Irvine, CA: The National Bicycle Dealers Association (NBDA) has offered a $129 annual discounted membership since 2022 to the 300+ US shops variously known as non-profits, community bicycle organizations (CBOs), co-ops and bike kitchens.
At their July meeting, the NBDA Board voted to move forward with a survey of America's CBOs to determine what membership benefits would have the greatest appeal. Once a consensus is identified, NBDA will be able to better tailor existing programs or create new ones to the needs of the co-op shops.
"As the industry's main source of support for North America's bike retailers, we want to learn more about the overlap between for-profit and non-profit shops," said Heather Mason, the NBDA's President. "It's an important part of our mission to assist all retailers and servicers of bicycles, regardless of their focus and client base."
John Robinson, owner of Johnny Velo Bikes in Columbus, OH and Chair of the NBDA's DEI Committee, has been engaged with his local non-profits for decades. "When you observe up-close the valuable products and services that CBOs provide to their communities, we feel it's important to pursue ways to help them be more successful through the NBDA," Robinson said.
Two industry volunteers are instrumental in moving forward with the process of identifying the needs of non-profit shops. Peter Woolery, founder of Bicycle Market Research LLC, has been researching the used bike marketplace, a key area of revenue generation for most co-op shops, on behalf of PeopleForBikes.
"I jumped at the chance to be involved with this area of progress for both the NBDA and the CBOs," said Woolery. "My strengths in formulating surveys and analyzing the results will hopefully be helpful in bridging the gap between traditional NBDA members and the all-important base of non-profits."
Also volunteering and joining the NBDA DEI Committee is Ray Keener, industry veteran and BRAIN's Retail Editor. Keener has both directed Boulder CO's Community Cycles as Board President for three years and researched non-profits for two BRAIN print articles.
"As far as a survey format, we're turning to a process that worked really well when we started VeloBusiness back in 1998," Keener said. "We faxed a survey to our database of US bike shops and asked them to rate their expertise in 40 different areas, everything from cash flow management to window displays."
"Then we focused our stories for retailers where they rated themselves low like staff training, and ignored areas where they already had expertise, like bike fitting." The CBO survey will follow a similar format, with the list of topics nearing 50. The survey will go out in late September to the 250 or so non-profits from a database that Woolery and Keener have created.
One more benefit that the NBDA will offer is to gather programs and services of interest to co–ops provided by other industry organizations all in one place on the NBDA website. Both the League of American Bicyclists and PeopleForBikes have agreed to coordinate their offerings this way.
"While the CBOs are distinctly different from our traditional shops in a number of ways, we want to both identify and celebrate those differences. The long-term goal is to bring everyone who's offering the beauty and versatility of bicycle use to their community's citizens under the industry tent," concluded Mason.
For more information, or to make sure your CBO receives the survey, e-mail Keener at ray@growthcycle.net
For more information about the National Bicycle Dealers Association and its initiatives, visit NBDA's website.
About the National Bicycle Dealers Association (NBDA):
The NBDA is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting independent bicycle dealers. Through various initiatives, education programs, and networking opportunities, the NBDA strives to elevate the bicycle retail industry and empower dealers for long-term success. For more information about the NBDA and its initiatives, please visit www.nbda.com.
