What are YOU looking for in a moto store?

[AF4iK]

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- Apparel stock. If I'm making the effort to visit a B&M, it's because I need to try it in person. If you don't have my size, or aren't able to show me another model in the brand that will fit the same so that I could place an informed order with you, I've wasted my time, and I'll be less likely to bother trying again.

^This next to price. Stocking everything is obviously very difficult. But strategically stocking demo apparel in each size from the major manufacturers would be awesome. Like an apparel showroom. I don't mind placing an order and waiting for it to arrive if I know that it will fit. One day I think this could be largely solved with technology but for now we need physical samples to try on.

 

[MSRP]

Well thanks for the suggestions guys! Looks like you want:

- good customer service w/ knowledgable (and ideally hot T&A) to serve you
- place where you can shoot the ****, have a coffee, relax, and catch up with friends (hopefully buy something during this time!)
- great selection with lots of inventory (so it can be tried on and then bought online for a few $ less)
- great price to beat others on it

Technically GP has all these things except for T&A serving drinks and coffees! LoL

Unfortunately a bricks and mortar with that type of list is out of the budget at this point in time. Bud was thinking start small (online?) and then move up as things progress.

Will have a chat with him when he gets back from some family emergency in Poland in a few weeks and see what he's come up with.

I know. Ditch your s/o now, marry a Tim Horton's heir, and either put GP bikes on top of a Tim Hortons, or settle for a mobile Tim Horton's location sharing a corner of the lot. But if that's the case, you'll probably not care about opening a moto store after all, and just be swimming in pools of moolah.

Sorry, I try to be of no help most of the time, but this time, it is not happening due to intent.

 

[CafeRay]

GTA stores don't really compete with each other on price though, maybe on a few things like tires and oil. If you want to run your business on price pretty much the only sane way to do it is the way Pete's does it, which is to order everything by the skidload. Otherwise it's impossible. You can NOT do it through the Canadian arms of American distributors.

Honestly, if I were to do it, I would sell some bike stuff & food. Dead serious. I think it would be pretty easy to create a biker hangout in the GTA. Run a lot of low cost events (some equivalent of pub trivia), make sure you have a parking lot where the bikes are out front. I like BLTs & hot wings

http://www.rock-store.com/

This is on the Mulholland highway. It's the mecca of bikes in LA. You can never make it into the actual cafe after looking at all the rare bikes in the parking area. The GTA needs this outside of the city on a winding route, and Sunday morning broadcasts of MotoGP races.

In the US, dealerships have given up on gear, the internet won. There could be a business plan where you charge gear distributors to place products in the showroom, but carry no stock.

 

[TwistedKestrel]

http://www.rock-store.com/

This is on the Mulholland highway. It's the mecca of bikes in LA. You can never make it into the actual cafe after looking at all the rare bikes in the parking area. The GTA needs this outside of the city on a winding route, and Sunday morning broadcasts of MotoGP races.

In the US, dealerships have given up on gear, the internet won. There could be a business plan where you charge gear distributors to place products in the showroom, but carry no stock.

I was thinking something more Ace Cafe than Rock Store. There are a lot of bikers inside the city, whether there are roads or not. You *could* put something on the short list of winding routes* near the city, but there are a number of problems with that. I think you would have a much larger market in or near the GTA, for one. Another thing is, riders that are going out to optimal motorcycle roads are already busy doing something. They're already engaged. If you made a biker hangout inside the GTA wasteland, then you are now creating something for them to do. Lastly, I think in Ontario in particular, putting a biker cafe anywhere near a decent road would create too much of a heat score. There will practically be an OPP detachment in the parking lot.

*for certain definitions of winding

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