How much inventory at LBS?

[peanutgallery]

Oh yeah, bet he can tell you a story

Originally Posted by Mr. Pink

The Trek chainstores opening up in Baltimore come to mind. The guy who I visit every now and then who sells pretty much only Trek has to be pissed.

[zap]

Stopped by a Trek store and it was packed with bikes. ‘22 mechanical models had decent discounts.

[Hilltopperny]

My LBS has had the worst year ever. It is a one man shop where I occasionally help out. Typically the bikes that most people come in to buy are in the $800-$1,800 range with a few outliers.

I honestly believe that most of the big boys will be direct to consumer within the next few years and shops that survive will have to function more on service than sales as has been the case for my local shop.

The biggest thing keeping the doors open are Rent A Center e-bike maintainence. My buddy who runs/owns the shop is the only guy around willing to trouble shoot and fix them.

With the ridiculous increase in costs and taxes, the economy in the $#!++er and no positive outlook financially for the vast majority of people I fear it will be the end of most small shops that cannot create enough revenue to keep the doors open.



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[CNY rider]

Originally Posted by Hilltopperny

My LBS has had the worst year ever. It is a one man shop where I occasionally help out. Typically the bikes that most people come in to buy are in the $800-$1,800 range with a few outliers.

I honestly believe that most of the big boys will be direct to consumer within the next few years and shops that survive will have to function more on service than sales as has been the case for my local shop.

The biggest thing keeping the doors open are Rent A Center e-bike maintainence. My buddy who runs/owns the shop is the only guy around willing to trouble shoot and fix them.

With the ridiculous increase in costs and taxes, the economy in the $#!++er and no positive outlook financially for the vast majority of people I fear it will be the end of most small shops that cannot create enough revenue to keep the doors open.



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Rent a Center e-bikes are a thing?
Do tell.

[peanutgallery]

Until late, not a lot of bikes at that price point, so nothing to discount....its a win. If you sold the farm and stocked a lot of bikes, they are currently worth a bit less as manufacturers have slashed msrp. At the moment, big inventory can feel like laundering money if you're lucky

Hopefully your buddy will be OK. Couple of missed sales beats the heck out of carrying a ton of inventory that's getting discounted in a slow market. Tell him him to keep fixing those contraptions that folks are buying from Jeff Bezos and to charge accordingly

Originally Posted by Hilltopperny

My LBS has had the worst year ever. It is a one man shop where I occasionally help out. Typically the bikes that most people come in to buy are in the $800-$1,800 range with a few outliers.

I honestly believe that most of the big boys will be direct to consumer within the next few years and shops that survive will have to function more on service than sales as has been the case for my local shop.

The biggest thing keeping the doors open are Rent A Center e-bike maintainence. My buddy who runs/owns the shop is the only guy around willing to trouble shoot and fix them.

With the ridiculous increase in costs and taxes, the economy in the $#!++er and no positive outlook financially for the vast majority of people I fear it will be the end of most small shops that cannot create enough revenue to keep the doors open.



Sent from my SM-S127DL using Tapatalk

[Hilltopperny]

Originally Posted by CNY rider

Rent a Center e-bikes are a thing?

Do tell.

Yup and they all pretty much end up in the shop!

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[Hilltopperny]

Originally Posted by peanutgallery

Until late, not a lot of bikes at that price point, so nothing to discount....its a win. If you sold the farm and stocked a lot of bikes, they are currently worth a bit less as manufacturers have slashed msrp. At the moment, big inventory can feel like laundering money if you're lucky



Hopefully your buddy will be OK. Couple of missed sales beats the heck out of carrying a ton of inventory that's getting discounted in a slow market. Tell him him to keep fixing those contraptions that folks are buying from Jeff Bezos and to charge accordingly

I think he will be ok given his ability to fix anything, but the model for retail sales is in the gutter in this part of NYS.

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[Elefantino]

We are bursting at the seams. All five of our shops have more inventory than we have spaces on the floor. And we have dozens if not more than 100 bikes in boxes at our warehouse.

It is great for the customer but a little nerve-wracking for those who have to pay the bills.

[herb5998]

At the shop I'm at, we seemed to plan well for the glut of bikes in the low-mid range. We still have plenty of new ones in the basement, but sales are slow.

