Strange sales technique.

From a distributor site I found a dealer listed in the next town, about 25 miles away. I went there Friday, and discovered it is a mower/hardware store, with about five bicycles on the sales floor.

The lady asked me how could she help me, I told her the distributor site said she was a dealer in this brand of bicycles, and I was looking for a particular long wheel base recumbent model, and told her what it was.

The lady said she'd have to check her catalog, because they have to order bikes. She then opened it up, thumbed a few pages, looked at me and said sweetly "Good God, why would anyone want to pay this much for a bicycle!"

I briefly explained that there are much more expensive bikes available, and then went on my way.

I'll get it from the LBS where I got my others, even though it is about 50 miles farther away.

Strange technique.

Thus a lot of them use Catalogs to sell their high-end bicycles. People need to have someone who can assemble them and once trained most bikes can be assembled using the same tools as cheap bikes.

Now, distribution factors are a big factor, for example I grew up in the City of Pittsburgh and the general rule in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh is the County Seat) is no one crosses a river unless you absolutely have to. For example, when I visit family in Pittsburgh, we go shopping at South Hills Village or Robinson Township (Both south of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers) then go to the nearer Ross Park Mall, for that means crossing both the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. The Natives do NOT cross rivers (people who moved to Pittsburgh do, but not that many natives). Now an exception was made for Downtown Pittsburgh, but as people stop shopping downtown (Starting in the 1950s) the tendency NOT to cross a river became even clearer.

My point is simple; if you want to cover Allegheny County you need at least three stores, one north of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, one south of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, and one for that part of Allegheny Count between the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. One store for the county is NOT enough; no matter where you put it up to 2/3 of the county will NEVER go to the store (or at best once, and then never again no matter HOW good the store is). Similar "Rules" as to distribution show up in other parts of the Country AND people who sell things (including bicycles) MUST address that issue. As to bicycles, the profit margins are quite low (to easy a market to enter from a manufacturing point of view) which means any distribution of said bicycle must be as widespread as possible with minimal cost to the person doing the actual selling. The low sale price means that stores are reluctant to stock anything they will not sell in the next three to six months. These two unpleasant facts feed on each other. No one wants to handle high-end bicycles, so no one stocks them, for no one will buy them, for no one is stocking them.

Thus the local store is handling high-end bicycle the most economical way it can, on an on order basis. Given the low volume they can NOT afford to keep even one in stock, thus they do NOT know what they can sell. They look at the catalog only when someone asks to order, and then order. With that order that may be the first time some of the clerks even learn that such bicycle exists. The person who assembles the bicycle is often NOT working (Generally you only have one person trained, and he tends to be the owner of the Business) when a bike is ordered, being only needed when the Bike Arrives and needs to be assembled.

Now, the above may sound like I dislike such bicycle retailers, but often they are the ONLY way to order a bicycle locally (And many manufacturers want someone who has taken some classes in assembling bicycles to assemble any bikes shipped out, thus no orders are permitted on line only through some sort of dealer).

Now, your local dealer may just have the dealer you went to assemble the bike and pick it up from that person fully assembled (And have any repairs done by the same shop). That means some additional costs, but these can be off set by reduction in cost do to repeat business (i.e. the local store may just ship the bikes to the other store for any real repair but on a common truck with other bikes or other items that is sent to the same area the other store is in). This is quite common in Rural Areas (Save money by shipping a lot of items on one truck, as opposed to one bike in one car). Furthermore most shops will give additional discounts to other shops so to get repeat business (i.e. charge you $50 for a repair, but the local store only $20, don't laugh, I have seen such huge discounts in other items, mostly do to the fact the store doing the actual repair does NOT have to deal with the actual owner of the item being repaired).

