A lot of mom and pop stores closed when Walmart came into town, but some survived, why? They adapted. How? by offering better customer service, but expanding their lines to include niche products and services that Walmart would not sell or offer, which includes selling harder to get and better quality stuff. The same is true with hardware stores when the big box stores came into town, yet there are small ma and pa hardware stores doing just fine with a big box store just down the street.
I know a lot of LBS's that are not having any problems selling in this new world order of the cycling world. One of them years ago had the foresight and started to sell Running gear, Skiing equipment, Kayaks, Climbing gear, Rollerblades and boards, Fishing equipment, and Swimming gear, and then offering better quality stuff and hard to find stuff like I mentioned earlier. Another LBS in the town where I now live hasn't moved in that direction yet but is crowded with patrons most days and isn't even remotely considering throwing in the towel.
If a LBS throws in the towel today it's because either they don't have the business sense to change to succeed, or they just don't want to and really didn't have much success all the years they were in business anyways and barely stayed above water, maybe their customer service wasn't all that great and over time the word traveled and now it haunts them into oblivion, or there are more bike shops then needed for the area. Don't read into any of that and tell people here that I'm saying that Gear Works is a bad place, they could be a great place with great customer service, I don't know I never did business with them nor live in the area to hear what others think, just listing possible reasons is all I'm doing.
I do know that in that area there are 9 other LBS's, that's a lot of bike shops in an area where only a bit over 40,000 people live; by comparison I live in an area of with 253,000 people and this city only has 4! I think the problem with your area is probably over saturation of bike shops thus the weak will fade away and the strong will survive.
All I hear from failing LBS's is them whining about how the industry has changed, what they're really saying is that the internet has taken away their business and now they can't succeed which is BS. What you scream? that's not true you scream? Really? read this:
http://nbda.com/articles/industry-overview-2014-pg34.htm As of the end of the 2014 year the LBS segment of the industry controls 50% of the dollars which is huge compared to any other form of retailer. so who controls the rest? The internet stores? nope, in fact in that overview I posted internet sales are listed as "other" which are responsible for only 2.5% of the dollars...the smallest amount of any other form of retailer. And the reason LBS's close is due mostly to consolidation which is why yours is closing because there are too many bike shops in that small of an area, yet after your LBS closes the sales of bikes and accessories for that area will remain the same except there be one less store to share the proceeds with which means the survivors will make a little bit more money.
Sorry to see your store go but someone had to go and your LBS couldn't hold out any longer so yours went first.
