HEy!
In a non-competetive spirit we charge suggest retail.or slightly below for inexpensive u locks.. like twenty bucks or something, but we rely on donated locks for our free bike folk or for the walk in's that clearly have no money/place to live/food to eat etc..
we couch the cheap locks with warnings though.. visual deterent is one of em.. and I've seen over the years many cheap u locks mangle into a pretzel, while the bike is M.I.A... sadness..
good locks ain't cheap and cheap locks ain't good..
however.. a simple dumpstered cable complemented with a u lock.. whata difference!
It's like a magical theft repelant .. but I'm sure there are some exceptions.
bulk buying is a great idea. If you have a distributor account (NORCO is good for this, maybe ASAMA.. talk to Victor directly if you can) approach them with your needs, state you're a non profit, and they may provide you with booking discounts or Pro deal on many units in one buy. Problem: you need a lump of funds for this and most of the time, it's on a ONE Time transaction condition.. but have at 'er.. see what happens??
Jesse Cooper
OUr Community Bikes!
VAncouver
On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 7:54 AM, Graham
<graham.stewart@winply.ca> wrote:
1. Are there any shops out there who buy locks in bulk and re-sell them? The rationale for doing this would be that providing a good-quality low-cost lock to people visiting the shop would reduce the likelihood of having their bike stolen. I see the rampant bike-theft here as one of the common reasons people stop cycling or don't want to invest time or money in their bike.
My questions are, where do you get locks from, and how is the program run? Are their any other initiatives you take to reduce the problem of bike-theft?
Graham @
The Bike-Dump in Winnipeg
_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org