At Community Cycles in Boulder bike sales provide nearly two thirds of our total income. The price averages $80-100 per bike but we do get plenty of bikes outside that range as well.
For the most part we do not sell or distribute Huffy, Magna, Next, Murray and other department store toy bikes. This is a perk of living in city with an affluent avid cycling population. However we gladly accept them as donations as they are a perfect tool to start the EAB program. We have EABers strip them down for parts to Africa, artists and scrap metal.
How do other groups deal with department store bikes?
As far as sales go providing affordable reliable bikes is part of our mission as well. One of the biggest barriors to bike comuting is not being able to carry stuff. We install cargo racks, bottle cages and bells on the majority of bikes that go into the showroom. We also have new locks for sale. When someone buys a bike we give them a Boulder bike map and talk a bit about choosing routes and commuting by bike.
The point is we strive to introduce practical rather than recreational bikes into the community.
When we're tight on cash and have bikes in the showroom we'll post some things on craigslist. The last post I did was very generic with the heading "Commuter Style Bikes $60-$120" you can see the post here http://denver.craigslist.org/bik/410049907.html We sold 5 bikes from this free ad that day. And we raised awareness about the shop. This might be a good tool for the Bike Farm which is just starting.
Peace Rich
Paul Park wrote:
Hi all,
At the Mount Rainier Bike Coop in Mount Rainier, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, we are working how to sell our bikes that we refurbish. We really don't have any fixed or regular costs; the city gives us the space (a garage), so we just use our money on spare parts and tools. We have an earn-a-bike program so youth can build up bikes for us, learning mechanic skills, and then after fifteen hours of voluteering, the youths can build a bike for themselves. Volunteers who have already put in 15 hours of work can basically just keep refurbishing bikes. No one gets paid anything at this point.
Generally, at this point, we just sell our refurbished bikes in one way or another. Do other shops do this? Also, presumably, volunteers could, after working fifteen hours, refurbish bikes for themselves, and then sell them on craigslist or something. Do other coops have a policy with regards to refurbishing bikes for yourself, one after the other, and then selling them for your own profit? Or perhaps a system where you refurbish a bike and then you have to give a certain percentage of the sale to the coop?-- PJ Park http://www.biketobrazil.blogspot.com http://www.imagestation.com/members/pjpark http://www.imagestation.com/members/pjpark http://picasaweb.google.com/PaulJosephPark
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