Why The Decline In Bike Shops?

A good century ago you would have found a cycle shop in almost every village or town. Nowadays however a great many have shut their doors and ceased trading, leaving only the bigger companies and shops that sell a range of products such as snowboards and surfboards as well as bikes. So where did it all go wrong for local bike shops and is there any hope for them yet? Lets take a look at a few factors.

More Cars. Everyone can see that cars are much more prominent on our roads than they used to be. More people are not only buying cars but also using their cars a lot more. But does this effect the amount of people using bikes. Halfords, a large chain of shops in the UK that serves both car and bike owners have stated that over the past 10 years there has been a decrease of 10% in the number of commuter and also mountain bikes bought. However, this last year has seen the first increase in bike sales, potentially as a result of the recent economic and ecological concerns.

Internet Shopping. More and more people as using the Internet to buy things. Although people are more inclined to want to get on a bike and ride it before they bought one, there has still be a shift towards Internet buying. According to a leading online retailer, internet bicucle sales have claimed 5% more of the total market share each year for the last 5.

Trading websites. The growth and prominence of classifieds sites such as Craig’s List is another factor to consider. Local bikes shops used to be the only place you could buy and sell bicycles. Nowadays we can just list our bikes on number of sites and wait for buyers to contact you. There are now even sites set up specifically for buying and selling surfboards, snowboards and mountain bikes etc, such as Extreme Sports Trader and Bike Magic