There are 4 bike shops within a 50 mile radius of me, 3 of which are in a college town (carbondale, il) and all are located within about 5 blocks of each other. the one that seems to do the most business in the college town has the best parking lot and are closest to the shopping strip, the others are on busy roads with only street parking at the end of the strip. All seem to be centered around mountain/comfort bikes and each carry a few Road and BMX bikes, and typically only 1or 2 cruiser style bikes, these shops also stay away from used bicycles unless its a high end road bike or similar. The biggest reply as to why they dont want to sell used bikes is because of the prices, for what they could sell a used bike for someone could go to any pawn shop or wal-mart and have the same thing for less and most of the trade ins are wal-mart bikes to begin with, the often say that they dont want to insult their customers on what they could allow for a used bikes so they just make it a shop policy not to take "trade-ins". The other Bike Shop which I frequent the most ( located in a small town ) carries several of all kinds and very few high-end Road bikes and does have used bikes for sell, but only as a last resort. They sell mostly commuter bikes but carry a few odds and ends for cruiser bikes too aside from the bikes themselves. As far as special order stuff, they are more than willing but often take a looooong time due to order amounts and different vendors they use. Ive waited over 4 months before at the collegetown shops for parts as well tho. Also within a 50 mile radius of me there are 6 Wal-Marts, 1 Target, and 2 K-marts and about 15-20 pawn shops. There are also a handful of "from-home/garage-cash only" places in several towns that are good for gettin a cheap used bike from that im sure put a hurtin on a bike shop.
ive thought about "the shop" thing myself and just decided if i did, bikes wouldnt be fun anymore, it would be work. :lol: I live in a pretty low average income area (i believe 25-35k is the average household income, sometimes less) and dont think a specialized shop would be all that productive in my area. I think id make more $ setting up a booth at a consignment shop instead for the amount of time i could afford to spend on my hobby :mrgreen: