will soon be the River City Bicycles Outlet store.
River City Bicycles has purchased a new, 5,000 square foot building that will soon become a new outlet store selling discounted bikes and clothing just a few blocks from their existing location. The River City Bicycles Outlet is set to open for business in the next few weeks at 534 SE Belmont (the southwest corner of 6th and Belmont).
According to River City Bicycles owner David Guettler, the new store will carry closeouts from a variety of brands. The bulk of the offerings will be new bikes and clothing, but he says he’ll also offer high-quality road bike rentals as well as used bikes that have come in as trade-ins from purchases made at their flagship store on SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
“People are looking for a deal… They don’t care if it’s last year’s bike, if they can get a brand new bike at a used price, obviously in a win-win for everyone.”
Guettler has owned River City for 15 years and is coming of a national “Retailer of the Year” honor he earned in 2010. He says the new outlet store is a response to what people have been asking for: “All this came from customers telling us what they want. People are looking for a deal… They don’t care if it’s last year’s bike, if they can get a brand new bike at a used price, obviously in a win-win for everyone.”
Guettler sees the new store not as a second location, but as a complement to his existing operations. “We’re just trying to come up with a way to enhance what we already do.”
The River City Bicycles Outlet will be a supplier-independent store — meaning Guettler will sell a wide variety of brands, not just the brands he represents at his existing store. He mentioned GT, Scott, Raleigh, and others. The bulk of the bikes sold at the outlet will come directly from suppliers, who are looking to get rid of old stock, closeouts, odd sizes, and other bikes sitting in their warehouses.
The new store will also have a different showroom than you’re used to. It will be sectioned off into sizes. “We’ll have different color tags and every color is going to be for a different size… So, if you’re between 5′ and 5′ 4″, everything with a red tag will fit you.”
Sounds interesting. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. Stay tuned for photos and a report once the new store opens its doors to the public. Good luck Dave and the entire River City Bicycles crew!
Go Dave Go!
Awesome. This is the flip side of the boutique bike, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Cool. I hope it is a big success!
I wish they would rent high-end mountain bikes too. Fat Tire Farm has the market cornered (as far as I know) and I think some competition would be good for the consumer.
gulp! just down the block from my office, I can see the daily lunch distraction may become too much for me to bear! 🙂
+5! Go River City! Show Performance who’s boss!
Yeah, like start by lowering your prices.
This strip is developing. There is a new Rogue Beer retail store going in across from the Green Dragon at 9th and Belmont.
will they sell discounted parts too?
i would love a closer outlet for my upgrade fetish.
PS: universal cycles is the bomb.
I have a dream …
… a dream where bicycle related industry and commercial businesses take over a strip of asphalt wholly given over to the auto’s alleged superiority.
… a dream where the concentration of bike and pedestrian friendly commercial activity provides the sort of focused synergy that auto manufacturers have know about decades and gave us “motor miles” where competing dealerships increase each others bottom lines.
… where autos may still drive through but the amount of non-automotive commerce encourage them not to, perhaps even shaming them away.
*burp*
Sorry, bad dinner.
Please disregard preceding delusion.
“I have a dream …” – q’Tzal
Your dream is a shared dream my friend.
With the Bike-n-Hike flagship store and Portland Running Company in the neighborhood, this has the potential to be q`Tzal’s dream of a bike and pedestrian district. I could totally see drivers telling each other, “Stay away from that bike district down off Grand. Between the bikes, the walkers, the runners, and the Streetcar, it’s a pain to get through there in a car.”
I’m having a hard time with this part though…
“So, if you’re between 5′ and 5′ 4″, everything with a red tag will fit you.”
Is this clothing or bikes or everything? And with all the emphasis on bike fitting these days (and River City has a talented fitter…) this sounds a little funny to me. ???