Most
of us have a hobby, mine is cycling and most hobbies have specialist shops, in
my case, bike shops and they are like Fishing tackle shop to an angler and
Music equipment shops to a guitarist. I don't mean the ability to haemorrhage
money from your wallet for the 'latest thing' when you only went for (in the
case of the bike shop) an inner tube, I mean as well as the internet big boys
and odd large chain store there are smaller independents run by people who care
passionately about the sport/hobby.
Not
a week goes by at the moment without a 'big name' retailer hitting the
headlines as they struggle. The problem is 'The Local Bike Shop' (L.B.S) or
other 'Local Hobby Shops' (L.H.S) are
also an endangered species. Two bike shops have closed near me in the last six
months. I won’t embarrass them by naming them, but one was a newish venture
owned by an ex-professional rider the other was a family business that was
decades old, a world famous (No exaggeration) fishing tackle shop has gone as
well.
Obviously
the internet has changed shopping forever, I asked James, the owner of my local
bike shop if was he fed up people repeating the line “can you match this price’
whilst holding out their phone, his response surprised me. He wished it
happened more, quite often people will come in saying what a bargain they got
online but didn’t ask James for a price because they didn’t want to be cheeky
or rude. He said he could of beaten the bargain price if he had been asked.
He
now says repairs and servicing make up a significant proportion of his
turnover. Another idea he had to get people in, was to set up an interactive
turbo trainer demonstrator, where you ride a road bike (one of my ex-road bikes
as it happens, I traded it in for a Mountain Bike) against other riders from
all over the world. Obviously the aim is to sell the turbo trainers but also to
get increased footfall through his shop, It worked with me, when I heard he had
set it up I went in for a go and ended up ordering some new pedals while I was
there. I am also thinking about a turbo trainer purchase, If you know my wife,
please don’t mention it, I’m waiting for the right moment to suggest a road
bike connected to the tele in the lounge.
I've
used James' shop for a number of years, I won't pretend I haven't used the
internet but I normally pop in to the shop first to get his price, normally the
instant availability and personal service, trumps the slight saving the
internet may offer, if James can't get close to the price he will be honest
with me and I will reluctantly buy online.
I've
bought three of my four bikes (not all owned simultaneously I will add) my
first bike of my return to cycling was a budget road bike from a chain-store
before I discovered him. My wife also purchased her bike from him. I have also
bought wheels and lots of accessories from him.
My
passion as you can probably tell is cycling but the above can apply to any
hobby and local hobby shops. A distinct
advantage of an L.H.S is that they can take cash payments which don't show up
on bank or credit card statements, I'm sure you can see the benefits of
that.....
If
your 'L.H.S' closes, the internet warehouses won't fettle your gears for you
after you've tore your hair out for hours trying to get them right or say 'pay
me next time' when your caught out for an inner tube on a ride without your
wallet. Or help you out with float, line or hook choices if you fish, or
re-string your guitar and say ‘don’t worry about it’
Surely
that's worth a pound or two more occasionally.
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