At the Bicycle Kitchen (Los Angeles) we charge $7.00 per-hour for stand time Regular retail prices for new items ( tubes, tires, cables, locks , bar tape etc.) Used parts depending on quality siding scale but basically $5.00 for any part. No one is turned away for lack of funds and the actual prices charged are determined on the fly by the "cook' (we call our volunteers cooks) on the floor at that time. It happens often that clients will give us $10.00 to $20.00 more than we ask for and conversely we give bicycles away to clients who really need them. We are also very flexible on the stand time charges. for instance a client has spent all day (6 hours) building a wheel he has finally got his first wheel laced but not trued. We say 2 hours or the length of time it will take the client after he has become moderately proficient at this highly useful skill. I would not worry about asking your clients for money the services you can offer are valuable and will be rewarded in-kind good rollin Jim
--- On Thu, 1/29/09, Alex Rosenblatt rosenblatt.alex@gmail.com wrote:
From: Alex Rosenblatt rosenblatt.alex@gmail.com Subject: [TheThinkTank] Money! Autonomy! Ethics! Oh my? To: "The Think Tank" thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 3:47 PM
Hello all!
Alright, so I'm sure this has been posted to the list 54 times over.
But:
How do y'all make money?
More specifically: Our bike co-op has traditionally been, on the front end, a completely volunteer based earn-a-bike program. We have paid staff but aside from that money is not exchanged. We are considering selling bicycles, charging a per hour rate, and selling parts but we are afraid of alienating a large part of our population. How do you balance retaining your goals, ethics, ideologies - like promoting bicycle access, providing (largely) free transportation, anti-capitalist leanings, skill empowerment - with keeping your shop autonomous and self sustaining?
Thanks all! Apologies if this is an all to often repeated topic and feel free to ask for clarification.
Alex Recycle Ithaca's Bicycles. (RIBS) _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...