Why are motorcycle shops closed on Sundays?

[ynot slow]

With over 20yrs involved in retail selling furniture and my hours went from late night Friday to also include rostered Saturday morning in smaller town,we dropped Friday nights to 6pm,worked well.Next job was one branch open till noon Saturday,main branch 7days,with a few from minor branch doing Sunday roster,usually 2-3 on as boss would be around.The 7day store staff usually did weekend on,then Monday off,and next weekend off type of roster.

At my last position involved with major nationwide chain we did late nights,weekends,stat hols etc,my job involved measuring and quoting onsite so all of us could work any day but totalled 80hr fortnight,some did strange weekend shifts,I did Tue-Fri 8.5hr days and 6.5 on Saturday,ending at 2.30in afternoon,wasn't bad except I missed most stats days off on pay as was my weekend.

In my opinion a school kid can't sell a $3-5000 bed to customers,you need to know the product,hence staff of quality and loyal are rare,and not cheap.

[onearmedbandit]

most retail xtras, casuals are paid quite low, hence the high turn over and general low standard of retail staff. (NZ is not a shiny beacon when it comes to the service industry,)
This does not include bike shops as I don't know anything really about them, the dealings so far with the different stores where i bought my gear where hit and miss.
For some reason the buyers in bike shops seem to think that unisex fits ladies -go figure.

in saying that, go to any mall, shop or other retail centre and ask the staff about their wages and their sales bonuses - most likely they will just stare blankly or laugh.

We are not talking about retail in general here, we are talking specifically about bike stores. The staff in my experience at bike stores are enthusiasts who are mostly well-informed of their products, and who have been doing it for years.

as for rostering again, this assumes that the shop has enough full time staff to do rostering, most retail in NZ is rostered on 1 - 2 full time staff (usually manager/senior sales person) and the rest are casuals, and temps that have fixed hours.

Are you talking mall retail again? I've worked retail in the car industry (and still am), the bike industry and in home electronics. None of those employed 1-2 full time staff with the rest being casuals etc. Everyone was a full-time salesperson.

what is so wrong with having a shop closed one full day a week?

Nothing, if you don't mind possibly inconveniencing a segment of your market who work Monday-Friday or even Saturday, who have commitments (kids sport etc) on Saturday and can't make it down by 12pm (about the time the bike shops here close).

[TOTO]

We my thoughts are that you dont need key staff there every hour your open. Use some cheap part timers and only have the sales floor open on Sundays.

yes but then you will be starting a KB thread that goes something like "Monkey Staff at bike shops dont know their shit, why should I shop in NZ"

Am I not correct ?

[scott411]

yes but then you will be starting a KB thread that goes something like "Monkey Staff at bike shops dont know their shit, why should I shop in NZ"

Am I not correct ?

you get it 100%, there was a thread on here about someone trying to get brake pads for his car, both repco and supercheap had not been able to help him, but a few of us reccomend he go to BNT, they close sundays and saturday afternoon, but get the stuff right and are much better at getting you the right stuff, and normally the same price or cheaper than the big box retail scores and their untrained staff

[Brian d marge]

yea i have 2 houses 5 cars a boat a caravan and 2 motorbikes and 2 dogs i start work at 8ish and finish at 4:30 5 days a week....... sucks to be you

does doesnt it , ....

five cars and two motorbikes , something a miss there


Stephen

[Brian d marge]

Actually, they are open 24hrs a day, seven days a week.
Example. Last Sunday morning I ordered 2 brake rotors and pads from Wemoto in the UK, (170 quid all up. EBC)
Finished my morning coffee.
Parts arrived five working days later, with no less than 5 tracking emails sent.

I was not a fan of purchasing online, and bypassing the local shops, but when I get that type of service, and save about $500, then I think I will shop on Sundays more often.

Tri boys prediction for bike shops over the next 2-5yrs is bleak.MHO

Retailing in general , in fact most consumer activities full stop , as customers want more for less throughout the spectrum ........

Stephen

[Brian d marge]

When I was over in the states a couple of years ago the bike shops were open wednesday to sunday . Closed monday & tuesday, it seemed to be universal there. The theory I assume was that they sold bugger all monday & tuesday as most people had blown their budget over the weekend, so why be open ? A similar situation probably exists here too as most people work monday to friday & get paid before the weekend !

Bike shops are retailers, surely the best time to be open is when the punters have coin in their pockets.

Same over here , cept wed is auction day for some. and quite a lot of people will only have one day off a week

also its common to work until 12 at night , if theres work to be done, suck it up and do it ,,,,

Customer is king , as its their money , and if I want it , i need to play nice , simple as that IMHO

Stephen

[onearmedbandit]

Yup that's what I don't understand. There are customers who would love to spend their money on Sundays, yet the bike shop contingent can only think of reason not to want to have Sunday takings. The car industry did it, I'm sure the bike lot could do it too. Just saying.

[scott411]

Yup that's what I don't understand. There are customers who would love to spend their money on Sundays, yet the bike shop contingent can only think of reason not to want to have Sunday takings. The car industry did it, I'm sure the bike lot could do it too. Just saying.

around where i am the car franchise dealers are shut sundays as well, its only the second hand dealers that are open that only need a salesmen on, and most of them have closed up or gone bust,

[Robert Taylor]

yes but then you will be starting a KB thread that goes something like "Monkey Staff at bike shops dont know their shit, why should I shop in NZ"

Am I not correct ?

My thoughts exactly, and frankly that statement is an issue with many shops already. And then it will be ''the sales side is open but I couldnt get my bike serviced''. This is a hiding to nowhere, particularly given that there are too many bike shops in NZ and with Sunday trading the cost of opening to returns ratio can be crippling, especially in smaller provincial towns that represent about two thirds of the population.
Sundays are traditionally a day of rest and recreation, lets largely keep it that way.

[nzspokes]

yes but then you will be starting a KB thread that goes something like "Monkey Staff at bike shops dont know their shit, why should I shop in NZ"

Am I not correct ?

No that just means the staff training is no good.

Its funny how that one point gets picked on. Part timers can do the non-key jobs like booking in stock, greeting customers, restocking and cleaning. Also you can get them to complete the sale, you dont need a degree to run a eftpos machine.

[nzspokes]

Sundays are traditionally a day of rest and recreation, lets largely keep it that way.

Key word there is "traditionally". The world moved on, you may not agree with it but it has.

[scott411]

No that just means the staff training is no good.

Its funny how that one point gets picked on. Part timers can do the non-key jobs like booking in stock, greeting customers, restocking and cleaning. Also you can get them to complete the sale, you dont need a degree to run a eftpos machine.

there are very few bike shops that just have a cashier as you say, in a bigger dealership it may be possible, but most of the people that work in spares and sales need to know something, and getting good part timers is near impossible,

[JimO]

does doesnt it , ....

five cars and two motorbikes , something a miss there


Stephen

not everybody's life revolves around motorbikes

[Robert Taylor]

Key word there is "traditionally". The world moved on, you may not agree with it but it has.

Respectfully I would suggest that large scale or Sunday trading being the norm is not neccessarily a good part of the world ''moving on.'' Read Scott 411s posts. He is a dealer pricipal of one of the very very best dealers in the country, he just might know a thing or two about the very real issues of Sunday trading, and running dealerships in general. Its easy to oversimplify and state that dealer training is sub standard, if only it were simple to rectify, not only with the motorcycle trade.