TEMPE, Ariz. (BRAIN) — Domenic's 2 Wheelers, an area landmark bike shop for 41 years, will close this month. Owner Judy Malvestuto, who took over following the death of husband Domenic Malvestuto in 2011, told BRAIN on Tuesday the exact final day will be determined.
Supply-chain challenges affecting the industry prompted the decision, said Judy, 73, who will retire and travel.
“Everybody thinks this bicycle world is a big boom,” she said. “It was, back in the day of the pandemic, and everybody went into the bike shops and started buying bikes because the fitness places were all closed down. So everybody bought the bikes. And now you can’t get bikes. You can’t get parts. You have to pre-order everything, and we did.”
Malvestuto, who said business doubled during the pandemic last year, expressed frustration with backorders and rising prices.
“Now they just come in dribble by dribble,” she said. “So you’ll never get 15 bikes at a time. So everything is on backorder. Parts are on backorder. And you do it with every distributor, and whoever comes up first, you take it. And then all the prices are going up, so it's really, really hard to keep things going.”
Online competitors like Amazon have made supply-chain struggles even more acute, she said. “The whole industry … I don’t know where it’s going. All these different online (stores) seem to have product, but the distributors don’t have product.”
She didn’t consider finding another owner because the shop’s inventory was so low. She did sell the 5,000-square-foot building and the business news to be officially out of the space by June 25. The building will become a reptile store. An "everything must go" sale is in progress to liquidate inventory, and to further illustrate the supply-chain shortage, Malvestuto said other area bike shops have been customers “because they don’t have anything.”
Before Malvestuto travels to Italy and Canada, she will have knee-replacement surgery July 6.
“And then getting up there in age, I decided, well, the store is a little empty now, so maybe now is a good time to retire,” said Malvestuto, who has four employees who have been with Domenic’s from six to 13 years. “I lost my husband 10 years ago. I’ve kept it going for 10 years. Now it just seemed like it was the time to start going out and enjoying life.”
Domenic's 2 Wheelers played a prominent role in Arizona cycling history, thanks to Domenic Malvestuto, who was well known in the industry. He raced in Italy and was a member of the Italian national team before moving to Tempe in 1979 and opening Domenic's Cycling.
Malvestuto, who also founded the annual Tour de Tempe community bike ride, moved his shop twice and combined it with another shop to create Domenic's 2 Wheelers.
