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
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)
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