The "I hate Specialized" Bandwagon...... what's the deal?

[Wyatt Earp]

Thanks for an interesting debate fellow hubbers. Cheers.

Cheers, don't be gone too long .

[MTBeer]

It is not a simple yes or no answer. I suspect that if a Harley Davidson stores can manage to sell only Harley's and the BMW Motorrad stores sells only BMW's that the likes of Giant, Scott and Specialized can make concept stores work in SA. 

Some concept store models work quite well. Nespresso is such a case in point. When they opened in the V&A I wondered if they will sell enough machines and pods to keep going. The poor candy store that was there was kicked out and here comes a shop with fancy shop fittings and overpriced coffee. I now often find myself in the V&A primarily to buy coffee at Nespresso and wonder if and when Lavazza is going to catch on. 

 

[YUMEYA]

without any real insider info from either Bridge or Specialized it is all speculation and best guesses. i gather from the posts that some on here are quite emotional about Bridge moving away from the brand / Spesh blind-siding them and pulling the rug from underneath them (depending on your subjective view of proceedings here). If Bridge has a gripe with the way that Spesh dealt with the matter they can chose to be vocal about it or they can simply move on.

 

My bit of speculation is that they probably knew what was coming and preferred to remain independent. With the way the market is moving it seems like retailers will have to pick a path and stick to it.

Bridge is not moving away from spez. The brand is being pulled. 

 

This bit is not speculation. There was a delay in the renovation of the building across the street because he had a tenant in the building. After the tenant had moved out bridge started the renovations. Renovations started way before spez gave them final notice at the beginning of March. Bridge always said that the building was going to be a spez concept or elite store. He never not once said that the store will be anything other than a spez store. 

So it was never a case of bridge wanting to remain independent. call bridge and speak to the owner, ask him.

 

Bridge is taking it up with spez. I choose to come here and be vocal about it as a customer of bridge and fan of spez bikes. 

[Skubarra]

The industry is changing. Whether we like it or not. Who still mourns the death of the corner grocer? Now we have 24-7 convenience stores and large grocery stores that is open from 9 to 9. What about the butcher? Woollies and Spar now sells meat. The moms and pops bike shop will die a slow death. While it is sad on some levels it is even more concerning that these shops are not re inventing themselves to adapt with the times. Remember when car dealers bought a variety of brands and stocked their show room floors? No? Its because that model changed after WW2 to what we now see as the equivalent of Concept Stores in Cycling. Some motor cycle dealerships still use the antiquated model of stocking a variety of brands on their floors purely because volume of motor bike sales means that exclusively in this regard is not sustainable. What about department stores? Remember when Stuttafords in Adderley Street was a big deal?

The way we are buying bikes is changing. The market is outgrowing the current model and exclusivity is becoming not only viable, but essential as well. Hopefully the agency model will be ditched by more of the mainstream cycling brands to make way for direct representation. The alternative will be online channels. Savvy retailers will look at a way to move with the times or move on. We will probably tell our grandchildren about the good old days when we popped in at the LBS. We can chose to be nostalgic about it or we can recognize that the world is changing.

 

Good post & I agree with you to an extent, the LBS must adapt & evolve and they certainly face more challenges than in the past. If a cycle shop was purely about pushing products then I would have agreed with you fully but you get much more from your LBS.

 

I don't support my LBS because of nostalgia, but because I because I get tons of value out of my relationship with the LBS owner, I trust him to service my bike once a month, I trust him for advice on upgrades & etc, I get discount on big purchases & parts, once Giant refused to honour a warranty on my bike so he replaced the part from his own pocket. And in these personal service aspects the mom&pop stores will always be well placed to compete with the faceless online & corporate concept stores. 

 

From your grocery shops, fast food joints, clothing stores etc you don't need this kind of relationship which puts them in a different category imo.

[GLuvsMtb]

Bridge is not moving away from spez. The brand is being pulled. 

