hahaha, i guess josh and i work with the same bike shops ;)

Wanda Pelegrina Caldas
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Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 09:21:39 -0600
From: veganboyjosh@gmail.com
To: thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] diluting the market

Does the bike shop your friend works at sell bikes for $75-100? If so, then you may be competing with their sales.

If, like most bike shops, they sell bikes for $300 and up, then you're not really competing. People looking to spend $100 on a bicycle aren't in general going to spend $300 or more on one. Does your friend's shop sell used/refurbished bikes? If so, then you may be competing...

The few bike shop owners I've spoken with regarding this (Community Cycles sells bikes, from $100-$200 on average) encourage us to do so, for the simple reason that it creates customers for the LBS's. When someone new to biking, or recently back into biking, they'll come to us, buy an inexpensive used bike, and start riding it. Once they've got a few miles behind them, they realize the need for better equipment, or more personalized things like a saddle. For this, they'll go to the LBS and buy new. Us selling cheap bikes also creates a market for consumable items such as tubes, tires, cables, etc.

We've talked about this at length within our organization, and we truly feel that if we're competing with any local business, it's the big box stores who sell truly cheap (not just inexpensive) bikes. And we're ok with that.

josh
Community Cycles, Boulder


On Sun, May 10, 2009 at 9:13 AM, Liza Mattana <pedals2people@gmail.com> wrote:
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.

thanks,
Liza
--
Liza Mattana
president
www.pedals2people.org
Spokane, WA

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