We should perhaps make a distinction between 'LBS' and 'IBS'.
Taking the market as a whole, the increase in commerce generated by the rise in cycling over recent years has been entirely absorbed by the rise of etailing.
US independents were up in arms last year (or was it the year before) when
Chain Reaction moved in to the US market selling parts and accessories for less than they could buy it for wholesale.
To what extent we should spend extra on a thing to help secure the future of our high streets I do not know. But I do know that we'll lose our independent bike shops if we don't use them. I don't buy off of the interwebs and I don't haggle as a matter of principle. But I will return to the bike shop which offers me the best all round package of expertise, range, stock availability, and good manners.
I was kind of waiting for Mickle to enter this, because a) he understands the way the bike market works better than I do, and b) his take on it is steeped in a tradition of service, whereas I, sticking up for bike shops because I see the effort that my brother puts in to preparing bikes for sale at his shop, see bikes shops as a body of wisdom that cyclists discharge at their peril.
So here's the obvious
- you buy a bike off the internet and you get what you deserve. If the wheel isn't tuned, it's your fault, nobody else's. If you buy a bike without the promise of a free service then you're out of your tiny tree......
- you buy shoes off the internet and (well, you can work it out for yourself). Except, that is, if you go in to a shop, try them on and then buy them off the internet you are a person with no destination in life other than my ignore list
- some people have access to good bike shops and some people don't, but the effort involved in finding a good bike shop can be repaid many times over. Regular customers get the deals, regular customers go to the top of the queue when it comes to repairs, regular customers are offered unstinting and unbiased advice
Bike shops can come across as curmudgeonly, and sometimes that's because the people that run them lack social skills. At other times it's because the 'customer' doesn't think it through. You buy a bike on-line, or from
Halfords, it goes floppy and you take it to the LBS. If the proprietor has any sense (and most don't) he or she will either tell you to sling your hook or get out the big meter and charge you a small fortune. Why would they take on the responsibility for something that wasn't up to scratch in the first place other than for big money? That many do take in 'foreign' bikes and do their best for a pittance is absolutely infuriating, and I'm willing to bet Mickle is just the same as my brother in this respect.
