Can anyone tell me why bike shops only open for half a day on Sunday?

[Crasherfromwayback]

Here...you'll be offered Steinlarger. After hours of course.

[Blew]

I have never worked this one out.

I did ask in a motorbike shop once and the reply was "we don't make enough money on a sunday to break even".

Surely more people are around to buy accessories and trial bikes on a sunday than on a week day?

Just never made sense, you don't see harvey norman or dick smith closing early on a sunday (just comparing some retailers).

It just seems like a really strange business model to me. At first I thought they closed to allow for shop organised rides but this doesn't seem to be the case.

7 day trading Sales in small shop.

To carry out 7 Day Trading shop owner would need to invest $2,000,000.00

In the bank at 6% he get a return $120000.00 before tax and can keep working for salary, say $70,000.00 for 5 days.

His 7 day life would need to return him $190,000.00 pre tax

Working by himself. That’s 190 sales, allowing for his rent power advertising.

190 divided by 50 weeks 3.8 sales a week.

Add in the support of parts accessories and service 7 days a week his investment and risk go up 10 fold. Wet days or days you work who turns up to buy from him.

Only problem with this is you guys.

Money in bank is better deal, but there are shop owner who like motorcycles!

[IdunBrokdItAgin]

That's your answer there.

And still no comaprable industry cited.

[merv]

Mmm, ok, but he stays open late friday, so the next guy does too, then your boss has you staying open too.......so where does this get us????

Happy customers! Now that would be novel.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Serious Lols - Just don't ask Dean to the Dance!

are you going steady?

[IdunBrokdItAgin]

7 day trading Sales in small shop.

To carry out 7 Day Trading shop owner would need to invest $2,000,000.00

In the bank at 6% he get a return $120000.00 before tax and can keep working for salary, say $70,000.00 for 5 days.

His 7 day life would need to return him $190,000.00 pre tax

Working by himself. That’s 190 sales, allowing for his rent power advertising.

190 divided by 50 weeks 3.8 sales a week.

Add in the support of parts accessories and service 7 days a week his investment and risk go up 10 fold. Wet days or days you work who turns up to buy from him.

Only problem with this is you guys.

Money in bank is better deal, but there are shop owner who like motorcycles!

Jeez, this thread is just getting wierd now. Where did all those figures appear from?

I have purposefully refrained from using any figures as there are too many assumptions around them. I mean where did you get $2,000,000 needed to set up shop for 7 day trading.
Is the loan from the bank for seed capital (for stock etc) required to set up a business and to capture an operating loss whilst gathering a customer base? See just too many assumptions - it's not worth using figures to try and prove or disproove anything.

And I even got accused of using statistics to prove stuff. Well 87.6% of surveys can tell you that that is wrong. ;-}

[Ixion]

So I'm guessing you spend a little time on the intenet, maybe 5 minutes, maybe 5 hours looking for the best deal/advice/shipping times etc. Then you plug your credit card details in, or use paypal, and get the goods delivered from overseas. What is there stopping you from ringing your local bike store or dropping them an email and doing the same? Honest question.

Cos, from experience, bike shops are shit lousy at answering emails (if they were good at that they'd probably have an online store). And whether you email them or phone them , nine times out of ten, if you ask enough questions to find out what you want to know, they lose the thread (in fairness, it's pretty hard to sell something over the phone) and simply say "Come in and see us". Back to square one.And bear in mind the internet has parts diagrams, pictures, specifications - try getting that conveyed across the phone.

Meatspace is best - you can see the goods, ask questions , compare, take time. But that's not easy, cos the shops aren't open at friendly hours. Internet is almost as good - you can compare, probably ask questions (not as easily as meatspace though), take time. Not quite as good, but you can do it anytime, anywhere. Phone, email are way way behind. Can't easily compare, questions become a drawn out process taking maybe days, and for phone, time is definately limited. Worst solution.

As to the "if it worked someone would be doing it" question - some are.

Cycletreads for instance. Though they've gone the 'longer hours' route, which I think is probably not best. They do better to open later some days, or not open at all. But they are open 7 days. And they do have an online catalog so you can pre-research. that's good business. I've bought quite a few bits from them cos of that - check first on web, determine what looks good , then a quick trip in to check that it looks the same in real life and collect. Motomail too, though for unrelated reasons I don't seem to buy much there.

