London bike shops closing

From that article, it's not just Cycle Republic, but seemingly the cycling component of all Halford's shops? They seem to want to concentrate on on-line trading and not hold any cycling stock except in centralised warehouses. I may be misreading the article, of course.

It's a shame about Cycle Republic; of course, Halford's have done this to their cycling-only arm(s) before, when they closed the Bike Hut and (old) Cycle Republic shops, only to open some as 'Cycle Republic' a few years later.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/06/halfords-revive-cycle-republic-retailer-specialist-bicycle-shops-uk-cycling-boom

While there is a small chance that this may mean more demand for parts in local bike shops, for the most part those will continue to be screwed over completely by the on-line trade. Many will survive as repair-only (with very limited stock, e.g. routine spares), and, of course, buying bikes is easier when you can actually test-ride the bike (although there's showrooming).

I do think there's a space for some small chains, and large chains disappearing is probably not only a bad thing, but it's so difficult to get the capital together to open a shop that many of those who used to work for chains and would like to open independently won't be able to.