You are reading a single comment by @Maj and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
imo bike shops like this need to look what happened to hmv et al, shaming the customer for "not supporting their business and it will go away!!!" didn't work there either.
there are structural issues with wages/ contracts/ jobs depending on these places, but they're not for the consumer to solve, and while the business owner is "going to extract all they can from their workforce like a small business tyrant, the decisions/ models these shops are perusing, as you explain and their refusal to adapt, will see them with the shutters up as the highstreets continues to shift/ disappear over the next decade.
Maj
This happened a lot where I worked. It was because we sold Altura jackets and Conti tyres and Cateye lights and all the boring shit that’s absolutely everywhere.
Like, no wonder people just go and buy it online, you can google it while you’re standing in the shop and you can almost guarantee that the first hit is going to be at least 20% cheaper than we were charging in the shop.
It was like bangin your head against a wall. Like, “Fuck me, you don’t think that every rep this company has is pushing the same shit lines to every single shop they deal with?”
And the owners would be like, “Yeah but if we take 20 sets of these cateye lights we get 2% more margin on them”.
“But fucking crc bought 20,000 sets and are selling them for less than the margin you make on them!!!”