And what about for the people are won't to come into your coop for all
of the perceived social, racial, economic, and other barriers we all
know way too well? By telling folks *who are already intimidated by
you* that those bikes are garbage, and implying that anyone who buys
one is stupid, you are alienating potential shop users and customers.
Those department store monsters aren't great, but can be "gateway
bikes." If you find a more positive way to pitch your product (instead
slamming what many people feel is the best they can do), the folks who
are riding department store bikes now are light years more likely to
come to you in a year or two or five.
jimmie
--
Neighborhood Bike Works tel: 215.386.0316
3916 Locust Walk fax: 215.386.7288
Philadelphia, PA 19104 www.neighborhoodbikeworks.org
Providing opportunities to youth through bicycling.
NBw has a listserv! To stay in touch, subscribe to BikeStreetJounral@NeighborhoodBikeWorks.org at www.neighborhoodbikeworks.org/mailman/listinfo/bikestreetjournal.
veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 8:17 AM, Bruce Lien
<
bikedadlien@yahoo.com>
wrote:
how
do low income families who can only stretch their budgets far enough to
buy their kid a bike for under $100, $70, or $40 do so? While some
might advocate they buy used bikes, check out the junk sitting at the
Goodwill with exorbitant prices on them, sold as is and you can see why
that is not a viable option. Garage sales are great alternatives, but
again the bikes are sold "as is" which often leaves a bike in need of
some TLC from a good mechanic. Bruce
several things the people on this list have or have access to:
volunteer power/time/energy.
bike knowledge.
decent--better than dept store bikes.
this is just a brainstorm that just came to me after reading gary,
rafael, and bruce's emails....but what if we could somehow get the word
out to these low income families with no LBS that the coops are the
place to go. some kind of mailorder thing...i'm not sure how it would
work, but if we're operating on a national level, then shouldn't we be
able to address at least some of the basic needs of everyone in the
country?
just an idea, i've been thinking about for all of 30 seconds. unlike
gary's and rafaels, which both sound awesome and doable...
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