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.
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