exist.

2 - Array of parts and tools. Most of the LBS's I've been to don't sell many tools for the DIY'er and only stock a handful of parts (cables, chains, pads, etc). Add in their "Spin Doctor" brand items, and I'd frequently pop-in for random tools and parts I needed at fair pricing.

Maelochs

Big shops do have the benefits you mention, but also drawbacks, the chief being that sales volume has to be really high. Real estate in populous areas tends to get more and more expensive, and it takes a lot of sales to pay for a big store. A lot of regions simply don't have enough cyclists, and online competition is a killer. On top of that, it's seasonal. Worse still, bikes don't make good Christmas resents, by and large, from the buyer's perspective.

As for tools and such ... tools in particular are better bought online. Pay less for the tool, a little more for shipping, and get the tool in a couple days and never leave home. And still save money over the store price. And even so ... no bike shop can stock all the tools one might need. Shelf space is always an issue, and a retail store cannot buy five of everything, knowing it might sell one a year. The cash and the shelf space need to be spent on more profitable items. So .. I drive to a bike shop, burning gas and time, and find out they have 10,000 tools but not the one I need. I drive to two more shops, my entire day is spent. No riding, no repairing, just sitting in traffic.

So ... I sit in my comfy chair, open my browser, do a Google search, and find three on sale at varying prices with various shipping terms. i make my choice, pay with PayPal, and go out to ride one of my other bikes. three days later, the tool is at my doorstep. if it isn't as advertised, i am completely covered. If it is, I have spent time riding my bike instead of driving my car, spent zero on gas, and still bought the tool for less than a bike shop would have sold it.

Clothes ... some people like to try stuff on, but AI never have. Most sizing charts are close enough that I have only ever returned two items (as far as I can recall) for not fitting.

Shoes and helmets are the hardest things to buy online, and I have managed because I know i have a "Bell" head, and got lucky with shoes. Shoes though ... I'd prefer to try on first. But a bike store cannot survive selling just shoes.

Big bike stores in large urban areas (in my limited experience) survive by volume bike sales ... some sales of high-end bikes to enthusiasts (who join the shop's bike club and go on the group rides, etc.), more to people getting a first bike or a first real bike, and a lot to people buying fat-tie cruisers and such. Also, such shops carry full lines of road, MTB, and casual bikes and a few models in between ... .but still depend on two types of customer---the ones who don't know much and wouldn't think of shopping online, and the ones who know a lot and buy upscale bikes to show off at group rides (and to ride---not inferring these are poseurs ... but I have seen that the best advertising is for people from the shop to shop up at group rides with awesome new bikes ... a month latter two or three people have the same model.)

I am not sure How bike chain shops are going to manage in the future. Big shops might be the norm in big cities ... but in smaller towns, who knows?

Hondo Gravel

stasher1

I'll miss the service I get from my local Performance, but they've always been a huge step down from Supergo when it comes to good deals on quality parts.

Ah, the good old days...

tdonline

Because ASE declared bankruptcy and not just Performance, does that mean the bike brands listed are in trouble/going away? Last I checked Breezer's site, it seemed like nothing was of the ordinary. I've been meaning to go to my Performance store but things keep coming up every weekend. It's probably been picked clean by now.

livedarklions

The brands are part of the assets that may or may not have been purchased by Head in the bankruptcy auction. Whether the buyer will spin them off and resell them remains to be seen.

The judge has declared the outcome of the auction as a "godawful mess", so it's still anyone's guess what is going to survive and who will own those parts that do.

gvelayo

What will happen to the warranty of the Fuji Gran Fondo I bought from Performance Bikes a year ago?

mstateglfr 

call them?

mstateglfr 

ASE, the parent corp for ASI, Performance, and Nashbar, was basically the most vertically integrated company in the cycling business. They owned design, manufacturing(by partly owning/being owned by a manufacturing plant), and distribution/sales. Even they couldnt keep it together.
Now they couldnt keep it together in part because of the debt they took on when ASE was created due to being effectively forced to absorb Performance and Nashbar a handful of years ago, but in the end even the most vertically integrated company couldnt make it. National chains arent even that integrated.

musicmaster

My understanding is the real estate/lease pricing plus over-expanding for the stores is what caused the bankruptcy. The one by me had 6-7 other bike shops within 6 miles or so of it.

mstateglfr 

sure- that's one way it's been explained.

ASI bought Performance a couple years ago because Performance was so heavily in debt that it would likely fail, so ASK bought it And absorbed their own loss, basically. That meant the setup was starting out in the hole and it was never able to recover.
high physical location costs being one of the reasons they had to do the buyout and were in the Red from the start.

Any big shop in a desirable retail location will have high occupancy cost. So the large brand stores suggestion I was responding to would have to account and plan for that high cost.

livedarklions

ASI was also one of Performance's biggest creditors, and would have been taken down if Performance had failed at the time of the buyout.

mstateglfr 

yes this.
it's much better worded than how i phrased it in the first paragraph.

NJgreyhead

Here's more info about Advanced Sports from today's Phila Inquirer, written by staffer Joseph N DiStefano (probably available at Philly.Com):
Head Group has been outbid by BikeCo, which "includes New York retail-salvage firm, Tiger Capital Group (which liquidated Circuit City and Toys R Us) and Advanced Holdings, a Hong Kong sporting goods investor which was among Advanced Sports creditors in bankruptcy."
"Besides the distribution business, Tiger and Advanced Holdings bought Advanced Sports' China-made Breezer, Fuji, Kestrel and SE bike brands."
As mentioned above, AMain.com paid $1 million for the Performance retail and Nashbar parts brand.

jefnvk

The two remaining by me closed as of last weekend, I can't see them coming back.