Specialized forced themselves out of my LBS

[newfsmith]

My LBS just stopped carrying Specialized for similar reasons. Now they are mainly a Giant store, although I think they could order a Surly or Jamis if you asked them. However, I am worried about them because they also dropped the Felt line. Unfortunately for them, Landry's (a local Boston area chain) moved one of their locations from 20 miles a way to 2 miles away, right here in town. I like Landry's, I think they are one of the better big stores in the Boston area, but I don't want to do business at their local branch. I really think they are damaging the LBS base in this area. My LBS's owner's brother and nephew each run small shops in nearby towns, each carrying a slightly different line. Landry's is sort of the big box store of cycling, threatening all of them. They tend to carry only the toplines, leaving the kids and lower economic levels with nothing to choose but Wal-Mart or ToysRUs. Personally, I think it important to have small shops with good mechanics scattered all over the place. It makes it possible for cyclists to tour, it makes it more likely that you can find a place close to a commuting route for service. I think it will be a real shame if the small shops are lost. Specialized should be supporting them, not torpedoing them.

[Crankin]

One of the smaller shops near me carries Specialized and Trek. I think they carry Giant, too. I have never bought anything there, bought I know a lot of people who have and they are happy. My son worked there and had to put up with a lot of rude people.
The shop where I got my bike is much more for racer types. Although, in addition to carrying many lines of very high end bikes, some of which I have never heard of, they do carry many different models of Giants and some cool looking kid's bikes. But, it is not the place for someone who is looking to buy a road bike for the first time. While they did me right by giving me a new frame after two years and treating me very nicely, there have been enough "things" that make me not want to do a ton of business there.
Newfsmith, I bought my first 2 road bikes at Landry's and it was not such a great experience. First, I bought a low end Cannondale and they barely took the time to fit me. The bike was OK, but the components were crappy and I ended up hating it because it never shifted right. Then I bought a Trek 5200 there. That was after they tried to convince me to get a flat bar road bike, after I already had dropped bars on the Cannondale. Then they put my computer on backwards, totally wrong and forgot to put the Speedplay pedals on when I picked it up.
Thankfully, my husband does all of the mechanics, except for the disc brakes on the mountain bikes (no tool for that).
We bought our Jamis' at Quad Cycles in Arlington. That was a cool little shop, with all kinds of bikes. They were SO nice. Too bad it's too far away when you have to run out and get something. Truthfully, we buy almost everything on line and don't need an LBS for the mechanics.

[Fujichants]

Jiffer, I had this EXACT SAME PROBLEM. See the gloves in my avatar? I went to 4 different shops to get them. And I called around. Everywhere they had a size S, I needed a size L. I found them online, but the item could not be shipped. What is up with Specialized? I don't like their 2009 version of those gloves, because the pink is barely visible.

Then, I went to San Diego for the weekend. And guess what...they had those gloves EVERYWHERE in all sizes. If the gloves you want are the same as mine, I can give you the number to the shop that has them, and you can order them from there. I am thinking of getting a back-up pair, just in case something happens to the ones I have right now.

[celerystalksme]

That's odd. My Specialized dealer sells EVERYTHING. Specialized, Cervelo, Guru, Gary Fisher, Orbea, Trek, and several others. And they are able to get other bikes in by special order...like Colnago, Watford, and a few others...even though they're not official dealers and don't have any models on display (actually, I think they have one Waterford and one Colnago at the store).

What I think happens is that bike manufacturers try to bully smaller volume shops into selling only their stuff. But they can't bully large volume stores...this store is a pretty large volume store...

[Flur]

Pretty much all the shops here sell more than one brand, but most of them only sell one of the "big" American brands - Specialized, Trek, Cannondale. My LBS sells Specialized, Bianchi and Serotta, and also carry Time and a probably a few others. There's also quite a few stores that carry Surly in addition to their main big brand (Surly is local, after all).

When I was in high school the shop I worked at sold Cannondale, Trek and Schwinn, with about equal floor space for each, plus a plethora of other brands via special order. I guess those days are gone.

[Jiffer]

Jiffer, I had this EXACT SAME PROBLEM. See the gloves in my avatar? I went to 4 different shops to get them. And I called around. Everywhere they had a size S, I needed a size L. I found them online, but the item could not be shipped. What is up with Specialized? I don't like their 2009 version of those gloves, because the pink is barely visible.

Then, I went to San Diego for the weekend. And guess what...they had those gloves EVERYWHERE in all sizes. If the gloves you want are the same as mine, I can give you the number to the shop that has them, and you can order them from there. I am thinking of getting a back-up pair, just in case something happens to the ones I have right now.

Very interesting, Fujichants. Yes, I agree there is not enough pink on those gloves. My guy at the LBS said he's going to a convention soon where he says he'll scope out anything pink ... in gloves and anything else. I think I started a new trend in my shop. They know I'm all into pink, so they've been getting more pink stuff, but I'm not the only one buying it.

If I were to order the Specialized gloves, I wouldn't know if I need medium or large since I haven't been able to try them on. I just realized, I probably could have tried some on in a different color, but didn't think of that! I was basically done with why I was there and the gloves were a side thought. I don't even like to wear gloves, but everyone keeps telling me I should.

By the way, the one pair of gloves I do have, that have red on them and come undone all the time ... I got in San Diego! Somewhere around Carlsbad I think. It was during a ride out there.

[Jiffer]

My LBS is located in an interesting area. We buy high end bikes from them and the owner used to be a pro racer, so he has a lot of connections with pro people and sells to a lot of them. Yet, his shop is located in a lower income area where most of the locals buy the cheapest bike they can get so they can get to work without paying a fortune in gas. This is a big part of his business and the reason he doesn't move his business to our area, which is where he lives.

We have an LBS that is much closer to us and in our "nicer" area, but they are kind of snobby. Dh never liked going there and, instead spends his money and gets treated really well at the farther away LBS. It's definitely inconvenient for us to drive there, and a little scary feeling to be honest! But it's worth it. We have gotten some insane deals there, they know us by name and always take good care of us. The owner delivered Dh's bike to our house once after doing some work on it because Dh didn't have time to pick it up before a big event. Now that's service!