Well we're in the last few days before our christmas break now. Kyle is looking forward to the birth of his son any day now, it's already overdue and I can't say I envy him.
The run up to Christmas has yet again been completely different for us than in any previous year. We haven't had anywhere near the interest in BMX bikes as we have in previous years and the BMX suppliers continue to be a pain to deal with so I can see us knocking that on the head in the New Year. Rising prices have no doubt payed their part, many parents simply don't want to or can't afford to spend the £280+ you need to spend to get a decent BMX. I could sell cheaper bikes but firstly I refuse to sell any bike that isn't good quality or up to the job of real BMX riding, (I'll let the chain stores and supermarkets do that), and I'm afraid anything £200 or less we simply don't make any money on. After the cost of stocking the bikes and paying trained skiled staff to sell and assemble them, it really is a zero profit situation.
Endura clothing has been great again, with our long wet spell putting many riders off for a while our cold snap certainly seems to be getting everyone in for warm baselayers and jerseys and especially gloves!
Strangely though we've still been getting high end mountain bike sales with the Trek Session 88, Fuel EX8 and 9 going well and the excellent FX range we normally only sell Easter time onwards with the better weather.
We'll be closing from Christmas day until the 2nd January. I'm reading in the press that as small businesses we should be staying open all the way through the holidays in order to serve all our customers as best as possible, and I can see their point.
There is another side to the coin though, firstly it's easy for people who don't work in a retail environment to say we should be working 24/7 but lets face it, who wants to work shifts covering 8am to 8pm over 7 days of the week? You can never plan your life and spend the time you want with your loved ones.
I know we're a service industry (isn't everything these days?) but I want to attract the best staff I can in order to provide as high a level of service as possible and I can only do that through offering the right wokring conditions which includes giving everyone a break to spend with their families and loved ones. I could go down trhe route liek the big retail chains and employ far less knowledgeable young staff on minimum wage who, lets face it, don't really care as long as they get paid. This just wouldn't work in our kind of shop where we need and value experience, skill and knowledge.
Anyway, Happy Holidays to all our customers and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year, if you have an urgent enquiry whilst we are closed over the festive period please email us on info@evocycles.co.uk and I'll see what I can do to help.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Thursday, 10 December 2009
The run up to Christmas in a bike store
All our customers expect us to be super busy this time of year but it's just not the case. We're busiest in the months when the sun is shining, the trails are dry and the evenings long.
That's not to say we haven't been keeping busy(ish). We're slowly moving through the last few remaining 2009 bikes, Dave's been building wheels to wile away the lonely wokrshop hours and we're getting plenty of clothing enquiries to keep everyone cycling through our rainy season.
We are still getting lovely new 2010 bikes in, Trek's Session 8, the gorgeous Project One Madones, and Haro's interesting slopestyle bike 'The Porter'. This keeps the shop looking fresh which is as good for us as it is visitors.
I spent my day off yesterday experiencing customer service from the automotive industry in the form of Alfa Romeo warranty, all I can say is we're light years ahead in our shop if not the industry as a whole.
Whilst I had a courtesy car to drive round I thought I'd visit a couple of new local bike shops and an old established one. Firstly, as I was in Tunbridge Wells I popped into Wildside Cycles, I used to shop here for decent stuff before I was in the bike trade and must say it hasn't changed much if at all, not sure whether that's good or not though.
After this I popped down to Lewes to have a look at two brand new shops. Lewes is a lovely old market town which has lacked a bike shop for several years and has just had two open in the same week! Cycle Shack is small but perfectly formed and is situated inside the sports shop in Cliffe High Street, very knowledgeable member of staff, Danny. Future Cycles is a second branch of a store that's been in Forest Row for as long as I can remember. They always specialised in Recumbents but this store is a Dawes stockist with a range of family, town and kids bikes including a Pashley or two.
Well, running into christmas we'll no doubt have plenty of BMXs to build and more customers getting their partners the odd item or two, looking forward to our store christmas meal on the 22nd, a good friend is back from his first tour of duty in Afghansitan so should be a fun evening.
Well the Endura display is looking sparse so best get back to ordering stock and filling hangers...
That's not to say we haven't been keeping busy(ish). We're slowly moving through the last few remaining 2009 bikes, Dave's been building wheels to wile away the lonely wokrshop hours and we're getting plenty of clothing enquiries to keep everyone cycling through our rainy season.