 

This bit is not speculation. There was a delay in the renovation of the building across the street because he had a tenant in the building. After the tenant had moved out bridge started the renovations. Renovations started way before spez gave them final notice at the beginning of March. Bridge always said that the building was going to be a spez concept or elite store. He never not once said that the store will be anything other than a spez store. 

So it was never a case of bridge wanting to remain independent. call bridge and speak to the owner, ask him.

 

Bridge is taking it up with spez. I choose to come here and be vocal about it as a customer of bridge and fan of spez bikes. 

Ok thats your version. Specialized also has a version, and somewhere in the middle there is the truth. I have never been to Bridge and I don't know the guys there. Its no loss to me if they are no longer associated with the brand. 

For all I know a few people would were asked to send proposals for a Cape Town Concept store and I would be very surprised if Bridge was not one of them (again more speculation, but bare with me). If Bridge got the concession and Revolution missed out there would have been wet nappies in that corner. It would not be sustainable to have too many of these concept stores around and it will be extremely important to Specialized that these stores are well run. If they fail, their retailer network will be compromised and they will lose market share. If they succeed, the store owners stand to make good money and so does Spesh. If we take the emotion out of this and look at it objectively the picture changes somewhat. 

[GLuvsMtb]

Good post & I agree with you to an extent, the LBS must adapt & evolve and they certainly face more challenges than in the past. If a cycle shop was purely about pushing products then I would have agreed with you fully but you get much more from your LBS.

 

I don't support my LBS because of nostalgia, but because I because I get tons of value out of my relationship with the LBS owner, I trust him to service my bike once a month, I trust him for advice on upgrades & etc, I get discount on big purchases & parts, once Giant refused to honour a warranty on my bike so he replaced the part from his own pocket. And in these personal service aspects the mom&pop stores will always be well placed to compete with the faceless online & corporate concept stores. 

 

From your grocery shops, fast food joints, clothing stores etc you don't need this kind of relationship which puts them in a different category imo.

I get the same from my Audi Dealer. I have bought 3 cars from the same guy there. I walk in and he knows my name and what my current car is. Admittedly my car only gets serviced about twice a year and he sells about 20 cars a month, but I get a personal experience. Perhaps they "cheat" and he is notified when his clients' cars come in. It doesn't matter. It merely means that they have a good CRM setup.

It should not change with a concept store opposed to a traditional LBS, depending on the volume that they manage to push and the frequency of customer visits. 

[urbanroyal]

What would it take Bridge to go Italian....I'm thinking Colnago's ..Pinarello's ... Bianchi's.....lots of Campi ..gruppo's..and all the kit that goes with it.....now that is a concept I can live with....☺

[Wyatt Earp]

What would it take Bridge to go Italian....I'm thinking Colnago's ..Pinarello's ... Bianchi's.....lots of Campi ..gruppo's..and all the kit that goes with it.....now that is a concept I can live with....☺

Pipedreams are normally the most expensive .

[urbanroyal]

Pipedreams are normally the most expensive .

I know. ..☺..but if Bridge was dropping..say.. 800k to renovate and set up the Spez store...maybe the Italian Job could be pulled off....☺

[Wyatt Earp]

I know. ..☺..but if Bridge was dropping..say.. 800k to renovate and set up the Spez store...maybe the Italian Job could be pulled off....☺

It would be great.

If you ever speak to Jason from Olympic, ask him about the time the two of us went in to a shop in San Francisco.

It's called American Cyclery.

 

They have a wall with Campy stuff all behind a glass cabinet with Campy stuff as far back as the 1930's 

They had loads of fixies, from Bianchi's to Independent Fabrications.

Retro Bianchi woollen shirts, retro gloves caps, leather toes straps, brass and gold toe-clips.

Leather bar tape and every single thing the heart can desire retro and Italian.

 

I didn't spend money there but Jason was like a kid in a candy store .

One of the most memorable experiences of my life .

Tattooed freaks running the shop and working on bikes, a tiny workshop with serious tools.

 

http://americancyclery.com

[YUMEYA]

Ok thats your version. Specialized also has a version, and somewhere in the middle there is the truth. I have never been to Bridge and I don't know the guys there. Its no loss to me if they are no longer associated with the brand. 

