danfoto wrote:Sorry, I should have phrased that better. I have many times heard and read the modern mantra "stock what the customer wants to buy", which is apparently taken to mean "stock what most customers buy, most often".
In the case of shops such as the one I'm on about, this seems to mean road bikes and MTBs, upmarket accessories for the same, and go-faster clothing. The net result is not a cycle shop, but rather a purveyor of bikes and accessories catering for those who go cycling in their car.
If such a shop were to also have on display at least one utility bike, a pedelec and a "budget" tandem, the perception would be that the shop is less elitist, so Jo Public might well feel less like a fish out of water if she ventured in. The potential customer base would obviously be greater, and a pound to a penny says that with proper management, the shop should make more money - unless of course the roadies and their MTB counterparts resented the intrusion of the hoi polloi and consequently drifted away ...
I take your point,most shops IMO find their niche and stick to it preferring the reletively high and secure profit margin of the Sportiv and MTB crowd,though I don't think thats the whole story.
I would imagine there to be a fair number of utility bike shops in towns and cities like Cambridge or York.
Cycling in the UK has been in the doldrums for quite a number of years and it's only recently that it's begining to emerge from it's cucoon of nerdy oddball types who cycle,not to mention similar shop owners,and begin to reach the general public,as a result there are a lot of "unusual" people in the cycle trade.
That no way excuses the way some cycle shop owners treat their customers but does remind me of a story I was told by a friend who went into well established cycle shop whilst touring some years back.
The shop was empty and the owner said to my friend "can I help you" he replied "just having a look for the moment thanks" to which the owner said "if you're not going to buy anything you may as well get out" .Nice!
There's a middle ground between the gushing twentysomething shopworker and the type mentioned above,sometimes it can be a hard balance to find unless experienced in dealing with the general public and not being aknowledged on entering a shop(I mean shop not a department store) is the height of bad business IMO.
As you said in your OP a friendly "I'll be with in a moment sir" goes a long way to making a customer feel they,atleast have been aknowledged as another human being in close proximity.Speaking to strangers or passing the time of day doesn't seem to be the norm in UK society anymore sadly,even for two people passing one another on a path in the middle of a field.Which says something about the society we live in generally
BTW other than pedelecs* my LBS is such a shop as you mention.
*Pedelecs seem to be emerging as having retail outlets of their own.
