Re: [TheThinkTank] Random Thought: Creating a bicycle parts/tools distributor for Community Bike Shops.
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Hello, Everyone.
Stuart, I really like your idea about approaching QBP.
My new seed catalogues have lovely icons telling me which
seeds are heirloom varieties, which are organic, etc. They even have a pretty little snowflake to help people up in Northern Ontario pick seeds that can tolerate their conditions. It would be great if QBP's catalogue had icons for union/ fairtrade/ local/ etc.
Asking existing suppliers/distributers if they could offer
discounts makes more sense to me than creating an inefficient version of their infrastructure.
While there are many super well organized people who work
or play at Community Bike Shops, the idea of a warehouse and distrubition network run by the likes of us seems like a bad idea. Have you ever been at a meeting where people spend almost an hour discussing the way we should spell women/wimmin/wymyn?
Our shops perform magical feats of bicycle relclamation and
we contribute to improving neighbourhoods and to helping people feel competant and connected. Sometimes I feel as if my local CBS is saving the world one spiffed up junker at a time. I love us. But somehow I don't see us running a continental just-in-time delivery system for bike parts.
Working together online to craft a proposal to pitch to QBP
and any other suppliers or distributers seems doable. So does creating national or international (or perhaps just several regional) organization(s) of community bike shops for the purposes of getting good deals from suppliers, etc.
Does anyone feel knowlegable enough about how it could
work to draft something to circulate? Having a nice tangible thing or plan to discuss at this year's bikebike would be good.
Sasha
On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:55:25 -0400 Stuart O Anderson soa@ri.cmu.edu wrote:
At Free Ride we have a purchasing policy that directs us to buy local, union, and sustainable products when they are available. If there were a distributor that could source parts the best complied with this policy I think we'd definitely be interested.
Of course, this would be a huge undertaking for the person(s) that wanted to do it. I imagine one has to order in very large quantities from manufacturers to be able to offer wholesale prices comparable
to other distributors, and that the amount of cash tied up in stock at any given time is rather signficant. Having to rent or maintain a warehouse on top of that means that there's a minimum rate of consumption a distributor would need to maintain to avoid losing money. That rate is going to depend on the size of the niche market for community bike shops, and the assumption that other distributors wont alter their own policies to capture that market - it's not clear to me that there is enough demand, even combining all the major community bike shops into a single bloc, to solely support a single distribution operation. But that's just a guess and a real answer would require market research on the part of interested parties.
It seems to me that QBP supplies most of the CBS's right now. Maybe someone should approach them about identifying and stocking products that conform to our purchasing policies (i.e. green/fair trade/us made/union made/etc icons in the catalog) and ask about discounts for non-profits promiting bicycle use? I'd think the best way for that to happen would be for several shops to work together to create a request that could be delivered on all our behalfs. Does this interest anyone
- I'd be willing to help with such a project.
Stuart _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- bikecollectives.org
I vote for this! Thanks for writing what I've been thinking Sasha.
Rich Community Cycles
dragonfly@mac.hush.com wrote:
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Hello, Everyone. Stuart, I really like your idea about approaching QBP. My new seed catalogues have lovely icons telling me whichseeds are heirloom varieties, which are organic, etc. They even have a pretty little snowflake to help people up in Northern Ontario pick seeds that can tolerate their conditions. It would be great if QBP's catalogue had icons for union/ fairtrade/ local/ etc.
Asking existing suppliers/distributers if they could offerdiscounts makes more sense to me than creating an inefficient version of their infrastructure.
While there are many super well organized people who workor play at Community Bike Shops, the idea of a warehouse and distrubition network run by the likes of us seems like a bad idea. Have you ever been at a meeting where people spend almost an hour discussing the way we should spell women/wimmin/wymyn?
Our shops perform magical feats of bicycle relclamation andwe contribute to improving neighbourhoods and to helping people feel competant and connected. Sometimes I feel as if my local CBS is saving the world one spiffed up junker at a time. I love us. But somehow I don't see us running a continental just-in-time delivery system for bike parts.
Working together online to craft a proposal to pitch to QBPand any other suppliers or distributers seems doable. So does creating national or international (or perhaps just several regional) organization(s) of community bike shops for the purposes of getting good deals from suppliers, etc.
Does anyone feel knowlegable enough about how it couldwork to draft something to circulate? Having a nice tangible thing or plan to discuss at this year's bikebike would be good.
SashaOn Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:55:25 -0400 Stuart O Anderson soa@ri.cmu.edu wrote:
At Free Ride we have a purchasing policy that directs us to buy local, union, and sustainable products when they are available. If there were a distributor that could source parts the best complied with this policy I think we'd definitely be interested.
