MKahrl

Performance Bicycle Bankruptcy

Any thoughts on a major bike retailer hitting the skids?

I enjoyed their well done catalogs. I liked Nashbar's (also owned by Performance and also in the bankruptcy) slightly wider approach to different types of cycling and their funky product descriptions.

RobbieTunes

My first thought, is that just sucks. I know people who work at their HQ in Chapel Hill, NC, and the people who work at Performance, like any other business, will be out of work.

My second thought, is that for many people, Performance is their LBS, and now they've got to go into the great unknown, again.

My third thought is to head for the clearance tables, and shop on line. That's kind of a selfish thing to think, though, and I'm sort of glad I'm about done building bikes. I had a back-ordered RD from Performance come to me straight from Shimano, and yes, the price was really good.

I hope they rebound, at least on line, and I also hope their situation doesn't hurt other bike shops, who are close enough to the margin. I know the guy in the article from All-Star bike shop, and it's a very tough road these days. They are really experts in those shops, but prices are high, and have to be, for space rent and to make a living.

E-bikes are the future in many areas, slow getting off the ground, and likely will have a good chunk of the business via on-line retailers. Shipping is getting so sophisticated, the brick/mortar shops are in the grit.

2cam16

There's a discussion right here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...pter-11-a.html

Chombi1 

Dang!, That's really bad news!
PBS was my go to seller when I started cycling seriously back in college in the 80's. Still remember doing those mail orders to their place in Chapel Hill, NC and anxiously waiting for a couple of week for the goodies for my bike to come in the mail.
I still have stuff from them I bought way back then in my stash.
Didn't really like the way they turned into a "big box" bicycle store after that, with mostly non-bike savvy staff that were just seasonally hired just to sell their newest store brand components and bikes. But then PBS is still very useful for the basics and their end of season sales do provide great bargains for some items (Got a number of Look Keo pedals from them in the last few years for the cheapest price I can find).

Reynolds 531 

I really like PBS, and without fail, have always found one knowledgeable enthusiastic sales associate in every store. The last one was a young lady who knowledgeably helped me pick out the best "long pants" for winter cycling in the best size. This was tricky because they did not have the exact item in stock, but she knew which short pants were the same, and the sizing. I ordered them and they showed up in the mail a week later, and are the best long pants I have ever had.

Also, their Forte stainless bottle cages are perfect for "L Eroica" (which means "old man" in French) because they don't stain our valuable bidons we paid $45 for on ebay.

And further, the "Sette" brand "P allem" wrenches are far superior to the cheezy plastic Park tools.

malcala622

Never really shopped or had service done at PB. Service prices were way too damn high. ($8 just to adjust my saddle height?)

I usually went there to price match item from JensonUSA and bought them at PB.

It's tough to hear their filing for bankruptcy but I am looking forward to the sales.

Fahrenheit531 

I'm pretty "meh" on this one. They're like the Guitar Center of bike shops. And according to the article roughly half the stores will still be around; that's more than plenty.

Chombi1 

Yes, but it is usually just a matter of time till the company folds up and be gone for good. The owners of the company are just trying to slow the bleeding till they can let go of their losing enterprise for other more profitable parts of their business....

Vintage_Cyclist

We're in a time, when online retailers are sucking the oxygen out of the room for local bike shops. Maybe PB should have reconsidered the idea of opening local bike shops, when their own online operation was already undermining such businesses.

dddd

Well I hope that doesn't turn out to be the case, might be that their store locations peaked with the market and now needs re-sizing, with the less-profitable stores being phased out. How they respond to the changing market going forward should be key.
Performance has likely pushed a good number of brick/mortar mom/pop stores past the brink, and now it's their turn to have to adjust their ambitions.
But it is interesting that mail-order based shops such as Performance, who might be presumed to be advantaged in today's online-shopping world, are themselves going under, just like so many LBS stores.
So I guess that site-to-store delivery isn't much help to their retail outlets.

sdn40

It's becoming a Dollar Store, Harbor Freight, Amazon type world. It's a tough road out there for any high end, boutique store of any kind I would guess. Adapt or die.

crank_addict

A few months back I watched a local Giant retailer shutter its doors, territory left open, but the 'giant' company approved a nearby indy to take the line.

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Performance

As for parent ASI, I'm wondering if they should've cross offered all their other lines at Performance stores. Kestrel, Fuji, Breezer, parts lines.

As an outsider observation, the US bicycle market looks stagnant. E-bikes is one segment that's taken off well in Europe and Asia but not yet in the US.

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There's little margins in bike retail. Profits are mostly in service and a store needs lots of repair orders to stay in the game.

The thing with Performance stores is they appeared mostly as a retailer, not as a place to go and have ones bike serviced, even simple 'mom takes the kids bike to get a new tire or pedal fixed'. A good indy LBS can grab fast profits from lots of those kind of repair orders. Not dwindle overhead and flooring of a $1k bike.

