[TheThinkTank] Random Thought: Creating a bicycle parts/tools distributor for Community Bike Shops.

[Rich Points]

I vote for this!  Thanks for writing what I've been thinking Sasha.

Rich
Community Cycles

dragonfly at mac.hush.com wrote:
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>        Hello, Everyone.
>
>         Stuart, I really like your idea about approaching QBP.
>
>         My new seed catalogues have lovely icons telling me which
> seeds are heirloom varieties, which are organic, etc. They even
> have a pretty little snowflake to help people up in Northern
> Ontario pick seeds that can tolerate their conditions. It would be
> great if QBP's catalogue had icons for union/ fairtrade/ local/
> etc.
>
>          Asking existing suppliers/distributers if they could offer
> discounts makes more sense to me than creating an inefficient
> version of their infrastructure.
>
>          While there are many super well organized people who work
> or play at Community Bike Shops, the idea of a warehouse and
> distrubition network run by the likes of us seems like a bad idea.
> Have you ever been at a meeting where people spend almost an hour
> discussing the way we should spell women/wimmin/wymyn?
>
>         Our shops perform magical feats of bicycle relclamation and
> we contribute to improving neighbourhoods and to helping people
> feel competant and connected. Sometimes I feel as if my local CBS
> is saving the world one spiffed up junker at a time. I love us. But
> somehow I don't see us running a continental just-in-time delivery
> system for bike parts.
>
>         Working together online to craft a proposal to pitch to QBP
> and any other suppliers or distributers seems doable. So does
> creating national or international (or perhaps just several
> regional) organization(s) of community bike shops for the purposes
> of getting good deals from suppliers, etc.
>
>          Does anyone feel knowlegable enough about how it could
> work to draft something to circulate? Having a nice tangible thing
> or plan to discuss at this year's bikebike would be good.
>
>                                                    Sasha
>
>
> On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:55:25 -0400 Stuart O Anderson
> <soa at ri.cmu.edu> wrote:
>   
>> At Free Ride we have a purchasing policy that directs us to buy
>> local,
>> union, and sustainable products when they are available.  If there
>> were a distributor that could source parts the best complied with
>> this
>> policy I think we'd definitely be interested.
>>
>> Of course, this would be a huge undertaking for the person(s) that
>> wanted to do it.  I imagine one has to order in very large
>> quantities
>>     
> >from manufacturers to be able to offer wholesale prices comparable
>
>   
>> to
>> other distributors, and that the amount of cash tied up in stock
>> at
>> any given time is rather signficant.  Having to rent or maintain a
>> warehouse on top of that means that there's a minimum rate of
>> consumption a distributor would need to maintain to avoid losing
>> money.  That rate is going to depend on the size of the niche
>> market
>> for community bike shops, and the assumption that other
>> distributors
>> wont alter their own policies to capture that market - it's not
>> clear
>> to me that there is enough demand, even combining all the major
>> community bike shops into a single bloc, to solely support a
>> single
>> distribution operation.  But that's just a guess and a real answer
>> would require market research on the part of interested parties.
>>
>> It seems to me that QBP supplies most of the CBS's right now.
>> Maybe
>> someone should approach them about identifying and stocking
>> products
>> that conform to our purchasing policies (i.e. green/fair trade/us
>> made/union made/etc icons in the catalog) and ask about discounts
>> for
>> non-profits promiting bicycle use?  I'd think the best way for
>> that to
>> happen would be for several shops to work together to create a
>> request
>> that could be delivered on all our behalfs.  Does this interest
>> anyone
>> - I'd be willing to help with such a project.
>>
>> Stuart
>> _______________________________________________
>> Thethinktank mailing list
>> Thethinktank at bikecollectives.org
>> http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-
>> bikecollectives.org
>>     
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>   

-- 
Rich Points
Community Cycles Director
http://CommunityCycles.org
Rich at CommunityCycles.org
720-565-6019

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