I think that's a misconception. I don't know of any bike shops that are selling bikes for $75 - $100 even $200.
The "cheap" bikes at our local bike shops are more in the neighborhood of $300 and their high end bikes upwards of $3K.
Someone looking for that kinda bike is not gonna go get it at your (or our shop)...nor will they suddenly decide that they want a $150 used bike instead of high end bike they originally drooled over.
Many of the people that come into our shop will never be able to afford a brand spankin new bike shop bike. For those who can afford it, I see it more as they're buying a used/refurbished bike, but will eventually go to a bike shop to buy a new bike or they're looking for a beater bike or a project bike.
Unless business is going really bad for your local bike shops or really super great for yours, I'd be really surprised if you're taking business away from them.
We've been really lucky at Community Cycles that our local shops are super supportive. They are happy to send business (and random extra parts to us) especially when someone comes in with a "dinosaur" bike that they don't wanna work on. As far as tune-ups, etc on really high end bikes, i can only think of once when someone actually brought one to us for a tune-up over a "regular" bike shop.
1da
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Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 08:13:54 -0700 From: pedals2people@gmail.com To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] diluting the market
Hey,
I have a question about reselling bikes and what to charge people. We're located in Spokane, WA and the bike "boom" is just starting to hit us. Those great deals on craiglsist and at Goodwill don't exist any more.
We accept some quality bike donations from people, mostly older mtn bikes, and we sell some as-is and some refurbished. We sell these bike for around $75-100. A friend of ours who works at a bike shop in town said that with our low prices, we were diluting the market.
Do you all think this is right? In our defense, we feel these bikes are donated and we want to pass on a good deal. We don't want to squeeze people for every penny.
EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD