Evans Cycles

Linky?

It doesn't spell things out, but it highlights some aspects about indy stores that I think a lot don't want to admit or change.
I had a chat with someone that works for Condor the other week, and whilst not my cup of tea, they just decided to get rid of everything and just stock their shit and Bromptons.
Their aversion to rapid change and sticking with their dedicated client list seems to be working.
Also no aggressive expansion.

Some brands seem to have lost control of how their products are represented online

Looking at you Cannondale

It's a shame really, the same I feel goes for Speshy.

All over the place with strategies that don't seem to make sense, and a customer base that recently, seems to treat them with the same disposable abandon as they did say....B-twin.

News is reporting Braehead, Brentford, Durham, Fulham, Holborn and Kendal Evans will be closing down. That includes my store.
linky

Know someone in Braehead.

Last time I spoke to him he said he’d heard they were gonna be safe.

Not that I’d wish the people in the other Glasgow store were facing closure of course.

Shite situation all round and a fucking awful time of year to be getting such news.

Holborn make sense, Kendal doesn't, especially since it's where the suspension service tend to go.

Last time I spoke to him he said he’d heard they were gonna be safe.

TBH, he's not wrong, as the majority of Evans store are making profits inc. Braehead.

It's a lottery to see which one face the axe or not.

You are right about inclusivity. I have very recently taken on a small indy bike workshop with a friend of mine in Cardiff called Punk Bikes. The business has been on the site in one form or another for ~7 years and has always been built on a non judgemental, inclusive approach. We don’t care if you walk through the door with a £60 gumtree special or +£7k TT ride, you will get the same service and we have found people respond well to that. I get that larger chain shops (like Evans) are super busy and have enormous overheads etc, but they are sucking the life out of bricks and mortar bike shops imo, through a lack of inclusiveness.

Depends on the workshop. In my workshop, we have the same attitude as your friends; doesnt matter what you're riding, everyone deserves a bike that functions as well as possible.

Evans as a monolithic corporate entity may have some problematic issues, but the people in the workshop are people and most of us do what we do because we love bikes.

Sorry to read this

Hope everything else is good with you. Hope you can get a strong reference and find more work quickly.

. I have very recently taken on a small indy bike workshop with a friend of mine in Cardiff called Punk Bikes.

Sounds rad. Do you have any shop tshirts for sale?

but they are sucking the life out of bricks and mortar bike shops imo, through a lack of inclusiveness.

Huh? How did you come to that conclusion?
You ever seen what comes through Chain store doors?
It also makes them what, Metaphorical shops existing between the realm of the physical and spiritual?

I’m not commenting on the individuals that work the day to day, more on the companies themselves. It’s like a lot of jobs really, you have to love what you do to put up with it.

@7ven Coming in the new year hopefully - @punkbikecardiff for instagram updates. Thanks for the interest!

@Chak - Maybe through a perceived lack of inclusiveness then (it was early). I think the sterile chain bike store environment goes someways to put people with cheaper/older bikes off. This view is based on my own experiences and what our customers have expressed. We have benefitted greatly being the closest indy LBS to Evans in Cardiff, with people sometimes either feeling uncomfortable or priced out whilst in there. I think that for cycling to grow in UK towns and cities people need to have their needs catered for regardless of what they are riding. Thats all i’m saying and were very happy to profit from that.

at risk of looking really stupid - why've they suddenly had 3000 requests for accounts to be deleted?

Because lots of people don't fancy Sports Direct getting their hands on their details.

Fair. Was literally asking coz I've not requested this, not even considered it and wonder if I should have done. If concerns are on a corporate lack-of-scruples basis, I guess already too late to avoid though

Anyone else found they have had their Evans gift cards cancelled? had around £100 on a card that 'was' valid until 2020 (so no rush to use) but have just found out they have been cancelled / invalidated as of 31st Jan 2019. No email warnings, no nothing.

Again, Sports Direct approach to 'saving the high street' is very questionable

Curious about the Evans Spitalfields branch...it wasn't publicly mentioned as one of the store closures but I just walked past there and it's closed. The sign in the window says that the lease has expired and the landlord has taken possession of the premises.

It was always super busy and surely it makes sense to keep it to rival the nearby Cycle Surgery?

Maybe the sign you read was right, and the landlord upped the rent to unsunstainable levels for EC?

@edscoble was saying on Insta that there are customer's bikes inside which are now locked up without access

Here it is, from Twitter;

I'm much more concern about the staff who got caught in this, and unable to work.

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Amazing

TBH it's nothing news, as the landlords wanted them out for ages.