It all starts to seem the same...

Today I visited a competitor of ours, one that I've worked for in my past. This was a group of stores that really set the status for MTB'ing in SoCal for decades, and made the competition cringe at what they'd do next. The techs of ours that they lured away could always say "Well, because it's Blahblahblah bikes, it's cool... AND they don't sell Snappyhoppers like us".

That was then. Business has changed. The way to keep paying your techs is to have bikes in stock that actually SELL, and not to be competing over a discount on every part. This makes your customers loyal to the next ad, not your service and associates. Your competitor that does not know how to run his business will cut his price, and his profit margin. Alan Goldsmith recognized this, and sold Supergo to Performance Bikes. Performance has re-labeled those former stores, and has remerchandised them. The brands I saw there today were Fuji, Mongoose, Schwinn, GT, Iron Horse, and Rocky Mountain. Those techs used some of those brands as motivation for leaving US, and now those brands have followed them. Such cruel irony! There were a few boutique brand bikes and frames, but mostly on a "close out" basis. I asked about a range of parts, from weird to common, and they were out of stock or low on many of them. "I can order that for you". The great have fallen; how times have changed.

We are changing also, stay tuned for good things in April...