Chombi1 

We are continuing to lose shopping options for a lot of things. Everything seems to be continually consolidating from companies buying out their competition. Take OSH hardware for example. They will be all gone by the end of this year.because Lowe's who bought them a few years ago, decided that they cannot keep them profitable anymore. A big loss for me because they were much better stocked with things like metric fasteners than Home Depot. Their staff also gave more helpful service than a lot of hardware stores. Same thing happened to car parts stores in the past years.

Dave Cutter

All retail are sales moving targets... of a customer base. Performance got big during bicycle popularity. Now with the fall in cycling as a popular sport.... sales are in a slump. Retail ain't for sissy's.

mstateglfr 

It's unfortunate from a selection perspective as nashbar used to carry(even in the last few years) multiple steel franes for road, cx, touring, and mtb. Their fully built touring bike last year was a screaming deal.

the last year has been a game of 'what happened to?' Where I can't find something nashbar used to carry.

it was never an impressive site for drivetrain components, but things like bar tape, wheelsets, frames, jerseys, etc were all removed either for long periods of time or permanently.

koolerb

I've been buying more from Jenson this year but I still like Nashbar. Have been buying from Nashbar forever. I hope they're able to adapt and survive.

crank_addict

Agree. Fair game.

The example of Nashbar being bought up by another longtime catalog mail order company is obviously strategic, and then as the nature of greed of growth is about -physically- swallowing LBS territory, I really don't care what happens to Performance.

Being we're all C&V enthusiast, we want to cling to our store that caters to us. I found it interesting in Greensboro NC in that likely the largest supporter of our hobby, an indy shop, has survived decades of the market, yet four other local shops have budged in making it very crowded to survive.

I'll absolutely give credit to those indy's trying to get some of the market, believer in capitalism and competition play but not to the piggish. For Performance to push over in that territory and build on a main street, nearly around the corner really is piggish. Meh, if they roll over.

Its challenging enough for the local shops, they get called out by manufactures for chopping and advertising online pricing. Yet Performance can and does, it owns recognized labels. Right now they advertise a 2018 road Fuji full carbon disc w/ 105 (don't know what makes woman specific bike, regardless) for $1200. The reaction from my LBS is not good when they see examples like this.

nlerner

I find it difficult to lament the passing of big box stores, which, of course, put local stores out of business. Yeah, karma and all that.

52telecaster

Visited my first performance bike store a couple of weeks ago in Cincinnati. The young woman was very helpful and i bought some pedros levers and a pair of socks. I feel bad for the clerks.

repechage

Unfortunately I do not expect many of the 40 stores to be dispatched staying open.
Even if they have terrible lease terms now, reducing the rent would say make the business profitable to a point, but not for a corporation.
Not knowing the cash flow, if they anticipated going under in January, then they did not prep for a strong Christmas nor expect one.
That is probably reasonable planning.
I missed the buying opportunity when Sports Authority went under, I wanted a few key bigger shop tools, work stands, truing stand..
Maybe this will be my opportunity.
I wonder if they will post the Liquidation signage prior to Christmas?

Locally, Performance bought a number of larger bike shops and small chains in Southern California over the last 12 years, I wondered if there was enough economy of scale to make that work, better buying power I would assume but bigger back end overhead too.
Couple that with the market not being strong for sure since 2015 as noted by all the prior model year bikes on sale.. . and there one has it.

There will be a vacuum. Now, will there be a profitable business model to fill it?

jjhabbs 

Just a friendly Note...If you enjoy your LBS. Buy your stuff there. Its easy to go online and find what we need probably at a lower price. I know for C&Vers we need to buy our vintage stuff elsewhere. However, Tubes, rimstrips, spokes HBar tape etc.. can all be purchased from our LBS. I know that over the course of a year you will be spending more, However, its worth it in my opinion.

Just a thought

Thanks

JJ

scozim 

I tend to agree - I buy some stuff online but I still frequent the LBS and support him. He's owned the shop since 1982 and, while his prices are usually higher than online, I fell it's a fair trade off. He knows I'm not going to buy a new bike from him but he calls when he finds vintage stuff I may be interested and is fair.

That said, I have shopped from Performance and Nasbar since the 80's also. I buy most of my riding shorts, jersey's, shoes, helmets, gloves, jackets from them. Sometimes I'll buy cables, bar tape and housing but I can also get those from the LBS.

merziac

This sucks imho, my PB has a more LBS vibe than most LBS for me and is the closest to me.

They have always been an excellent resource, great service, excellent prices, all in, DAMNIT JIM!

verktyg 

All of the Performance Bike stores that I've seen here on the left coast were large operations usually located in shopping centers.

Overhead can kill you. The rent on those retail spaces can be prohibitively high so no sympathy there.

Many of those PBS had more in medium-high end inventory than LBS's sold in a year.

Live by the sword...

verktyg

merziac

I agree with your basic sentiment, but we would do well to remember that even the big box's are staffed and ran by local friends, industry stalwarts, mechanic's, some C+V folks and many others that may or may not be able to ply our/their craft. At the end of the day, the more brick and mortar stores with boots on the ground, the better when you need a hands on, face to face consult of any kind.