Side note: I do NOT know the inner working of the Bicycle trade itself, but the above reflects what I have seen in other businesses. Once someone knows you are NOT a problem child, they do NOT charge you as much (repeat business and acceptance of what can be done has a lot to do with attitude) simply because they know you will NOT cost them additional costs related to the transaction (i.e. additional work so it meets whatever is the expectation of the customer). I would be tempted to try the local dealer out, to see what prices and services they can provide. If you dislike the level of Service you can always make the 50 mile trip to get the work done right, but sometimes you need to get a local dealer to understand that such high end items exists and they can order them (and that they is a demand for such items). We have to remember Education does NOT end with School, sometimes we have to educate people as to what they can sell, thus I would have been tempted to order a bike from them provided I felt comfortable with the overall condition of the dealer. That is something that is up to the actual buyer, but at times that is the best way to get such dealers to understand what they can sell. I joked about the Western Pennsylvania area, the best bicycle shop in Western Pennsylvania was City Cycle in Johnstown PA.

I have been to most of the Bicycle Shops in Western PA (Including those North, South and between the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers). When I first moved to Johnstown in the early 1990s City Cycle was heads above any other shop in Western Pennsylvania. Today, with the most people buying things off the net (and a change in ownership, the son-in-law of the original owner is running City Cycle today) it is NOT what it was in the early 1990s . The Net forced City-Cycle to cut back on a lot of items City Cyle use to keep in stock, for example the number of bags, racks, parts etc have all been reduced from what City Cycle carried in the Early 1990s. The Net permitted a lot of people to buy these items, when prior to the mid 1990s they had to go to a bike shop to get such items, city cycle had and has the largest stock of such items for sale in Western Pennsylvania, but the demand for such items from a bike store is NOT what it was in the early 1990s.

Now Performance bicycle opened a shop in East Liberty Section of Pittsburgh last weekend, and for the first time I ran across a shop that had more bicycles and accessories then City Cycle (I would guess about twice as much). Thus City Cycle has lost its place as the best bike store in Western Pennsylvania. While it is no longer the best bike store in Western Pennsylvania, the differences between the two is NOT worth the trip to Pittsburgh.

The store where I bought my two recumbents is similar. He sells a lot of DF bicycles to college students, but he only sells recumbents from a catalog, so the need to look at the catalog was not a surprise. He does the assembly, tune-ups, etc. He and his family all ride on weekends.

What was a surprise was "Good God, why would anyone want to pay this much for a bicycle!"

"Good God, why would anyone want to pay this much for a bicycle!" is from someone who does NOT understand that there is a huge difference between the bicycle they rode as a pre-teen (Generally older High-Carbon Steel bikes, which many teens stop riding as soon as they obtain their driver's license) and bikes made from newer materials (including Chrome-Molybdenum, the miracle bike material of the 1930s, which was NOT used in the vast majority of bikes even as Aluminum became the material of favor starting in the 1980s).

My point is, to a degree, we need to educate such people and the only way is to get them involved in the purchasing of such bicycles. When it comes in, everyone in the store will look at it and probably try it out (Carefully so NOT to do any damage). That is the education such clerks need, that such bicycle exist and why.

It's been under the same ownership for so long that it's almost like a second family.

I just bought my "retirement bike" (Trek Madone 5.2 in Onyx) there a few weeks ago. I have a feeling that they didn't make very much on the sale, but it still cost a lot more than my wife can fathom for a bike.

As they say, they'll get me on replacement parts at some point anyway.
They always treat me well there so even though we have divergent political and religious beliefs, I'll continue to support them.

I always wanted to visit City Cycle but I never got around to it. The closest that I came to stopping there was the time that we started a ride from the convenience store and rode to Rte.160 and followed the Tour de Toona J-Town to Altoona route. Cambria and Somerset Counties call for good gearing and a slow steady pace so that you still have something in the tank to ascend Blue Knob after 75 miles. Now I know!

I'm hoping to check out the new Performance store the next time that I get to Pittsburgh for a Dr's. appointment. I usually go through Wilkinsburg and Shadyside anyway, so since I'm that close anyway.....
I don't think that my wife will let me if she's with me though.