What places like RCB and Veloshop (and — full disclosure here — my own beloved Citybikes) offer customers is that face-to-face encounter with someone who loves bicycles just as much as they do; and whose greatest desire in that moment is to help them enjoy themselves as much as possible while riding their bicycles. Those encounters on a human scale are invaluable and I believe firmly that they’re what keep customers coming back into the brick-and-mortar shops.

There are some good points here. Interestingly, I live in Northern California, where we have plenty of bike shops, and I do as much business with shops like Clever Cycles (pdx) and Hiawatha Cyclery (mpls) for bigger ticket items as I do the locals. Why? It’s largely due to their online activities — blogs, flickr, etc. I know that they know what I’m talking about when I ask about generator hubs and lights, Rohloff and other IG hub bits, etc and that I can order online midweek and have my (admittedly oddball) parts by the weekend.

The alternative is trying to explain what I need to the locals who don’t quite get it. It may be that there are good shops in SF or Berkeley who would have what I need, but those cities are ~30 miles from where I live– functionally the same as being in another state given my family responsibilities and our inadequate public transit options.

I had some awesome service today at veloshop. i’m hurting for work/money right now and i would like to have a couple wheels built. I don’t have the tools to do this at home. jake? (not ryan, not brent) was very helpful in assisting with spoke/nipple choices and it’s very reassuring that you have “quality assurance” on wheel builds. Sure, i might not be able to buy today, but in a month when I want the work done, I’m going to come down to veloshop.

I buy a lot of stuff on line because the shops in my area don’t seem to stock what I’m looking for. “Dude, that’s totally obsolete. You need a new bike. Let me show this Madone.”

There are good shops and there are shops that are not. I’m pretty sure the reasons that some survive and some don’t is because of the way those shops are managed, not how their competitors are pricing their parts.

Our prices are now competitive with other stores in the area and we now focus on the service and relationships with the customers. We work hard to get to know each customer and how they ride and what they need for their bikes.

Before we opened, I worked for a Concept Store and after each transaction I felt dirty inside almost, overcharging for service and selling customers products that they would either never use or not know how to use. I am pretty sure the customers could sense my discomfort.

At Volker, it is the opposite, you’ll here us saying “you don’t need that,” more often than not, because we know our customers and how they ride.

Service, tubes, lights, locks, and helmets is how we pay the bills. Everything else is a bonus.

The short version is:

1. Play up your strengths you can offer locally and in person to keep people coming in (like bike fitting, training, group rides from the shop, etc)

2. Embrace the web in ways that can enhance your business. Sell stuff people can’t find anywhere else (either self-created or locally produced). Keep a blog and twitter account to keep customers up to date. Sell your overstock on eBay for a higher price than you’d get locally.

The RCB owner is basically saying every shop owner should ignore the web due to internet sales undercutting them, but that’s ignoring a giant potential audience that you could be selling to, and it’s an audience that can be many, many times the number of people that walk into the shop (and it’s just bad business sense to ignore those potential customers).

Tires and parts are way cheaper online, you go to the bike fitter for the frame or custom build, maybe get one from a team. There’s not much left for a shop to do but build it up and sell you a tube in a pinch.

Ultimately, a coach/club/team/studio is just as bad for the local bike shop as online sellers that offer lower prices. They all pursue a niche that the local bike shop didn’t adequately fill. Offering lower prices is one way, giving a more involved customization process or offering a more holistic approach to equipment and training are others. Regardless, it takes the big purchases away from the local shop.

These other venues may help develop the bike community in other ways, but the local shops’ bottom line will continue to suffer.