. - Jonathan Maus, BikePortland Publisher and Editor
Yesterday I shared how Trump’s tariff policies are impacting a Portland-based bike company that imports its apparel and bicycles from China and other markets overseas. But what about local bike shops? For that perspective I called Brad Parker, owner of Metropolis Cycles on North Williams Avenue.
Here’s a slightly edited version of our conversation:
How has all the Trump tariff news impacted your business so far?
“So far, we’ve noticed distributors and manufacturers are telling us prices will increase. For instance, we just got an email a few weeks ago from the company that owns the Blackburn tools and racks, telling us that there is going to be a price increase at the beginning of this month. And our QBP [Quality Bicycle Products, a major distributor] rep did tell us that steel is going to go up.
One of the main things in the bike industry that is steel and important is chains and cassettes. So we have already just started [preparing for Trump uncertainty]. I went into my sales history and tried to do estimates of how many chains we sold last year, and we’re trying to purchase those now for the entire year to help us survive. So those are the main things that we have done so far to get us through these price increases that are coming.”
Have you seen any reaction from customers yet? Are people panic-buying bikes or anything like that?
“That’s a good question. It’s been a really weird year for us so far with bike sales. Right after the election and right after the inauguration, we sold a lot of bikes. It was almost like, for a lot of people, when they get depressed with stuff, they’ll go and they’ll buy something to make them feel better. And then February and March, we sold almost no bikes. It was really weird.”
So people aren’t coming in asking for used bikes? Or wanting to buy before tariffs kick in?
“We had a few customers purchase e-bikes in January who were like, ‘Hey, I want to get these before tariffs start hitting.’ I think we sold three bikes like that and we usually sell one e-bike every three months, so it’s kind of weird to sell three in January.”
You don’t seem very distressed. Are you worried that high prices and uncertainty will send a chill through costumers and they’ll stop coming through the door? How would higher prices impact your business?
“I don’t know about saying I’m not distressed. This keeps me up quite a bit every night, but it is what it is. It’s something that I personally can’t control.
We do a lot of tune-ups and service, and, you know, that’s where we’re going to have to increase our prices. We don’t really make too much money, so that means we have to push the price onto the consumer. The margins in the bike industry have shrunk significantly in the last 10 years. Either bike shops go out of business, or they have to push those costs onto the consumer. Will that affect how many people are coming in the door? Absolutely.
The other thing too is when things get more expensive, people go to bikes. When gas has gone up, or it’s hard to get a car, we’ve noticed a little bit of uptick of people pulling that bike out of the garage and relying on that more. We’re hopefully going to get a little bit of that to help us with the people that are maybe not biking because they can’t afford that new chain.
I’m pre-buying a year’s worth of chains and I’m going to keep that inventory up. So if I sell a chain right now, and I look and that price was still the old price, I’m going to keep ordering that. So when those tariffs do happen. I’m not going to, like, increase the price of my chain to be a dick. You know? I’m doing this to help my customers out. And when those chains run out and I have to buy expensive ones, that’s when I’m going to start increasing my prices.”
You’ve said you’re ordering more chains. But isn’t cash-flow a concern?
“The thing that’s hard is, you know, this is spring. This is when I have to pay all my manufacturers for all these bikes that I’ve bought. A lot of bikes come out in the fall, and manufacturers know that bike shops need to save their money to get through the winter. And so they’ll be like, ‘You got to pay us in the spring,’ and that’s right now. So I don’t have a lot of discretionary income. And the other thing too is the amount of new bikes we have in our bike shop is about twice as much as we had last year at this time. And it’s because we’ve been talking about these tariffs for a bit. And as soon as Trump got elected, I pre-booked up all these bikes. So I have to pay for them now. Ideally I would buy pallets of cassettes and pallets of other items. So would other bike shops. But they can’t, because they’re in the same boat I am in with owing all this other stuff like taxes, workers comp bill, all that stuff is due in April, you know?”
