captain dust
Well-Known Member
First of all a bit of background. I have worked in the bicycle industry for over ten years in a retail store. I have only really recently gotten involved with moto's.
What i am amazed by is the moto shops. The arrogance and at times, rudeness of shop staff shown towards customers is astonishing. From my own experience i have found going into a good majority of the bigger bike shops that primarily sell jap bikes and mentioning that you ride a chinese pit bike, you are straight away looked down on. I find that without even mentioning you ride a chinese pit bike the shop staff treat you like rubbish and act like they know everything and that you are merely just an inconvenience to them a lot of the time. If i treated a customer like this that walked into the bike store i work at the customer wouldn't purchase goods from us and my superiors would not be at all happy with me. When someone comes into my workplace and mentions they ride a brand or type of bike that we don't sell or that i think is not so great, i dont look down on them or treat them like they don't know what theyre doing. Im there to help and sell product and thats what i do.
It makes sense that so many people buy mini bike parts and parts in general over the internet when bike shops treat you like rubbish. So many of the bike shops just seem to get their backs up as soon as you mention "mini bike" or "pit bike". Its quite funny how dumb that they can be about it. Its obviously opening up a niche in the market for people like SA Fun bikes, Maylands Performance Engines, MSO, DHZ etc... Mini bikes are here to stay and will only grow in popularity and the bigger shops will lose out in the end if they dont want to help all types of customers.
What got me thinking about all of this was today i went into a big popular moto shop here in Adelaide to see if i could pick up a kickstarter for one of my bikes as i was passing by. I would and usually prefer to go to a mini bike store like SAFB or MPE but forget that for now. Just passing by and thought it might have worked out conveniently well for me. I took in the old one to show what i wanted. The sales attendant goes off and then comes back and asks what bike it what was from, being a very generic item that i know you can pick up for $20 from various online sources and other stores i told them it was just off of a Chinese pit bike. Then i got the, "Oh youve got a piece of shit bike and were going to rip you off" look. The attendant comes back with one which looks even crustier than the cheap little shitter i have already. I think ok, it will do its only for my old bike and to get me going for the weekend. Then i look at the price. $40. My god, i respect the fact that people are in business to make money but geesh... I asked if that was all they had and got told that was it, so i obviously didnt buy it.
Its when things like this happen that i just think, what wankers. They dont deserve your money or support. Then they get upset that people buy things over the internet... I wonder why people buy from online sources when local stores treat you like rubbish.
What i am amazed by is the moto shops. The arrogance and at times, rudeness of shop staff shown towards customers is astonishing. From my own experience i have found going into a good majority of the bigger bike shops that primarily sell jap bikes and mentioning that you ride a chinese pit bike, you are straight away looked down on. I find that without even mentioning you ride a chinese pit bike the shop staff treat you like rubbish and act like they know everything and that you are merely just an inconvenience to them a lot of the time. If i treated a customer like this that walked into the bike store i work at the customer wouldn't purchase goods from us and my superiors would not be at all happy with me. When someone comes into my workplace and mentions they ride a brand or type of bike that we don't sell or that i think is not so great, i dont look down on them or treat them like they don't know what theyre doing. Im there to help and sell product and thats what i do.
It makes sense that so many people buy mini bike parts and parts in general over the internet when bike shops treat you like rubbish. So many of the bike shops just seem to get their backs up as soon as you mention "mini bike" or "pit bike". Its quite funny how dumb that they can be about it. Its obviously opening up a niche in the market for people like SA Fun bikes, Maylands Performance Engines, MSO, DHZ etc... Mini bikes are here to stay and will only grow in popularity and the bigger shops will lose out in the end if they dont want to help all types of customers.
What got me thinking about all of this was today i went into a big popular moto shop here in Adelaide to see if i could pick up a kickstarter for one of my bikes as i was passing by. I would and usually prefer to go to a mini bike store like SAFB or MPE but forget that for now. Just passing by and thought it might have worked out conveniently well for me. I took in the old one to show what i wanted. The sales attendant goes off and then comes back and asks what bike it what was from, being a very generic item that i know you can pick up for $20 from various online sources and other stores i told them it was just off of a Chinese pit bike. Then i got the, "Oh youve got a piece of shit bike and were going to rip you off" look. The attendant comes back with one which looks even crustier than the cheap little shitter i have already. I think ok, it will do its only for my old bike and to get me going for the weekend. Then i look at the price. $40. My god, i respect the fact that people are in business to make money but geesh... I asked if that was all they had and got told that was it, so i obviously didnt buy it.
Its when things like this happen that i just think, what wankers. They dont deserve your money or support. Then they get upset that people buy things over the internet... I wonder why people buy from online sources when local stores treat you like rubbish.
