degggendorf t1_j73dxzb wrote on February 3, 2023 at 7:57 PM

Reply to comment by SheistyBengal in Bike shop by Chimbo84

Yep for sure, the Narragansett NBX is a great local "real" bike shop.

The slightly-insider (former owner of a different shop) story I heard is that it wasn't such a friendly thing like he was already trying to sell and Trek kindly came along to help out...it was a bit more coerced.

SheistyBengal t1_j73erwd wrote on February 3, 2023 at 8:02 PM

Very interesting. Matt is a great guy so I have no doubts he put lipstick on the situation as to not drag them publicly. Plus, he’s still selling their product lol

These mass producers get too big for their own good sometimes and very easy to forget their roots (coming from a Trek owner)

degggendorf t1_j73l0ej wrote on February 3, 2023 at 8:42 PM

It really does seem like manufacturers trying to get into retail often doesn't go well.

I'm in a completely different manufacturing industry, we've dipped our toes into first-party distribution and we just cannot manage to do it profitably. It's just such a completely different skillset that our organization isn't set up for.

Similar story with Andersen windows. Manufacturing is fine as far as national brands go, but the Renewal by Andersen sales arm is totally predatory.

I really don't know about Trek's internal setup, but if it's anything like what I've seen elsewhere, there are targets set by the higher ups, with healthy incentives for the Sales Dept to him them, which leads to unsustainably aggressive behavior.