Repair wise, still probably as busy, or busier year than in the past. We are finally slowing down with most of the winter tire installations/mudguard purchases, so now starts the work on storage bikes we keep for customers during the winter. We've got plenty of parts, but for clarity, 90% of our customers are one commuter/hybrid bikes, so 6-10 speed, lots of linear pull/canti with more models coming in with mechanical disc or low end hydro disc.

[fa63]

In the best of times, we would have about 50 bikes in stock. Right now, we are down to about 25; a run of hybrids and dual-sports in all sizes, a few entry level MTBs and some cruisers. We got out of stocking expensive bikes a while ago; now those are special order only if someone knows what they want (Argon18 / Felt for road and Niner / Marin for MTB). Or we use our own fancy bikes that we employee-purchased so people know that we carry nice bikes as well

The interesting thing is that right now, we are able to order hybrids and dual-sport bikes (by far what we sell the most of) on demand. This was impossible even a year ago but the times have changed significantly. When we sell a few bikes now, we order a few more and they show up in a few days (and the minimum order to get free shipping has now come back down to pre-pandemic levels as well, at least from the brands we deal with).

[mstateglfr]

Originally Posted by Elefantino

We are bursting at the seams. All five of our shops have more inventory than we have spaces on the floor. And we have dozens if not more than 100 bikes in boxes at our warehouse.

It is great for the customer but a little nerve-wracking for those who have to pay the bills.

Are a lot of the bikes on the floor and in the warehouse priced at $1500 and less, or are they mostly $4500 and higher?
Curious since bikes that retail for $7k and discounted to $5k(hypothetical) may be great for the customers, but thats well outside the sweetspot for what a lot of people can/want to spend so it really isnt great for the customer.

Wasnt sure if the enthusiast entry level was back to being flush with inventory.

[Adam]

We are trying to move about 10 mid to entry level mountain bikes we ordered in the panic of inventory shortages, stocking bikes isn’t really our thing. I have had to place large anticipatory orders that I sell from and if there isn’t a buyer for them, I can pass thankfully. However, once I sell a bike from my allocation list, it is done, no more of that to sell. Been pretty frustrating for a fit-first order and build custom model. A lot of what we do is custom anyway so this really is about bikes from Orbea, Scott, Argon 18. We are busy building up the bikes that are just now coming in after 3-6-9-12-15 month lead-times so it has been strange this year to not have had an “off” season.

We are seeing more availability of the sub $3k bikes, but still long lead times for the 3-7k bikes that are a sweet spot. Been seeing more business in the $9-12k range at the expense of volume in that 3-7k high end production bike spot.

I hope that we can match $$$ for 2023 that we did in 2022 but we will see. 2021 was taking deposits against a lot of bike orders and delivering only a few, 2022 was delivering all those bikes ordered in 2021!

The bikes we have on the floor are Moots demos (and personal bikes), Serotta, a Fifty One Assassin, Vielo V+1. Colnago C64 frameset. Things like that.

Service has been steady and as we are by appointment we have kept it to manageable level and stuck to what we know best. Have referred some customers to other shops that fit their needs better and have created some
Good relationships that way. There are only the 2 of us and a part timer who has been an investor in the shop and an ally for years. Small and tight.

[Mr. Pink]

Originally Posted by Hilltopperny

Yup and they all pretty much end up in the shop!

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I hope nobody lives over that shop. If they do, they have a good fire escape.

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by mstateglfr

Are a lot of the bikes on the floor and in the warehouse priced at $1500 and less, or are they mostly $4500 and higher?
Curious since bikes that retail for $7k and discounted to $5k(hypothetical) may be great for the customers, but thats well outside the sweetspot for what a lot of people can/want to spend so it really isnt great for the customer.

Wasnt sure if the enthusiast entry level was back to being flush with inventory.

A plurality of our bikes are <$1,500, but we have a crap ton of e-bikes from $3,250 to $11k, too. We just got a bunch of NOS aluminum Synapse road bikes from Cannondale at $1,500; other than and a very few Specialized Allezes, entry-level road is hard to come by.

[davidb]

"never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"
Jimmy-Moots, how right you are. Many dealers have unreasonably high inventory levels, and the debit will close them. Most outside and inside reps have tried to save those dealers from themselves. The number of dealers who have an "I ordered it, so I gotta take it" mentality is shocking. The well they will cut me off if I do not take them. Really? Do you prefer to go deep into what may well be a business-ending dept to keep a brand?

Jimmy-Moots, how right you are!