We are still getting lovely new 2010 bikes in, Trek's Session 8, the gorgeous Project One Madones, and Haro's interesting slopestyle bike 'The Porter'. This keeps the shop looking fresh which is as good for us as it is visitors.
I spent my day off yesterday experiencing customer service from the automotive industry in the form of Alfa Romeo warranty, all I can say is we're light years ahead in our shop if not the industry as a whole.
Whilst I had a courtesy car to drive round I thought I'd visit a couple of new local bike shops and an old established one. Firstly, as I was in Tunbridge Wells I popped into Wildside Cycles, I used to shop here for decent stuff before I was in the bike trade and must say it hasn't changed much if at all, not sure whether that's good or not though.
After this I popped down to Lewes to have a look at two brand new shops. Lewes is a lovely old market town which has lacked a bike shop for several years and has just had two open in the same week! Cycle Shack is small but perfectly formed and is situated inside the sports shop in Cliffe High Street, very knowledgeable member of staff, Danny. Future Cycles is a second branch of a store that's been in Forest Row for as long as I can remember. They always specialised in Recumbents but this store is a Dawes stockist with a range of family, town and kids bikes including a Pashley or two.
Well, running into christmas we'll no doubt have plenty of BMXs to build and more customers getting their partners the odd item or two, looking forward to our store christmas meal on the 22nd, a good friend is back from his first tour of duty in Afghansitan so should be a fun evening.
Well the Endura display is looking sparse so best get back to ordering stock and filling hangers...
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Rain, rain and more rain...
...but lots of shiny new bikes!
It's been an on and off week, quiet workshop but lots of wet weather clothing going out and now we've got some cold weather, much prefer it cold than wet myself.
We've just built our new Madone 6 demo bike and it's a gorgeous looking machine and only 15lbs with entry level drivetrain. It would be a shame to take it out in the rain for a first ride so I'll wait until I get a dry day off.
Very informal relaxed Tuesday evening rides are well and truly back on, 7pm at the bus stop by the Tally Ho pub in Old Town for a ride out and back on the Downs and a pub stop somewhere along the way or at the end. Out with them tonight and it's due to be very windy and heavy rain so should be fun, thanks Endura for great clothing.
We've also just received a Session 8 in large which probably represents the best value DH bike around at the moment.
Anyone interested in getting a BMX for Xmas, I'd sort it out asap, just about every supplier is out of stock of nearly everything and have been for a few weeks now so there really isn't a lot of choice left.
It's been an on and off week, quiet workshop but lots of wet weather clothing going out and now we've got some cold weather, much prefer it cold than wet myself.
We've just built our new Madone 6 demo bike and it's a gorgeous looking machine and only 15lbs with entry level drivetrain. It would be a shame to take it out in the rain for a first ride so I'll wait until I get a dry day off.
Very informal relaxed Tuesday evening rides are well and truly back on, 7pm at the bus stop by the Tally Ho pub in Old Town for a ride out and back on the Downs and a pub stop somewhere along the way or at the end. Out with them tonight and it's due to be very windy and heavy rain so should be fun, thanks Endura for great clothing.
We've also just received a Session 8 in large which probably represents the best value DH bike around at the moment.
Anyone interested in getting a BMX for Xmas, I'd sort it out asap, just about every supplier is out of stock of nearly everything and have been for a few weeks now so there really isn't a lot of choice left.
Friday, 20 November 2009
Friday fun
We've got quite a lot on today all of a sudden.
We've received our long awaited Trek Madone 6.9 demo bike so dave's busy assembling that.
First however he's got to put together a customer's Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL. It's looking lovely too with all Sram XX kit and carbon rims etc.
We've received our long awaited Trek Madone 6.9 demo bike so dave's busy assembling that.
First however he's got to put together a customer's Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL. It's looking lovely too with all Sram XX kit and carbon rims etc.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
New Blog
Welcome to our new blog. We're a rider owned and run specialist bike store in Eastbourne, England. We're an authorised dealer for Trek, Gary Fisher, Lapierre and Colnago amonst many more.
It's late in the day here now so might not get time to post much to day but bear with me.
Kevin
It's late in the day here now so might not get time to post much to day but bear with me.
Kevin
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