Hey folks!
Here at Our Community Bikes in Vancouver, we're
wanting to change our pricing structure for use of
our tools and space. I'm interested to hear what
pricing systems other shops are stoked on and why.
I know this has been discussed many times before,
but lets get real: I don't remember and I didn't
save them. So here we are again!
At present, we have a three-tiered system:
$6 to use our tools with no help
$12 to use our tools with help
$18 you stand there looking on blankly while we do it for
you.
It's a flat hourly rate, all day every day. No caps.
This system doesn't actually reflect how we charge. No one
gets the $18 treatment, even if they ask for it. We don't
have the staff to do it, and its not really what we like to do
anyway. More often that not, when a service user comes up to
pay after using our tools, we ask them approximately how much
time they worked alone, and how much time they had help, and
agree on some combination of the $6 & $12 rate. Now, I
love qualitative analysis as much as the next community bike
shop employee, but even I can appreciate that this leaves big
gaps in terms of assessing appropriate payment, making the
money that keeps us afloat, and makes our payment system
ultimately unclear to our service users.
How does your shop charge for tools and space? How did you
arrive at that system? Does it present any barriers to
meeting your service users' needs or reflecting your shop's
values?