Freshbike (metro DC) closed

[robin3mj]

Originally Posted by RedRider

The "inside" story, as I hear it, is that Freshbike is just one business affected by the 400+ unfilled government positions. Many DC area businesses do well during administration turnovers with hundreds of new families moving around. These are middle and upper income jobs that become part, or are absent, of the communities.

If those 400 people (and their families) were the difference between sink or swim in an MSA of 6 million people, then there were a whole lot of issues that pushed them to that point in the first place.

[ultraman6970]

Interesting theory of the 400 positions but if you work in DC doesnt mean you are going to live in arlington, besides to go to DC from arlington you pretty much are forced to use metro, even bus is a bad idea, car? no way, bicycle? maybe but the thing is, there's a lot of other places to live than arlington, specially in DC that could be closer to their jobs. IMO the 400 thing is just a myth because they needed to blame something?

[yashcha]

Any news on who will take over their Tuesday night rides and free tacos?

[peanutgallery]

DC specialty retail is getting killed by commercial rent, it's off the charts. For example, the market lost several ski shops in the last 2 seasons for just that reason. Yeah, the market is ripe but as a business owner it takes too much scratch to be the master of your own destiny in that area. You can't afford the rent and the folks that work for you can't afford to live there for what you can pay them. It's a tough place to be and the bike biz has even worse margins

Go 1.5 hours north and you can have 7000 square feet and a parking lot for a song. Plus, the DC crowd has to drive by your doorstep to get to a resort. If I had a place in DC I would close it, too

[cycle-spinner]

Freasbikes was a good shop but IMHO lacked the understanding of the current internet/retail marketplace. Prices were high (even with discounts) and their customer service, at times, lacked. The closing sound like more or a cash flow problem more then anything else. Here’s hoping they come back in a new, more nimble, format.

[redir]

It's definitely a new world out there in terms of retail and brick and mortar shops in general. My own personal business was in music stores and they are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Freshbikes was a high end shop and I believe that's the kind of place that takes the biggest hit unless they are savey enough to find a niche online. The one music store that was successful out of the many I did business with has gone entirely online and is now successful.

Freshbikes depended on a few very wealthy clients in the area. While they aged no one came in to replace them. I road my first E-Bike out of that shop and it was a trip, Doing 35MPH in a few seconds around the parking lot They had $15k bikes on the racks there, it was a kid in a candy store experience. Sad to see them close.

[ultraman6970]

Are they having a super sale due to the closing or they already did that?

[HenryA]

Originally Posted by peanutgallery

DC specialty retail is getting killed by commercial rent, it's off the charts. For example, the market lost several ski shops in the last 2 seasons for just that reason. Yeah, the market is ripe but as a business owner it takes too much scratch to be the master of your own destiny in that area. You can't afford the rent and the folks that work for you can't afford to live there for what you can pay them. It's a tough place to be and the bike biz has even worse margins

Go 1.5 hours north and you can have 7000 square feet and a parking lot for a song. Plus, the DC crowd has to drive by your doorstep to get to a resort. If I had a place in DC I would close it, too

^^^^ Lot of this. ^^^^

[jke.4132]

It was a nice store, a good source for some harder to find items. Conte's is back in the area and opened a store just down the street from FreshBike.

[jke.4132]

Spokes, Etc. has apparently taken over the old FreshBike space on Wilson Blvd. They're accepting applications now.

[ultraman6970]

That's interesting.

[levi]

Just learned about the closing. We always stopped by the store on our way to the south to see some really high-end bikes on display.

It is definitely hard to compete with online etailers. Businesses had to be creative to keep customers coming and buying 2-3 Cervelo RCA or Open Cycle framesets. Perhaps a steady stream of pro-builds and or maintenance services helps.

Sad to see them close.

[wgp]

Originally Posted by jke.4132

Spokes, Etc. has apparently taken over the old FreshBike space on Wilson Blvd. They're accepting applications now.

Are they closing one of their other stores or just expanding to this new (for them) location? That’s a huge amount of space at that Wilson Blvd location.

As someone noted earlier in the thread, Spokes seems to be hanging steady ... good for them!