> I disagree about Supergo's service though. It was a great place to get
> deals if you knew what you wanted, but anyone else was at the mercy of
> some pretty high-pressure sales tactics, and generally lousy after-sale
> service. I shopped there often myself, but I'd never send a newbie there.
> The repair dept. of the FV store had some notorious jerks working there
> too.
Actually, you're *agreeing* with me. You gotta stop that. My point was that
people don't expect great service at a Supergo, but rather great prices on
stuff they got large qtys from a distressed bike company. Big stack of, say,
famous-brand tire at 1/2 price. The customer coming is isn't the person who
wants to spend half an hour talking with someone about their riding style
and whether that tire makes sense for them... it's the person who knows what
they need and recognizes something cheap that they can make work for them.
That's not the Performance customer. Whether by accident or design, they get
walk-ins who appear to expect a whole lot more than they get, which is
likely the reason the company has done so poorly selling bikes (which
require a *lot* of time/resources to assemble properly, sell and service
down the road). It's a serious drag on their bottom line, so it doesn't get
the attention it deserves. Much easier to sell stuff in a box, but the
issue, again, is that that's the Supergo customer (happy to buy in a box),
not Performance.
Obviously, the quality of store varies greatly; these are generalizations
I'm making based upon my experience with a limited number of local stores,
plus what I hear elsewhere from customers that email me. And just as
obviously, the LBS varies greatly in quality as well.
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
"Matt O'Toole" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news
[email protected]...
> On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 00:55:31 +0000, Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
>
>>> My crystal ball
>>> says two web sites, Nashbar and Performance, in the future with the
>>> SuperGo name fading into the sunset.
>>>
>>> - rick
>>
>> It's true that Supergo is going away, but in my opinion, it's a major
>> gaffe on their part. I think the Supergo end of the business had a lot
>> more upward potential than Performance... Supergo was always known as the
>> leader for killer deals, and any service you got from them was a bonus.
>> If
>> anything, they overperformed in terms of customer expectations.
>>
>> Performance, on the other hand, markets itself as a full-on retail
>> bicycle
>> shop, with excellent service etc. The degree to which they succeed varies
>> widely by location, with many generating a lot of complaints. Not to say
>> that the normal LBS doesn't have issues as well, but Performance seems to
>> miss the mark in terms of expectation vs delivery. Underperforming
>> expecations.
>>
>> I was almost positive that they'd re-brand Performance stores as Supergo,
>> and take it from there. Obviously, I was completely wrong. They must know
>> what they're doing, but darned if I can figure it out...
>
> I agree with you Mike. The stores themselves were much different.
> Performance sold a lot of its own stuff, while Supergo was the place to go
> for deals on name-brand stuff, and higher end stuff, particularly MTB.
> Supergo always had an amazing in-store selection too. I really liked
> the clothing/shoe area -- you could try on almost anything on the
> market.
>
> I disagree about Supergo's service though. It was a great place to get
> deals if you knew what you wanted, but anyone else was at the mercy of
> some pretty high-pressure sales tactics, and generally lousy after-sale
> service. I shopped there often myself, but I'd never send a newbie there.
> The repair dept. of the FV store had some notorious jerks working there
> too. OTOH, the Performance stores I've been to were better LBSes than
> most LBSes, particularly the old Irvine store which was outstanding.
>
> So these businesses really didn't have much in common, and killing the
> Supergo brand seems silly to me too.
>
> Matt O.
