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Remains to be seen whether the running shop will be viable long term.
Bricks and mortar high street retail is dying, online retail rules over all.
Prohibitive costs for bike shops on terms of rents, business rates, staffing, training of staff, product (especially if you have to stock bikes and lots of them) when all customers see internet pricing as the going rate means that most bike shops can't be run efficiently enough to make a profit. And if they do make a profit it's so slim as to be non-existent.
Distributors have not moved with the times either, systemically handicapping the service that bike shops could provide to try to match online retail service (small goods carriage items from suppliers generally incur anything from £5-£12.50 for a single item; true next day delivery is not universal; weekend delivery that isn't charged at an exorbitant rate is almost non-existent). Distributors are only interested in selling bulk really, so independent bike shops are treated with disdain. Everything will move online eventually, the only bricks & mortar edifices that remain will be bike workshops/service centres and destination shops designed for urban hipsters who want the "experience".
t_w-
the only bricks & mortar edifices that remain will be bike workshops/service centres and destination shops designed for urban hipsters who want the "experience"
I visited one of these recently. (It shall remain nameless.) It was deeply grimy, and not in a good way. Better off by far, I felt, doing one's own spannering at home.
HarmanMogul
My nearest Cycle Surgery, in West End Lane NW6, closed several months ago and is now a running shop. As a historical note, a bike shop had been at these premises since 1977, when it was known as Beta Bikes, which became Freewheel, and out of which emerged the large and successful distributor Madison. (See here)
How can a retailer selling running apparel more viable than a bike shop?