Anything else you want to share about all this?
“The whole bike industry is kind of like in this, ‘What do we do? We’re just gonna’ have to figure it out as we go,’ moment and that’s kind of where we’re at as well. We don’t know what’s gonna’ happen or what these costs are going to be. Everything’s gone up in price since I’ve been owner of the bike shop. One of the rear racks we used to sell was $45 and within five years, it’s now $75 for the same exact rack.
You know, you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do. You got to get up in the morning and just see what’s happening that day.”
Thanks for reading.
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This is the “tariff dance”…when does it pay to buy extra AND hope that customers will buy it before the cost to store it (and opportunity lost for that cash flow) is higher than waiting to buy it post tariff. [This assumes the US $ will not be weakened so greatly by these policies shifts (or an T2 Executive Order du jour we have yet to hear about).] This scenario also may be impacted by currency devaluation / manipulation by the producing nation…the future prices could be discounted by such if the supply chain does not solve it. Perhaps on the design side…all US bike shift to ‘belts’…assuming Gates still makes them in the USofA?
Unless everyone develops thighs of steel and we all start riding single-speeds, bikes need transmissions of some sort. Does anyone manufactures a geared hub or frame transmission wholely in the US?
That’s the sort of thing that takes years maybe decades to develop and tool up for if one isn’t already in the business.
Stph
I haven’t shopped for those things but I don’t think so. I have shopped for simple cartridge bearings and if you ask for Made in US you get an eye roll and a cold shoulder. They won’t even talk about it, I think they’re a little bitter behind the counter over at the bearing house.
For a few years at least we’ll probably be able to buy hub transmissions at some price. There’s probably somebody who wants to do it domestically but they’re finding out how hard it is. If the trade war gets good and hot maybe we’ll just steal the patents, that would save some steps.
Todd,please realize that multinational bikes ain’t new! In 1967 my parents got me a Chicago-built Schwinn–with Swiss Weinmann brakes and French Huret derailleur, Atom hubs and Atom freewheel. I suppose it could be someone’s low tech startup to make stamped steel derailleurs here. The Huret Alvit and Shimano Eagle patents have probably expired by now.
Love that shop and go there regularly for maintenance and repairs. Best wishes to the Metropolis team in these tough times
Agreed! Metropolis is a great shop, and I hope it can thrive in the future. It’s funny that stopping by Metropolis to get a new chain is currently on my to-do list.
The uncertainty of life under a mad king is going to make life interesting for all of us. Meanwhile I’d like to point out that while new bikes or bike parts may cross a border once, sometimes new cars and car parts cross a border three times or more. Advantage, bikes.
For consumers facing budget woes, the best value is the bike in your basement (or your neighbor’s basement), plus oil and air in the tires. If you take it to a bike shop they can tell you if it’s the right size for you and make sure it’s safe for about $120. If it’s basically ok and they won’t take your money (!) you can tip them. It does happen.
For people who have too many bikes the situation should add value to your herd, maybe this is the year to sell?
For the price of one car repair you can get a good used bike that fits you, shop overhaul included. For the price of new car tires, you can get new locally made hand built wheels, my favorite upgrade. You might chose fenders, lights, and rain gear if you haven’t been biking year round.
For the price of a used car that might run for a year or so, you could get a new e cargo bike that already has lights, fenders, racks, etc. It’s crazy that any bike that is not for racing comes without that stuff. If you chose to buy new some of the best money you can spend is to have the shop do a really solid fender and rack installation.
I’ve noticed that bike stuff has gone up already but bikes still cost me less than my phone, less than beer, and since I’ve almost stopped drinking coffee out, it’s like my bikes are basically free*. Bikes don’t have to cost a lot and any money you do spend will add good value. If you buy used, over half your money will stay in the local economy and help your neighbors.
*I’m leaving out the e bike conversion but that’s a longer story.
