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The future of retail is not a shop.
There are mechanics on here saying their shops order stuff via Wiggle and Aussie mobile mechs who actually advertise "we will fit your Wiggle parts".
dubtap-
There are mechanics on here saying their shops order stuff via Wiggle..
It tended to be CRC for us as that was back when they were still pretty bargainous.
Shop was in a pretty rich area so a lot of customers with Dura Ace level kit and there was no way a small shop (2 owner/manager and 2 mech/sales) could be holding stock of £100+ cassettes etc so it was a choice between going to Madison who tier their trade pricing depending on the amount of stuff you buy so, again being a small shop, we'd be on the highest trade price plus I seem to remember they had a ridiculous high freepost threshold (possibly tiered like the trade pricing) so you'd be paying postage too, or goto CRC who sell to every Tom, Dick or Harry at less than the supplier sells to us, get free postage coz you spent over £9 and back then it was all Royal Mail so you got it in a day or two.
M_V
So if you were to start a bike shop what would you do?
I've been working as a self employed mobile mechanic offering a collect/delivery service working out of various self owned garages for the last 4 years and never found a way to make the business grow further than just me.
I'm going to Gran Canaria for the winter to work fr one of the big rental companies and hoping to see how a proper shop runs with the eventual plan to possibly come back and open a workshop/coffeshop in north London.