[Big Dave]

are you going steady?

I don't thunk I've ever been called steady before.

How are you going?

[Ixion]

Several retailers have forwarded me offers that they will pay Ixion NOT to shop in their store.

How much ? And it's extra if I don't hang around outside the door.

[mynameis]

Ok so I take it you're some University Student who has done some Economics papers that's where all these theories are coming from as you've got a lot of explanation on what's happening in the industry with lots of conclusions which reflect what text books say. Have you heard of what a Gap Analysis is? The difference between Theory and Practice and you'll find there are lots and lots of it as you research further (if you're at uni studying).

Your explanations are purely based upon your observation and perception of the industry not any FACTS on hand direct from bike shops - primary research. That's where you're going wrong. As I replied earlier you could be assuming that customers want them open on Sat and Sun and closed two days in middle week.

In economics this situation is referred to as a monopolistically competitive industry, linky helps to explain for those interested http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolistic_competition
Here the enviroment is around non-outperformance rather than profit making. And seems to happen at a localised level with small differences (in opening hours) between regions.

This type of economic situation usually leads to a downturn in customer demand (the industry is effectively eroded over time and consumer brand loyalty has to be heavily relied upon). The bike industry has seen this themselves with prospective consumers turning to other retail alternatives in order to purchase goods (internet based mainly).

Again this is an example of your assumption. How do you come to the conclusion that there is a downturn in the bike industry? Show us some raw data and stats for us to analyse rather than reading your commentary. Say for argument sake there is how can you indefinitely link it to monopolistic practice rather than any other factors?

In fact, in my opinion, the current practice leaves the door wide open for new competitors with modern business practices. But with the global financial climate still a bit unsteady I don't think the industry needs to worry about new entrants just now.

Again an answer from the text book and Economic theory but in practice it's different. Let me give you an example of it. Red Baron is a large global corporate company with modern business practice competing with local bike shops (Kiwi Mum and Dads) however despite having quite literally 100's of shops around the world and thousands of staff not one can come up with a strategy to steer them through to financial success in NZ.

Why?

If you do a search on them you'd be able to see their books and the fact that they are making loss in the millions and should have closed in NZ by now. Reason why they are still open? Because the amount of money the rich Japanese owners have to pour in to keep the brand name ticking is bugger all for them. Loose change.

A lot of the replies have also been normal "change adverse" responses where socio-economic extremes are cited, such as: having bike shops open 24/7; the threat of losing all existing staff, if weekend staff were introduced; degradation of the family structure outside of the workplace if opening hours are altered; etc..

The main change adverse argument which has come up is the "We can't be compared to any other industry because we are unique". Hate to say it but pretty much every industry feels this way and there are very few which truly are. Even if an industry is currently unique, it will not remain that way - due to either product, communication, logistical or consumer changes.
I even put up a straw-man industry comparison (electronic retailers) - this was refuted by at least two people, but an invite for anyone to nominate another industry failed to attract any responses

The industry is unique but a fitting comparison would be to compare apples with apples not with pears. What's critical here is to analyse it within it's context i.e. The Economic Environment which in our case makes it unique as there are sweet fuck all bikers here in NZ in comparison to AUS, UK, US, Japan and the rest of the world. You cannot compare it to Electronics industry and DSE.

Let me try and simplify it for you. On a Sunday 1000 customers walk in thorough DSE out of which 300 buy something and they get X amount of sales. Now a bike shop in NZ will not have that much foot traffic nor that much sales. Reason? Simply because the goods/service/products aren't as much "consumable" as electronic goods and for the fact that say out of that 1000 customers only 50 would be bikers.

And that's the reason why you simply cannot make a comparison between the two industries.

I would honestly suggest changing, not increasing, opening hours to tailor them closer to what the customer wants. Either later opening with later closing, closed a weekday but open Saturday afternoon or a hybrid of these.

Ok you honestly don't think Bike Shop owners haven't thought of it have you? Have a think about it? If it was the solution and workable it would have been in practice by now. Also try and take a step further in your thinking/analysing/reasoning and what you'll see is one of the reasons why most Bike Shop owners open their shops during normal business hours are because of work life balance and to match their Kiwi lifestyles.

