You don’t have to follow the news on NPR, CNN, CSNBC, PBS or Faux. Or, for that matter, in the online versions of Time, the Atlantic, the New York or L.A. Times, the Wall Street Journal or, for that matter, any other publication.
You see, I am ahead of the mainstream media. I have posted about a phenomenon that, today, about half of this nation’s newspapers are reporting. Actually, they’ve not reporting it: They’re running a syndicated Associated Press column.
And what is that big story on which they’ve finally caught up to my reporting? It’s the post-pandemic bike bust.
To be fair, that story mentions something that I don’t think I said much about: The bust is hurting (or destroying) small, family- or enthusiast-owned shops, often in rural or inner-city areas, to a much greater degree than the bigger shops in suburban and affluent urban centers. And it has led to another trend that disturbs me.
I will call it the “Starbucks-ization” of the retail bike industry. Increasing numbers of bike shops are, in effect, franchises or branches of chains, just like that coffee shop you love to hate (but where you sit with a laptop and a latté). According to the article, around 1000 bike shops in the US are owned by either Specialized or Trek.
In theory, that trend should benefit customers because it eliminates the middle-person. But has it? While prices for bikes, parts and accessories have come down from their Pandemic-boom and -shortage highs, they’re still well above pre-pandemic levels, even when adjusted for inflation.
Maybe this is the New Yorker in me talking, but I don’t believe that those companies (or Giant or Cannondale) have the cyclist in mind when they take over, or drive out, smaller shops. If anything, I think they’re doing what Schwinn tried to do during the ‘70’s North American Bike Boom and the two decades leading up to it: They tried to control inventories and markets, just as McDonald’s and Walmart do in their individual restaurants and stores.
When my conspiracy theory, I mean prediction, comes to fruition I won’t say, “I told you so!” I promise! But just remember that you read it here first.😏
Interesting.
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