i was starting to wonder about that 20% sale that went on forever and they then extended

Local store here in Chula vista is closing. Last ride this Saturday

Bummer. Their bib shorts are my go to trainer garb.

Evan Cycles in the UK which operated under fundamentally the same model is also going through the same process and while the online portion of the business may remain solvent the fate of the stores looks poor. The problem is that both business developed a strong online business based on sales and deep discounts but the stores were never really integrated leverage. My experience with both companies was that they failed miserable to leverage the power of their stores while trying to compete in the online market.

Because they don't have stores Wiggle, Chain Reaction Cycles, etc will always be able to undercut companies with stores. Good service is obviously one way shops can fight back, but stores also need to stock discounted items to draw customers in and then make additional sales once the customer is in the door. My wife knows that when I go into my LBS for X I will be coming home with X and Y and Z. That is the sign of shop that knows what its doing (especially because I have never felt ripped off by the LBS for selling stuff I don't need). Both Performance Bike and Evans were extremely poor in terms of putting the deeply discounted items people wanted on the shop floor. They had the items online but just not in store. I get why that they didn't want to fill the shops with the sales rack but it gives consumers no incentive to go into the store vs ordering online. Given the service at the stores was hit-and-miss at best they just weren't going to survive.

That is pretty sad. I remember when Performance was purely a catalog operation. As a college student at UNC Chapel Hill, you could walk to this nondescript building in Carrboro and inside was a coffee table with a bunch of catalogs and a window where you could buy stuff right from the warehouse. They opened up a nicer store around 1986 closer to campus, IIRC.

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

They had closed the Nashbar warehouse in Ohio back in August and consolidated Nashbar and Performance into one warehouse in NC. I wonder if they’ll start to do more consolidation. Ever since buying Nashbar I thought it was odd they kept two different sites/online store rather than just merging into one

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Matt

Makes me sad. Hope something works out for Performance, Nashbar and Fuji. I like those brands.

I like that they were open on Sundays

I buy more stuff on Sunday than any other day of the week.

just picked up a of sets of bib shorts for $33 each.

... and deepened to 30%. Now set for Park Tools, for life.

Not surprising to be honest. I'm almost shocked they made it this long.

As someone else posted, you need to give people a reason to come to the store. For bike shops, that is basically service since the prices of merchandise has such a large disparity between online shops and B&M shops. With Performance, the service piece was mostly drop off your bike and we will work on it later and call you... with a pretty high priced estimate of the repair. I can go into my LBS and have a mechanic look at something simple right then, and if it's more than a quick spin of a wrench it stays. I also know the mechanic, and he is working for not just the shop, but his own reputation.

Maybe all stores were not like this, but while I started my cycling journey walking through Performance, I quickly realized the smaller shops were better for the people side (including organized rides), and parts could be had much cheaper from online sources (that is for when I wasn't just buying at the local shop).

Maybe not all stores were like this, but that is what I experienced.

Plus the stores were located in some pretty nice shopping centers ($$$ rent) whereas the local bike shop is in a nondescript strip mall.

the press release said up to 40 (of the 100 store chain) will be closing

Interesting (but sad). A landlord who has a Performance Bike as a tenant recently hit me up asking about market comps saying that they were "struggling to pay the rent".

We have a few around Raleigh/triangle area. It'll suck to lose one.

I like being able to stop in for the GP 4000 tire sales instead of going online. Or to drop in to grab a part from the back repair area real quick.

The thing is, I don't trust Amazon any longer for consumables like chains, quick links, and other stuff after getting a clearly counterfeit set of KMC quick links. Totally knock off Chinese junk that didn't even fit together correctly.

I’ve had similar experiences (knockoff Park Tool tools, previously used/returned tires sold as new, etc.) with Amazon as well and have completely stopped buying bike-related parts/equipment from them.

One thing that is awesome about performance bike as a brick and mortar store is it mostly avoids any of the normal cliquey bike shop feel and the prices for in store merchandise is usually at least vaguely competitive with online prices.

I used to spend quite a bit of money at Performance when I lived in Chapel Hill then online for many years later. Of late, their website had so many glitches I struggled to spend my money there. Usually just got to frustrated and took my cash elsewhere.

No surprise but sad.

Irony (maybe) - I just went to their website, located some Ultra bib shorts on sale for $47.98 with extra 30% off. GREAT deal. Tried to checkout, they are $79.97 in cart less 23.99 = total of $55.98! Big difference from the $33.59 they should be.

I actually always had favorable experiences at Performance Bike and bought a few parts (derailleurs, disc rotors, tires, etc) from them. They were a couple bucks more than online but I could buy them right then and there. Well worthwhile to me.

Most of the Performance Bike stores here in FL were paying $22/psf gross in rent. That works out to about $110,000/year in rent on a 5,000sf store. Figure another $150,000 in wages and another $20,000 in utilities etc... let’s just round it up to $365,000/year and figure everything is marked up 100% at the retail level. You have to do $2,000/day in sales to break even. Doable? In the right market, sure.

Personally I think Performance Bike made mistakes with their site selection and store utilization. They are a destination store. They don’t need prime visibility or foot traffic. They should have gone to low-rent strip centers near decent riding routes/trails and used their stores as a way to forward deploy inventory for online shipping (gels, bars, bottles, etc). I think they could have done more with their store layouts as well and been more aggressive in offering services like bike fits and done things like let a bike rental program. Let’s say I travel a lot and want to ride a Transonic when I get somewhere. Well for $X/year Performance Bike will let me use that bike in Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boulder, etc. on a reservation basis and when I’m not using it it’s a demo.

Hopefully they make some changes and emerge as a better company.

Sad to hear, but not unexpected. Back in the day, I bought a Cannondale CAAD3 frame and spent a winter collecting sale priced components to make it rideable. Most of the components came from Performance, some from pre-Performance Nashbar. I learned how to lace and tension wheels and build a bike that winter. Probably 1990-ish. I am still riding that bike and the wheels are still hanging on the garage wall (I've upgraded since). Sad to see the Performance troubles, but is it a surprise? Amazon has the volume and lowest prices, which is what we all want. Everyone ought to be ready to work on their own bike since bike shops are on the way out. Maybe mobile bike repair vans will be the replacement, but every Amazon bike part purchase moves us a tiny step away from the availability of a local bike shop...

In the early 1980's (83 specifically), Nashbar had a warehouse south of Youngstown/Poland, Ohio and I was in it several times and briefly knew a few of famous employees. Heck, I even rode several times with the Owners of Nashbar during some of the local bicycle club "outspoking wheels" rides. This warehouse moved into a larger location in the Youngstown area and sometime around 1996 moved outside the Youngstown area. I forget when Performance Bike purchased nashbar.

I've heard some what's going on with the stores here. Rent...rent...rent. I totally agree with you that they should find a spot in a commercial area or a strip mall with smoke shops, nail salons, and wig stores. They aren't trying to attract people driving by on their way to shop at TJ Maxx.

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"Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps"
Blog = http://extrememomentum.com|Photos = http://wheelgoodphotos.com

I went to East Carolina back in the early 90's and we used to drive to the warehouse outside Raleigh to buy all our bike stuff. I remember getting a set of Spinergy wheels for next to nothing. Their returns bin always had amazing stuff for almost free. It's always been a great asset of a shop everywhere I've gone. I hope they make it.

There are three stores in the Atlanta area and I always wondered if that were too many. I hope they keep at least one of them open. I've been a big fan and user--both online and in the shop--for years.