Originally Posted by
3alarmer
...we never got any pushback from the local bike shops here. We made a particular effort to inform them that we were not doing repairs for money, or selling new stuff.
All our repair efforts were targeted at helping teach people to do their own repairs, and none of the local shops sell used bikes any more, and haven't for a long time. So we were not competing with them in any area where they made money. In fact several of the local shops used to save takeoff stuff like tyres and pedals that people wanted upgraded on their new purchases, to donate to us.
My sense from the Manchester bike coop, which gets a lot of LBS support of the type you're talking about, is that the LBS think if the COOP is taking any business away from anyone, it's Walmart, so they're all for it.