Paul_Smith SRCC
www.plsmith.co.uk
- Location
- Surrey UK
The opposite; the Coronavirus Pandemic resulted in a huge increase in demand.
Early into lockdown 1.0 exercise was encouraged but with gyms closed and travelling far from home frowned upon; cycling from our front door on quieter roads was for many an attractive option. Keyworkers often preferred to use cycling as an alternative to public transport. Those suddenly working from home on 100% salary found themselves in comparison to their normal routine time rich, cash rich, a desire to live for the moment (but how), in need of some retail therapy and a desperation to actually leave the home/workplace and get outside; a shiny new bike ticks all those boxes in one go! All this and the sun came out! Initially stores were extremely busy, but bikes quickly sold out and especially for popular models supply has yet to recover.
Put into context the store that employs me will receive less than 10% of the forward orders before year end, bikes that were ordered back in the spring! I've sold quite a few bikes already due mid and even late summer 2021; I have never had supply issues this bad in my thirty four years in the cycle trade. To reference a similar thread comparing Domane to Emonda at the moment dealers are pretty much trading off their pre season deliveries and on the stock they actually have as opposed to using their store models to show case a range then offering the customer a choice of models and colours that are then ordered from the supplier. When these initial deliveries sell through and with such long lead times for the replacements it is looking like the next few months will be tough; children's bikes included, nearly all of them are due well after Christmas. This is where larger retail chains often score over a solitary LBD as their business model is to share stock across the stores and they buy in a larger variety of sizes and models and in greater depth; as a result they are doing very well at the moment. In comparison a quality LBD will not hold as much stock but compete by offering a superior and personal service, from initial advice with product choice, perhaps including a 'sizing' then 'collection fit' and more extensive after sales service for example, all helps them to justifiably survive and hopefully thrive, this business model is what I personally covet far more; but it's far less valid if they can't get stock of course.
Although the product choices have been far less that has actually helped sell what has been available of course and many stores had enough stock that most are actually reporting that takings have increased compared to the previous summer. Using Distorted Vision's example as a reference although the Madone and Emonda ranges are scarce, most Trek dealers would have pre ordered these before March and many of these were not received until late in the summer so expect to see some stock; perhaps not necessarily the customer's first choice but there is a good chance they can offer something viable. The Emonda is more popular than the Madone, so expect dealers to have bought more of these and at least initially availability would have been better; although now it's approaching mid November even these may now be getting scarce in stores.
It's the next few months with this stock running out and extremely long lead times for replacements that I know many are now anxious about what the short and mid term future holds; I know I definitely am, I've still to go back full time from lockdown 1.0 let alone 2.0!
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