wife is in Mexico surfing, 2yr. old is asleep, and I have a cold adult bev. by my side. Thus, all my replies
Anyway, today, not unlike any summer Saturday was rocking in the shop. I looked up at one point and noticed a couple of customers who were just hanging out, enjoying the excitement. Do you ever go to your local bike shop to just hang out? I really do find it cool when a current long time customer is hanging out and then gets involved with encouraging a new customer to either take up cycling or tri racing. I really forget how fortunate I am to work in a shop. We truly appreciate folks that stop by to hang, or even call for advice. Thanks.
Grant Peterson wrote a note to at least spend$5 in the shop when you go to hang there. I do try and do that at the local stores. Hanging out in bike shops seems a unique to cycling practice. I have seen some shops put in a couch and VCR tapes to give the folks something to do.
I have also gone to plenty of shops on the road to spend money and have been treated by the staff like the invisible customer syndrome. I have never experienced the wanting to hang out in the surf shop, ski shop, sporting goods store. Just the bike shop. Aloha G
You bring up a great point about the loyal, long-time customers, Shawn. It never fails that when I’m in my favorite LBS (of the moment, since I’m in the military and move every few years), as I am wandering around and checking through the new arrivals, I overhear other customers discussing this or that about whatever they are looking for. Often when there are a lot of customers I am tempted to assist them a little, at least until one of the shop folks can get to them. But I’ve only done this a few times over the years. Understand, I have no problem outside the shop sharing my ideas and thoughts about nearly every facet of cycling and multisport. But inside a shop, it feels a bit awkward. While I know the shop well after a while, and know how they do business and have established a good relationship with the shop, I still feel like interacting with their customers is intruding a bit onto their territory. If I’m invited into a conversation between customer and LBS person, that’s one thing. But to initiate with a customer seems quite another. After all, if the customer makes a decision based on my advice, and turns out to hate their purchase, they’ll blame the bike shop, not me.
So what about the other bikeshop people out there? What do you think? Is it cool, as Shawn feels it is, or is it out of bounds?
P.S. Shawn, I do often go and just hang out at a shop for a while. A few years ago I used to hang out quite often in your shop, though not enough to consider it my LBS. Your shop is by far the best in that area, but just too far away to come in more than once every couple of months.
When I was in highschool I used to really be into rollerblading. Well the shop near my house was really a glorified hangout spot with lots of places to sit and a TV VCR to watch videos and what not…
Well I was one of those people hanging out… I talked to customers, eventually got a job there… the point being this place was into having people hang out…
One thing I learned about retail is never bad mouth something else. The second you bad mouth another shop, or a product you don’t carry etc. it ruins your credibility… as long as you keep your conversation about why something is better You keep yourself out of trouble… the reason I am saying this is becuase, as long as you keep your comments to the customers positive, and make it clear that these are your opinions I don’t think there is any harm you can really do…
Not so much at the LBS, but when I was a heavy duty scuba diver there was this great dive shop with a real “go and hang out” type atmosphere. You could walk in and have free coffee and just shoot the breeze with the owner, employees and whoever happened to be there at the time. Didn’t have to buy anything, although I did spend quite a bit there. The shop’s not there any more and although I still dive, not as much as I used to.