Tipping is fundamentally inequitable. Please don’t normalize its spread to even more industries. Please pay your employees what they’re worth, and don’t rely on your customers to do it for you. Build the cost of service into your prices.
Please.
I remember eating at a restaurant in Belgium, in Bruges I think, where the owner patiently explained to me in detail why he hates tipping from his customers. He has gone to a lot of trouble to figure out the cost of his meals, he pays his staff fair living wages, they all pay into the national health service and pension system, and he prices his food accordingly, so he’s very upset when any customer effectively disagrees with his calculations by paying him more than what he charges – he takes it as a personal insult. I found much the same attitude in France.
Agreed — the culture in Europe seems much more sane in this regard. And yet… tipping is starting to creep in there, little by little.
In a place where people don’t tip, I’m fine with that, but I’m not going to stand on principal if somebody who is working for me is partly paid in tips. Should I only go to restaurants with a no tipping policy?
I worked in a service business where tips were actually rare. The people who were hardest to work with, and the ones shopping for a price, were the ones least likely to tip.
I support people being paid a living wage, and I don’t feel that I have to tip for buying something at retail. Bike mechanics in particular are worth what they charge and may be chronically underpaid. Some business owners are reluctant to raise prices, I’ve been there. I can’t really do much about the relationship between a worker and their employer. However if somebody exceeds my expectations I can give them a five, or whatever. It also misses the taxman.
Sometimes people do actually undercharge and in that case I’m even more likely to tip. It’s a way of telling them what I think it was worth.
I support local bike shops because they save me time and often they do better work than I do. If a shop consistently stocks things that I use I’ll buy them there. I don’t want to go online to save a buck, and I still like to look at things before I buy them.
“It also misses the taxman.”
Another reason to avoid the practice, unless you tacitly (or explicitly) endorse tax evasion.
I’m from a place and time that believed that taxes were and unfortunate but necessary mechanism for funding the things we collectively want funded. Many liberals still believe that.
I can almost hear folks out there crying out “but the system is unfair to the little guy!”. Maybe it is, but that’s an argument for reform, not cheating.
Now pardon me while I go finish my taxes.
Wow, what you learn in the comments. Watts, I didn’t take you for a leave-it-till-the-last-weekend kind of guy. I figured you had an AI doing it for you months ago. But maybe that last sentence was just a bit of rhetorical flourish.
Sadly, it was not flourish. And the weather is nice.
Guess everyone, including me, demanding the cheapest prices on the stuff we buy couldn’t have ever predicted the predicament we now find ourselves in.
What’s the appeal of paying more than you have to for anything? Warm fuzzies?
I feel like this is the problem with Portland overall, the constant appeals to emotion and a romanticized version of how the world “should” work instead of accepting the cold hard reality of the way it does work.
Don’t ask how the sausage is made, just pay your Arts Tax and Say Nice Things About Portland, lol.
If you know what life is like in a fulfillment center, or a CAFO, enjoy your sausage. Here’s a story about what large companies can do to smaller suppliers. No paywall…
https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/small-suppliers-are-still-in-a-pickle-5mk87tdzc?region=global
I’m happy to cultivate local expertise on sourcing bike parts and building them into bikes. When I once cross threaded a pedal a local shop had the matching single crank I needed. The same folks let me know that the disk brake calipers I was wearing out on my main bike were available new old stock for a great price.
Another shop told me know that the gear ratio that I was looking for was available by ordering Junior cassettes, a thing I’d never heard of.
There are lots of examples of how local shops have saved me time and money. It’s not just warm fuzzies, I also like a good price.
If you pay retail without whining about it people remember that and sometimes they’ll hook you up. Bike shops are an important part of the ecosystem as far as I’m concerned, I don’t want to live in a place without them. If my few extra dollars help cover their rent that’s a good result.
I buy stuff locally when I can. Not for the “warm fuzzies” of paying more, but as an investment in the future of being able to buy stuff locally when I need it fast, or I want to put hands-on before buying.