Our shop is close by a bicycle manufacturer that, like all manufacturers (not to be confused with builders), sources their bikes through china. He loves the non-profit bike shop model and is willing to _give_ us the extra space in the containers he gets from china. So the thought at this point is:1) Make a list and get quotes on sourcing cables, housing, tires, tubes, 7-speed shifters, tools, and other things.2) See if the profit savings is high enough over QBP to make it worth the trouble.3) Determine logistics.4) Determine business plan.3) Determine the spoiled and entitled percentage, aka how many people would expect things at 0% margin and 100% support.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Morrison
Executive Director
Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective
2312 S. West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
w: 801-328-2453
c: 801-688-0183
f: 801-466-3856
www.slcbikecollective.org
Get Addicted to Crank!
http://www.slcbikecollective.org/crank/
The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.
On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 7:44 AM, andrew lynn <anyone@breathingplanet.net> wrote:
Also worthy of note re: Troy Bike Rescue and this discussion in general is that when we first got started way back in '01 we were helped out tremendously by RIBs in Itahca who ordered all our initial tools and stands through their QBP account. it was an act of mutual aid without really knowing anyone there at the time that is really responsible for helping to get us started. i took a trip out there to pick up the stuff and got a tour of the shop and at the time way before Bike Bike, etc when I had no idea what I was getting started, it was a real informal education that likely unconsciously shaped the future of TBR. thanks RIBs and yay for mutual aid.
andrew
Carolyn Braunius wrote:
Hi,
We have two small collective shops at Troy Bike Rescue, in Troy and Albany. We are also very lucky to have a major distributor's warehouse nearby who are very accommodating with our order needs.
In our shops we heavily emphasize using recycled parts first. We only were really keeping new cables, bearings, and housing in stock.
We had a special situation in Troy, which made us rethink some of our shop policies on not buying new parts for our customers' consumption. The local police began issuing tickets for not having bike bells or lights, to the tune of like 50 bucks in some cases.
We test ordered some bells, lights, and patch kits to see if people would be willing to give us a more specific "suggested donation" for the parts, since the parts were paid for by us, instead of relying on donations. In our case, there was no local bike shop or even a major big box retailer that was easily accessible for people who use bikes as a primary means of transportation to get a bell or a light.
So far, the change has been very successful. We wanted to make sure, if we were providing people with bikes, we were also providing them with the opportunity to get a bell and a light. People have heard about the ticketing, have been coming to us for bells and are very willing to meet our minimum suggested donation.
With our minimum suggested donation, we try to cover the cost of our purchase, and not undercut the local bike shops to much. So far, this has been cool.
We also let our core staff order stuff when we order from the distributor. No one is paid at our shops, so it is a small reward for a group of very dedicated people. Of course, this is about 10-12 people for two shops, so it isn't to much of an onerous task. Each person is responsible for looking at the catalog, writing down all the relevant information, and then making sure the items are in stock at the local supplier before we order.
Carolyn
www.troybikerescue.org
"When shall we live if not now?" - M.F.K. Fisher
--- On *Thu, 8/6/09, rachael spiewak /<rachael@sopobikes.org>/* wrote:
From: rachael spiewak <rachael@sopobikes.org>
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Distributors and interacting with the
profit model
To: "The Think Tank" <thethinktank@bikecollectives.org>
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2009, 6:53 AM
We have an account with Hawley. Our minimum order is $50, and we
only buy things necessary for operating a repair shop (no retail
items, nothing for people to take away unless it's installed on the
bike as part of a repair; generally tools and consumables costing
less than $5 apiece only). They required from us up front that we
have liability insurance and a store front, and maybe a few other
things that I can't recall.
We talked about buying benefits for volunteers, and we decided it
create too much confusing administrative work, and volunteers have
plenty of access to nice donations and other benefits anyway. And
we like to send folks to the for profit shops for parts when we
don't have them because that helps us maintain good relationships
with the shops. Plus, our mission is about affordable repair by
way tool sharing, not by way of bulk parts purchasing.
This fiscal year to date, we've spent a little more than $5000 on
shop supplies, mostly on Hawley orders, and the rest split between
hardware stores and emergency trips to for profit bike shops. We
surpassed our supplies fundraising goals with some grant money, so
we splurged a little on some tap and die sets, which have pretty
much paid for themselves in salvaged bottom bracket shells and fork
threads.
Hope this helps!
Rachael
Sopo Bikes//ATL
On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Rigel Christian <rigelc@gmail.com</mc/compose?to=Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org> </mc/compose?to=TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org></mc/compose?to=rigelc@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi,
I had an interesting discussion with someone who worked at a smaller
distributor today. I had called in order to try and cultivate a
business relationship for our local co-op, which is in desperate
need
of tools and consumable parts like bearings and cables. He mentioned
that a lot more co-ops were inquiring about accounts.
He also told me the reasons why co-op/DIY shops were problematic
from
his end, and it's a reasonable criticism from that perspective.
Individually, we simply dont do the volume of business necessary
to be
attractive to a business interest. The time necessary to administer
and verify an account that does maybe a couple hundred dollars worth
of business a month for the higher traffic shops kind of burns your
profit margins, which are not large at that level. distributors
count
on reliable, volume business to stay afloat, and take a smaller
cut of
profit on the assumption that that's the type of business theyll be
doing.
I've know that some of the longer running co-ops and collectives
have
relationships with distributors, but clearly many of the newer
ones do
not.
I'm curious about a couple of things.
1) Does your collective have a relationship with a parts
distributor?
2) Regardless of the answer to #1, roughly how much does your shop
spend on
tools/consumables/things-that-one-would-get-from-a-distributor?
It seems to me that in the first few years of a
co-op/nonprofit/collective situation, lots or most of these
organizations leverage either existing ties to, or the goodwill of
LBSes.
My suspicion is that in some edge cases, where the bike or DIY
culture
isnt all that strong, this can be a fairly significant issue for a
fledgling operation, in terms of both finances and social capital.
The idea that i'm trying to push here is that of a sort of buyers
club. Disregarding for the moment the perfectly valid criticisms of
the legal structure of 501(c)3s, if there was a nonprofit that could
act as a go-between for a parts distributor and a number of regional
shops, that would serve the needs of both the for-profit
distributors
AND the co-op shops. distributors wouldnt have to deal with as much
volatility from taking on co-ops as charity cases, and co-ops
banding
together could drive the price of a lot of the most necessary
consumables and parts down even further than their current
distributor
relationships can offer. in the ideal case, of course.
I would appreciate any input people have. I dont know if this
has been
suggested before (I suspect it has), but i didnt see anything in my
archive of the last year or so. If I'm totally off base in my
assumptions I'd like to know that too, where i went wrong, and what
the real deal is.
cheers.
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--
andrew lynn | media worker | troy, ny
http://www.breathingplanet.net
http://www.troybikerescue.org
http://www.mediasanctuary.org
http://flickr.com/photos/breathingplanet
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