Of course, this would be a huge undertaking for the person(s) that wanted to do it. I imagine one has to order in very large quantities
from manufacturers to be able to offer wholesale prices comparable
to other distributors, and that the amount of cash tied up in stock at any given time is rather signficant. Having to rent or maintain a warehouse on top of that means that there's a minimum rate of consumption a distributor would need to maintain to avoid losing money. That rate is going to depend on the size of the niche market for community bike shops, and the assumption that other distributors wont alter their own policies to capture that market - it's not clear to me that there is enough demand, even combining all the major community bike shops into a single bloc, to solely support a single distribution operation. But that's just a guess and a real answer would require market research on the part of interested parties.
It seems to me that QBP supplies most of the CBS's right now. Maybe someone should approach them about identifying and stocking products that conform to our purchasing policies (i.e. green/fair trade/us made/union made/etc icons in the catalog) and ask about discounts for non-profits promiting bicycle use? I'd think the best way for that to happen would be for several shops to work together to create a request that could be delivered on all our behalfs. Does this interest anyone
- I'd be willing to help with such a project.
Stuart _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank- bikecollectives.org
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Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
http://www.dothetest.co.uk/ I thought this was one of the best adds I've seen in a long while. Just wanted to share... -beth velocipede bike project Baltimore, MD
We've had pretty good luck so far contacting companies directly and asking for discounts. Bell Helmets, Park Tools, and one other tool company have given us a specific price list of parts/tools we can order. I recall with one of them we had the opportunity to set up an account as a nonprofit bicycle group. I'll look up the information and post it here when i find it.
Vyki
On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 1:02 PM, Rich Points rich@richpoints.com wrote:
I vote for this! Thanks for writing what I've been thinking Sasha.
Rich Community Cycles
dragonfly@mac.hush.com wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Hello, Everyone. Stuart, I really like your idea about approaching QBP. My new seed catalogues have lovely icons telling me whichseeds are heirloom varieties, which are organic, etc. They even have a pretty little snowflake to help people up in Northern Ontario pick seeds that can tolerate their conditions. It would be great if QBP's catalogue had icons for union/ fairtrade/ local/ etc.
Asking existing suppliers/distributers if they could offerdiscounts makes more sense to me than creating an inefficient version of their infrastructure.
While there are many super well organized people who workor play at Community Bike Shops, the idea of a warehouse and distrubition network run by the likes of us seems like a bad idea. Have you ever been at a meeting where people spend almost an hour discussing the way we should spell women/wimmin/wymyn?
Our shops perform magical feats of bicycle relclamation andwe contribute to improving neighbourhoods and to helping people feel competant and connected. Sometimes I feel as if my local CBS is saving the world one spiffed up junker at a time. I love us. But somehow I don't see us running a continental just-in-time delivery system for bike parts.
Working together online to craft a proposal to pitch to QBPand any other suppliers or distributers seems doable. So does creating national or international (or perhaps just several regional) organization(s) of community bike shops for the purposes of getting good deals from suppliers, etc.
Does anyone feel knowlegable enough about how it couldwork to draft something to circulate? Having a nice tangible thing or plan to discuss at this year's bikebike would be good.
SashaOn Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:55:25 -0400 Stuart O Andersonsoa@ri.cmu.edu soa@ri.cmu.edu wrote:
At Free Ride we have a purchasing policy that directs us to buy local, union, and sustainable products when they are available. If there were a distributor that could source parts the best complied with this policy I think we'd definitely be interested.
Of course, this would be a huge undertaking for the person(s) that wanted to do it. I imagine one has to order in very large quantities
from manufacturers to be able to offer wholesale prices comparable
to other distributors, and that the amount of cash tied up in stock at any given time is rather signficant. Having to rent or maintain a warehouse on top of that means that there's a minimum rate of consumption a distributor would need to maintain to avoid losing money. That rate is going to depend on the size of the niche market for community bike shops, and the assumption that other distributors wont alter their own policies to capture that market - it's not clear to me that there is enough demand, even combining all the major community bike shops into a single bloc, to solely support a single distribution operation. But that's just a guess and a real answer would require market research on the part of interested parties.
It seems to me that QBP supplies most of the CBS's right now. Maybe someone should approach them about identifying and stocking products that conform to our purchasing policies (i.e. green/fair trade/us made/union made/etc icons in the catalog) and ask about discounts for non-profits promiting bicycle use? I'd think the best way for that to happen would be for several shops to work together to create a request that could be delivered on all our behalfs. Does this interest anyone
- I'd be willing to help with such a project.
Stuart _______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing listThethinktank@bikecollectives.orghttp://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...
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-- Rich Points Community Cycles Directorhttp://CommunityCycles.orgRich@CommunityCycles.org 720-565-6019
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dragonfly＠mac.hush.com -
Rich Points -
Velocipede Bike Project -
Vyki Englert