review of the history of the bicycle retail industry in the U.S.A. for the past 40 years

Let's start a brief, but probably passionate review of the history of the bicycle retail industry in the U.S.A. for the past 40 years.

We can review the changes in the country of manufacture of the bicycles sold to the general public over those years, where those bicycles are assembled, and the purchasing patterns of the general public over those years.

I can see a glimpse of that history from reading about what happened to Mr. Muzi's stores, as documented on his www.yellowjersey.org website.

I am asking this on this forum since I am not personally familiar with "what happened" in this industry over those years, but I get a sense that other frequent posters on this forum are very familiar with that history.

--
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On 5/31/2014 5:18 PM, Michael Hui wrote:

Let's start a brief, but probably passionate review of the history of the bicycle retail industry in the U.S.A. for the past 40 years.

We can review the changes in the country of manufacture of the bicycles sold to the general public over those years, where those bicycles are assembled, and the purchasing patterns of the general public over those years.

I can see a glimpse of that history from reading about what happened to Mr. Muzi's stores, as documented on his www.yellowjersey.org website.

I am asking this on this forum since I am not personally familiar with "what happened" in this industry over those years, but I get a sense that other frequent posters on this forum are very familiar with that history.


Everything changed, as in all cultures, in every segment
over 40 years.

For one thing, with several brands of bicycle, each with a
basic sport bike (fungibly identical spec, similar prices)in
three sizes and one or two colors a small shop could sell
20~30 bikes in a typical in-season day.

Successful business models now are very different!

Our business is well and we probably should have made the
change years ago when first considered.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Sun, 01 Jun 2014 12:13:38 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 5/31/2014 5:18 PM, Michael Hui wrote:

Let's start a brief, but probably passionate review of the history of the bicycle retail industry in the U.S.A. for the past 40 years.

We can review the changes in the country of manufacture of the bicycles sold to the general public over those years, where those bicycles are assembled, and the purchasing patterns of the general public over those years.

I can see a glimpse of that history from reading about what happened to Mr. Muzi's stores, as documented on his www.yellowjersey.org website.

I am asking this on this forum since I am not personally familiar with "what happened" in this industry over those years, but I get a sense that other frequent posters on this forum are very familiar with that history.


Everything changed, as in all cultures, in every segment
over 40 years.

For one thing, with several brands of bicycle, each with a
basic sport bike (fungibly identical spec, similar prices)in
three sizes and one or two colors a small shop could sell
20~30 bikes in a typical in-season day.

Successful business models now are very different!

Our business is well and we probably should have made the
change years ago when first considered.

Do you still sell much to the walk-in customer or are you primarily a
"mail order " company now?

--
Cheers,

John B.
(invalid to gmail)

On 6/1/2014 9:15 PM, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 01 Jun 2014 12:13:38 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 5/31/2014 5:18 PM, Michael Hui wrote:

Let's start a brief, but probably passionate review of the history of the bicycle retail industry in the U.S.A. for the past 40 years.

We can review the changes in the country of manufacture of the bicycles sold to the general public over those years, where those bicycles are assembled, and the purchasing patterns of the general public over those years.

I can see a glimpse of that history from reading about what happened to Mr. Muzi's stores, as documented on his www.yellowjersey.org website.

I am asking this on this forum since I am not personally familiar with "what happened" in this industry over those years, but I get a sense that other frequent posters on this forum are very familiar with that history.


Everything changed, as in all cultures, in every segment
over 40 years.

For one thing, with several brands of bicycle, each with a
basic sport bike (fungibly identical spec, similar prices)in
three sizes and one or two colors a small shop could sell
20~30 bikes in a typical in-season day.

Successful business models now are very different!

Our business is well and we probably should have made the
change years ago when first considered.

Do you still sell much to the walk-in customer or are you primarily a
"mail order " company now?



About half and half. Our regular regional customers span a
couple hundred miles and comment that we're more convenient
without the pretzel city streets. Streets which are
regularly closed for something or other when not an open pit
of endless rework. My overhead plummeted and we have equity
(both good things!). Renting sucks generally and in my case
greatly.

OTOH there are a small core of people who are out riding to
work every morning ( in the dark half our year) who knew one
door was always open for flats and such. I miss them even
more than I knew.

The distractions of being the evil business owner who pays
the taxes and must therefore be punished proved too much for
this guy.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Mon, 02 Jun 2014 07:37:00 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 6/1/2014 9:15 PM, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 01 Jun 2014 12:13:38 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 5/31/2014 5:18 PM, Michael Hui wrote:

Let's start a brief, but probably passionate review of the history of the bicycle retail industry in the U.S.A. for the past 40 years.

We can review the changes in the country of manufacture of the bicycles sold to the general public over those years, where those bicycles are assembled, and the purchasing patterns of the general public over those years.

I can see a glimpse of that history from reading about what happened to Mr. Muzi's stores, as documented on his www.yellowjersey.org website.

I am asking this on this forum since I am not personally familiar with "what happened" in this industry over those years, but I get a sense that other frequent posters on this forum are very familiar with that history.


Everything changed, as in all cultures, in every segment
over 40 years.

For one thing, with several brands of bicycle, each with a
basic sport bike (fungibly identical spec, similar prices)in
three sizes and one or two colors a small shop could sell
20~30 bikes in a typical in-season day.

Successful business models now are very different!

Our business is well and we probably should have made the
change years ago when first considered.

Do you still sell much to the walk-in customer or are you primarily a
"mail order " company now?



About half and half. Our regular regional customers span a
couple hundred miles and comment that we're more convenient
without the pretzel city streets. Streets which are
regularly closed for something or other when not an open pit
of endless rework. My overhead plummeted and we have equity
(both good things!). Renting sucks generally and in my case
greatly.

OTOH there are a small core of people who are out riding to
work every morning ( in the dark half our year) who knew one
door was always open for flats and such. I miss them even
more than I knew.

The distractions of being the evil business owner who pays
the taxes and must therefore be punished proved too much for
this guy.

You seem to be proof of my assertion that the U.S., with it's
multitude of regulations, policies and taxes, is driving the small
businessman out of business.

I remember years ago I lived in a trailer in Bangor, Maine, and
occasionally it got cold enough for kerosene to stop flowing in the
line from the tank to the heater so I decided to install a heat tape
to keep it warm. I had a heat tape from another project but it was a
bit short so I went down to a little family owned hardware store to
see what I could get. The Old Man was there and asked me what I wanted
and I, expressing embarrassment, told him I needed a 3 foot heat tape.
He said, "If you can wait until tomorrow I'll have one sent up on the
bus from Boston".

I can't imagine Amazon doing that.
--
Cheers,

John B.
(invalid to gmail)