Sometimes the world doesn't revolve around you but you have to fit in with others. Most people work Mon to Fri and have time off on Sat and Sun so if Bike Shops were open on Sat and Sun and closed on Mon and Tues (say for example) then their lifestyles will be affected. BBq's, family time, riding, fishing, ect..ect..

It's not all too bad pal.

[BoristheBiter]

Cycletreads for instance. Though they've gone the 'longer hours' route, which I think is probably not best. They do better to open later some days, or not open at all. But they are open 7 days. And they do have an online catalog so you can pre-research. that's good business. I've bought quite a few bits from them cos of that - check first on web, determine what looks good , then a quick trip in to check that it looks the same in real life and collect. Motomail too, though for unrelated reasons I don't seem to buy much there.

But with cycletreads i have looked at the online catalog, went in to get/have a look at someting to be told we can order it in for you.
totaly wrong, have to buy it before you look at it. not going to happen went and got it from motormail, wolud have been holeshot but they were closed.

[onearmedbandit]

And still no comaprable industry cited.

Initially I was thinking a better comparison would be a new car dealer. Less sales but similar business style. They (for the most part) are open 7 days a week, but then the volume of car sales far outstrip motorcycle sales, and motorcycles are for a lot of people a life style, not their primary method of carting the kids around, getting the groceries, taking the rubbish to the tip. Also fewer people would be going to a new car dealer to purchase accessories/spares on the weekends (as a lot will leave their vehicles how they optrioned them and motorcyclist are more likely to carry out work themselves). So they cater to a much wider and larger demographic, so it makes sense for them to be open on Sundays, and the business can support it (number of sales staff). But it's not the perfect comparision.

Another possibility could be the boat industry. Once again, not perfect but as to most buyers of boats their choice of purchase reflects a lifestyle (sames as motorcyclists). Sales figures are no doubt lower but a lot of their customers would be buying accessories etc (similar to motorcyclists again). I had a look at some boat dealer websites (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3.) and the first 3 I found are all closed on Sundays. It appears the 2 of them have a 24hr parts ordering system, allowing them to compete with internet traders.

In my humble opinion I would suggest that the motorcycle industry is a bit of both, recreational and primary transport for individuals. An online parts ordering system, like some of the boat dealers have, would go a long way to resolving some of the issues.

[Ixion]

..
Sometimes the world doesn't revolve around you but you have to fit in with others. Most people work Mon to Fri and have time off on Sat and Sun so if Bike Shops were open on Sat and Sun and closed on Mon and Tues (say for example) then their lifestyles will be affected. BBq's, family time, riding, fishing, ect..ect..

It's not all too bad pal.

Fairly fundamental question that. Are the bike shop owners running them as a business, or as a lifestyle? Sounds like the latter. Thing is , I don't have to "fit in" with them any more. There's another option now. And more and more people are going down that route. Not necessarily willingly - I'd much rather give money to fellow Kiwis than send it out of the country. But if it comes down to the bike shop saying "fit in with my lifestyle or piss off", my answer will be "No, I'm the customer, you fit in with MY lifestyle , or I will piss off, onto the Internet".

[Big Dave]

How much ? And it's extra if I don't hang around outside the door.

I'll have their people call your people.

my answer will be "No, I'm the customer, you fit in with MY lifestyle , or I will piss off, onto the Internet".

What part of 'Good luck with that' are you missing?

[Ixion]

But with cycletreads i have looked at the online catalog, went in to get/have a look at someting to be told we can order it in for you.
totaly wrong, have to buy it before you look at it. not going to happen went and got it from motormail, wolud have been holeshot but they were closed.

I think they show you the stock on hand on the website. I remember one tyre I wanted showed out of stock , so I looked through the catalog and found a similar one that was showing as in stock. Of course, no online stock figure can ever be totally reliable, they may sell the last one while you're riding in. But it works fairly well.

Having an online catalog does go some way to addressing the problem. Not perfect but better, because it does mean that if I do have to take time off work, I know it won't be a wasted trip.