ALLENTOWN, Pa. (BRAIN) – Fewer shoppers are visiting bike shops, according to The Gluskin Townley Group, an industry research firm.
"[T]he percentage of adult bicycle owners who did not make any visits to a U.S. bike shop increased by ten percentage points from 2011 to 2013, or just over the last two years, and an increase in the number of any type of adult consumer who did not visit a bike shop at all during the past 12 months is not a good thing," said Elliot Gluskin, managing partner of The Gluskin Townley Group
Gluskin Townley bases its report on the American Bicyclist Study, an electronic survey of a nationally representative panel. The report has a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
The study categorizes respondents' cycling status as Enthusiasts, Moving Up, Casual and Infrequents. The categories were established in 1990 and the criteria include the price paid for the last bicycle purchased, the number of miles ridden during a warm weather month, and the number of visits to a bike shop during the previous year. Gluskin noted that Enthusiast cyclists showed the biggest drop off in shop visits in the study — from just 2 percent who didn't visit shops in 2011, to 26 percent in the 2013 study.
In the next most committed segment, the Moving Up respondents, the percentage of respondents who did not visit a shop increased by 2 percent. Casual and Infrequent adult bicyclists also cut back their shop visits. According to Gluskin, that means a total of 2.8 million fewer adults who own a bicycle visited a U.S. bike shop in 2013 compared to 2011.
Information on purchasing the full report is available at gluskintownleygroup.com
