LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. (BRAIN) — The June 15 issue of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News, landing in mailboxes and email inboxes this week, features our annual e-bike report, a 12-page package devoted to the fast growing market for electric bikes. The new issue also contains a look at bike shop employee compensation, including results of a recent poll of U.S. bike retailers on the subject.
E-bike report
The e-bike report includes a look at e-bike retailers in Portland, Oregon. BRAIN contributor Doug McClellan talks to several retailers in the bike-crazy city who specialize in e-bikes; he also talks to mainstream IBDs in the city who are getting into the e-bike market. McClellan found that even some e-bike retailers are tired of reading about the market's potential. They just want to get on with selling the bikes.
Wake Gregg, for example, the owner of the EBike Store, said he finds the topic exasperating and outdated.
“It’s the most tired story you can imagine,” said Gregg, “Any media story in The New York Times, Bicycle Retailer — you name it — that same story has been out there ever since I started business.” The more accurate story about e-bikes in 2016, he said, is: I’m seeing more and more of them.
“It’s still not the hockey curve — yet — but it’s probably midway through the curve at the bottom of the hockey stick.”
The e-bike report also looks at e-bike fairs, demos and expos nationally, takes a look at SRAM's new eMTB group, and growth in e-cargo bike sales.
Retail compensation
In a cover story about retail compensation, BRAIN's Val Vanderpool reports on a recent BRAIN poll that asked retailers about employee compensation and benefits, and in particular, concerns about a new federal labor rule about overtime pay for salaried employees. Several major retailers told Vanderpool it's become increasingly hard to find — and keep — qualified employees. But others noted that the industry is maturing and beginning to offer more long term retail career tracks.
Over half of the retailers surveyed provide employees with some type of benefit package, with 52 percent offering heath care and 85 percent providing paid vacation days. Some also over sick leave — and retailers in California are required to provide three days of paid sick leave for full-time employees starting this year. And 29 percent of respondents said they pay retirement or 401(k) benefits.
Shimano pricing, Canyon's arrival
The June 15 issue also contains reports on Shimano's recent pricing changes and Canyon's plan to enter the U.S. market with a consumer-direct sales program in ealry 2017. The magazine also reports on True Temper's decision to leave the bike frame tubing market, the NPD Group's new multi-channel bike market sales tracking program and Hawley-Lambert's new vice president, among other stories.
As always, the issue contains an array of columns and features that are exclusive to BRAIN's print edition — content that is never presented on our webpage. That includes LifeCycle, State of Retail, Global Briefs, Mad Dog Unleashed, Trade Watch, Tech Briefs and Through the Grapevine.
Bicycle Retailer & Industry News is published 18 times each year. It's available in print and in an electronic edition. More information is available on our subscription page.
