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I have started to see shops put up notices 'we don't do punctures', which is a bit!!!!
We can make close to £350 on punctures alone a week (£10 labour, about 5 a days) excluding Brompton and Dutch/Tern GSD type, it seemed a small task but does add to our labour target.
It sound like they either not getting enough punctures, not charging enough, not having shop floor staff to do it or simply poor management.
edscoble-
Make or turnover? Used to workshop manage a large independent (3 FT mechs + 2 FT new bike assemblers + 2 PT wastes of spaces that I would have preferred didn't bother coming into work but wasn't aloud to fire them as they were their families mates neighbours kids or something) and yeah, would see healthy turnover from doing a lot of punctures, but even when the folk had a strict 'no faff, no chat, no btw can you tune my entire bike' kind of a deal, it covered costs obviously, but the time of the good FT mechanics was much better served dealing with workshop work. Kept them happier to that they knew what their day looked like at the beginning of the day so could effectively plan stuff out.
Had days when you'd see 20-35 punctures in a day, and the amount of swearing coming from the workshop went from 'maybe don't let kids down there' to 'i'm not going in there'. So moved to keeping the PT + bike assemblers on call for punctures and not use the FT guys for them unless absolutely needed. Worked fairly well that way, until the inevitable broken axle, wrong size wheel in frame, you name it but honestly not a money making centre, just a service and it gets folk in the door, might pick up a bell, might notice some stuff on their bike thats worth booking in for etc.
Have found the only folk that tend to baulk at the £12 for labour + new tube cost likely to have a costa/starbucks £5+ flavoured latte in their hands, and have arrived in a new £50k+ leased merc/audi SUV. Everyone else is just happy it can be done while they wait around 10 minutes.
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GSD mk2 with any extra bits on the back (wide footplates) is a joke of a job. Have to remove some accessory bolts and loosen bolts on the kickstand to get it out, crazy! Mk1 was much easier.
BrickMan
+1 for rema tip top £6 now for a kit with 6 patchs in it, but they are very good patchs.
Think you guys probably have a tilted view of the UK LBS due to being London/SE, down there even for a tiny hovel of a place you could be near £1k a week in rent, don't make that kind of money selling puncture kits and giving out good advice, hard selling on high margin bike to work schemes only seems to really work. Seen plenty of smaller decent repair only places that haven't survived due to one reason or another, but usually cost of being there is too high for the realistic yield a bike shops drags in.
Most shops carry puncture kits with glue, without glue (park patchs I get on with OK, plenty of good ones and plenty of terrible ones out there!) or any size tube you need. Crank bolts? Got all of them. Maybe not for a 2001 FSA road self extractor with the weird bevel washer thing under it, but the rest of them, yes, cotter pins in common sizes, yes, random bolts yes etc.
Puncture repair, as a shop to be honest you don't make money on fiing punctures, £12 I charge for new tube (Nutrak are OK, Impac if I can't get Nutrac) and labour. There is always something to fiddle with, limits, gears, brake pad rubbing the tyre, oil the chain, and hopefully not a 'yup your axle is snapped, all your bearings belong to the floor now'.
Branded tubes, Conti/Schwalbe etc are all in the £7-8 tube range now, more if you want extra light, latex, mega long valves etc.
As a shop repairing an old tube, its a little extra labour, its extra risk that it could not work (cust probably brought in an argo's bike that has fake rubber/plastic inner tubes that won't take a patch anyway), and then they'll be back in 20 minutes and they'll be annoyed.
I have started to see shops put up notices 'we don't do punctures', which is a bit!!!!