Let’s not all forget the many positives about working in a local bikeshop, I am sure that most of you are aware. From “prodeals” on bikes, to sweet deals on the newest merchandise. I would like to take a second to discuss a few of the negatives. I work in a very, very nice road/tri shop in the Eastern U.S. I can think of a few things that really upset me. Please don’t get me wrong I love my job, and would not trade it for the world…but I proceed. The one think I don’t enjoy is the phone ringing every five minutes, even more so when I pick it up and it is the same guy asking where the bike he bought on closeout for a steal is because it is taking more than a week to get. I don’t like the first time he calls, and I certainly don’t like it then he calls 15 times in a two hour period. I ask all who read this that have worked or work in a bikeshop to chime in and share some great postives, and negatives with all. Thanks.
- Money
- you work in a bike shop
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Positives … wholesale (or even better - manufacturer discounted pricing for employees) costs. Ability to work on anything and get it fixed, exposure to all different kinds of equipment, relaxed working atmosphere with your hobby, flexibilty with hours (for training), beer from customers at the holidays (including Fat Tire brought from some customers that traveled to the West coast - Oh sweet nectar of the Gods!).
Negative … pay usually sucks, you have to work on weekends, you have to work on Huffys and other Walmart bikes, lingering window shoppers wanting to ride all the top end bikes but never intend to buy a thing from you.
I’m sure there are plenty of others on bith sides, but I can’t think of them right at the moment. And I’ve been out of shops for almost 10 years now.
We used to have a shop ride every Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm. We’d have between 20-40 people on the ride, and every time the same 4 or 5 people would come in at 5:45 and want the rear deraileur adjusted, or tires pumped, or some other crap like that while we were trying to get our shorts on to do the ride. It was always, “Hey man, can you just look at this real quick? I just hit a pot hole and my wheel’s out. Can you true it real quick before the ride?” Then I’d have to chase like crazy to get on the back of the group.
But I loved the discount!
I just emailed my shop asking where my wheels were! I hope they are not pissed at me though, I like the guys. They bend over backwards to help out a customer.
I worked full time in a bike shop for a while but had to quit because the $$ was horrible! I really enjoyed the job, though. My social skills were greatly enhanced via frequent customer interaction - it was great meeting new people all the time. One of the best things was having repeat customers come in that wanted to deal with only me - or to have new customers come in and say “so and so told me to come in and talk to you.” That made me feel very good. I hear you about nagging customers, though. We were a fairly small shop and could not do the majority of our repairs “on the spot” even though customers demanded it. We tried our best to accommodate them, but we ended up with too many upset customers.