For all I know a few people would were asked to send proposals for a Cape Town Concept store and I would be very surprised if Bridge was not one of them (again more speculation, but bare with me). If Bridge got the concession and Revolution missed out there would have been wet nappies in that corner. It would not be sustainable to have too many of these concept stores around and it will be extremely important to Specialized that these stores are well run. If they fail, their retailer network will be compromised and they will lose market share. If they succeed, the store owners stand to make good money and so does Spesh. If we take the emotion out of this and look at it objectively the picture changes somewhat.

 

Now this is speculation on my behalf. I think that town concept store had revolutions name written on it all along.

[Skubarra]

I get the same from my Audi Dealer. I have bought 3 cars from the same guy there. I walk in and he knows my name and what my current car is. Admittedly my car only gets serviced about twice a year and he sells about 20 cars a month, but I get a personal experience. Perhaps they "cheat" and he is notified when his clients' cars come in. It doesn't matter. It merely means that they have a good CRM setup.

It should not change with a concept store opposed to a traditional LBS, depending on the volume that they manage to push and the frequency of customer visits.

Let's just say your wonderful experience with your car franchise dealer is not necessarily universal.

 

My point is not that concept stores can't give good service, but that lbs's are well placed to compete on the important aspect of service, especially when the owner is on the shop floor. Concept stores will get their share of the pie, but there is money to be made for stores not just linked to one brand.

[GLuvsMtb]

Let's just say your wonderful experience with your car franchise dealer is not necessarily universal.

 

My point is not that concept stores can't give good service, but that lbs's are well placed to compete on the important aspect of service, especially when the owner is on the shop floor. Concept stores will get their share of the pie, but there is money to be made for stores not just linked to one brand.

My view is that this will change over time. There will always be outliers, but these will probably be the exception rather than the rule. Service levels will increase when there are strong brands associated with it. Spesh would not want to lose you to the Canondale Concept Store because of poor service, just like Audi does not want to lose me to Merc or BMW.

[GoLefty!!]

Renovation costs is much higher. They are going ahead with it without spec. C29er is way off on the three years. The insistence of the segregated store only started at the end of last year according to bridge. 4 mins later spec pulled the plug.

[Dicky DQ]

Good post & I agree with you to an extent, the LBS must adapt & evolve and they certainly face more challenges than in the past. If a cycle shop was purely about pushing products then I would have agreed with you fully but you get much more from your LBS.

 

I don't support my LBS because of nostalgia, but because I because I get tons of value out of my relationship with the LBS owner, I trust him to service my bike once a month, I trust him for advice on upgrades & etc, I get discount on big purchases & parts, once Giant refused to honour a warranty on my bike so he replaced the part from his own pocket. And in these personal service aspects the mom&pop stores will always be well placed to compete with the faceless online & corporate concept stores. 

 

From your grocery shops, fast food joints, clothing stores etc you don't need this kind of relationship which puts them in a different category imo.

I am missing a bit here, sorry if I am. Following your logic re you LBS, you support him because he goes out of his way to assist you.

 

I get that and this is what made the mom and pop store scenario work.

 

Now if everyone goes the care dealership/ Concept Store route. What now? 

 

You will now be forced to drive to "your bike dealer".

1. There will only be X number in a territory.

2. You will be locked into that shops SLA.

And you will pay a premium because they can.

3. And and and.

[Skubarra]

 

Now if everyone goes the care dealership/ Concept Store route. What now? 

 

You will now be forced to drive to "your bike dealer".

1. There will only be X number in a territory.

2. You will be locked into that shops SLA.

And you will pay a premium because they can.

3. And and and.

 

My point is (and that is where I differ from Gluvsmtb) that bikes are not going to go the car dealership route. I don't think the majority of brands are going to try to / need to compete with Spez on the whole "exclusivity" thing. I don't see why there can only be one distribution model, market is big enough and segmented enough for different methods to work.