London bike shops closing

I never knew that. How interesting.

I used to live a stone's throw from it, on New North St.

Facinating @WillMelling did not know that...

Bikefix closing bash.
A wonderful laid back evening of music, and dancing with a touch of sadness

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Was a great night, albeit sad. I’m also very hungover this morning.

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Didn't see it posted anywhere else but Cycle Republic seems to be going as well

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/cycle-republic-and-boardman-performance-centre-set-to-close-451741

That's a shame, I have one round the corner and found it pretty useful for picking up bits.

There's not going to be much in the way of shops where you can buy a good range of bits and pieces soon.

AFAIK the stores do well, its just as the article says, a lot of investors in the very large companies expect their 20% ROI each and every year and if they don't get it they start getting itchy feet.
Feel like the two cycle republic stores I know of function really well, they have good staff and folk make a genuine effort, standard issues with dealing with those from above in some cases. I guess the outcome will be they are split off and sold to another retail group?

This, I run a very small shop (mostly repairs), we keep around £6-10k of stock in (service parts + a few accessories, no bikes) and every time a mate who is 'good at business' takes a look in the shop and at accounts they say two things...
1) you need to reduce your stock levels, its too expensive having this lot hanging about
2) you need more stock, people will get bored waiting for you to order it (and come next day lol), what do you mean you don't have a 1998 XTR hub assembly in stock at all times!?? call yourself a bike shop!
Its a problem of the industry with low margins and very wide variety of parts required to merely function.

Cycle Republic is to close for good.

Halfords revealed on Monday morning (March 16) that it plans to close its high street cycle shops and the Boardman cycling facility in Evesham, in order to free up money and focus on the motoring aspects of its business

Bleurgh. Sorry to hear that, Ed

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.

Sorry to hear that, too, if you've been working for Cycle Republic, Ed. Hope you find somewhere else soon.

Also, they claim it's been planned since last November, but does it strike anybody that the timing of the announcement in the middle of the virus crisis is also really rubbish?

I would imagine it’s timed with the end of the financial year. But it’s rotten timing for the employees.

And to add, I don’t think there is ever a good time to make announcements like this.

I know a cafe near us, doing really well its first 2 years, failed to really grow any this year and I think they are fed up working for free, now virus is set to hit us for x months they've just thrown in the towel (rent renewal at end of April) and decided to do something else which is fair enough, if you have the chance to jump off and save yourself from almost certain bankruptcy its probably a good time to do that. Halfords group might of course just have been planning this all along and its coincidental.

I would imagine it’s timed with the end of the financial year. But it’s rotten timing for the employees.

Long story short; the pandemic sped it up a bit.

SBC are selling tshirts, bottles and vouchers to weather the incoming small business shitstorm. Consider supporting them if you can, the last thing anyone wants to see is them close down. They're a good bunch.

https://sbccycles.bigcartel.com/

Everything’s sold out 😂

Hey,

I work in two bike shops in London - It's actually been pretty busy last week, and as the shops are going to be staying open until told otherwise (could be days, a week who knows) How can we change our setup to protect staff and still maintain service? - Unfortunately we had lots of customers coming in with coughs/colds, kids running around touching everything like usual, customers not distancing themselves from staff etc. People trying on clothes then not buying and putting them back on display

Counter service? I.e block off the majority of shop and get customers requests for them.
Appointment basis/click and collect for bike sales? We can have them ready to go to minimise time spent in store
Bike fitting? hows that going to work (though demand is reduced obvs)

Any ideas?

Anything that can be done in support (other than patronage, I'm getting all my odd jobs done by Hub Velo over next week or so) be interested to hear.

I think it's mad that Westfield is still open but I want bike shops not to close...

At our place we have put up the dog fence, a free standing mesh thing to stop the dog constantly going out the door (she's now learned to stay in), keeps customers at the front and stops then wandering about. Anyone with symptoms or didn't want to come in has been asked to stay outside and knock on window.
Work's so far and no complaints.
Workshop is mobbed, going in 2 hours early to try and keep on top of it

Sounds sensible, yep our workshop is rammed too

duplicate

Counter service? I.e block off the majority of shop and get customers requests for them.

Appointment basis/click and collect for bike sales? We can have them ready to go to minimise time spent in store.

condone off area that's not necessary, do walk-in only to ensure that there's less customer bike in the shop.
ask customer to put bike on a stand so we can inspect it, once service completed, put tag on it and not to be touched for 24 hours, hand back with glove when collected.

Sales wise, it gonna be slow, servicing will be busy.