Evans Cycles blames "supply chain issues" for £22.8m loss, as 70% sale sees bike prices slashed online

You do realise they were loss making before he bought them, right?

I bought my bike from Evans shortly after the takeover. Unfortunately the frame cracked, well over a year later. They replaced the frame and swapped all the components over under warranty, no probs. Can't fault their service.

Cayo wrote:

Still feel dirty 3 years later.

From going to Sports Direct or Goodwood Revival?

mark1a wrote:

Cayo wrote:

Still feel dirty 3 years later.

From going to Sports Direct or Goodwood Revival?

Oi! 😜 Revival is great fun. Besides, Chris Hoy, with Ned Boulting, led an Erica-type ride round the circuit before heading into the countryside, so it had a cycling connection that year. Second time meeting Chris, and Ned asked if I was taking part in the ride despite the fact I was dressed in full RAF uniform! 🤣

(edit: Eroica, not Erica!)

I think her name was spelt 'Erika' and I would dearly have loved to catch Ned Boulting and Chris Hoy paying homage as nature intended. (I expect NB was surprised that you were dressed at all.)

pockstone wrote:

I think her name was spelt 'Erika' and I would dearly have loved to catch Ned Boulting and Chris Hoy paying homage as nature intended. (I expect NB was surprised that you were dressed at all.)

Darned predictive text! 😁 Don't want to spill ure Jake sew ivy juice adder a complexion two the end of moan past. 😉

Thankfully, Chris, Ned and I were all sartorially covered up. 😊

Evans in Kingston was the nearest bike shop that sold proper race gear when I was growing up so always had a soft spot for them and occasionaly used my local one in East Dulwich but the quality of service became so poor I stopped using them except for emergencies, it was either non-existent or incredibly patronising. The final straw was when I went in at the end of a ride to pick up a couple of tubes for the mountainbike, so I was in full kit and pushing my Roubaix DuraAce SL Pro - not exactly looking inexperienced, one would think - and when I took the tubes to the counter the assistant said, "Are they for that? Because they won't fit that, you know." The branch closed last year, meanwhile literally a hundred yards up the road the local branch of Balfes is absolutely thriving. If you can't make a viable go of a bike shop in an area that probably has as many commuting and sporting cyclists as any in London, there's something pretty wrong with your model.

Rendel Harris wrote:

I was in full kit and pushing my Roubaix DuraAce SL Pro - not exactly looking inexperienced, one would think - and when I took the tubes to the counter the assistant said, "Are they for that? Because they won't fit that, you know."

There's not exactly a shortage of people in the Dulwich area with a significant differential between the cost of their bike and the level of their knowledge. It was worth the assistant checking, I'd say: of course the tone in which it was done would make all the difference. 

I was in my LBS a few weeks ago, and the mechanic was very patiently explaining to a guy with DA and deep-section carbon wheels how to change an inner-tube. Not wheel-specific, or tips for doing it quickly, literally "there's this rubber tube that goes between the wheel and the tyre, if it bursts the air will come out". 

ubercurmudgeon wrote:

I went to the Evans web site for the first time in years. Why are there lots of items that are significantly cheaper if you buy them on interest-free credit? Why don't they want my money now, upfront, to pay their creditors? Something smells fishy.

Likely the credit provider is bunging them the difference to encourage people to take up the credit offer, and then banking on enough people failing to pay it off in the interest-free period that they make it up in interest payments (at 29.9% APR).

I get the motivation to offer a finance option, to ensnare poorer people, which is scummy but not unusual. But why make people who can afford to buy outright go through the hassle of spreading payments? There must be an additional grift going on, probably something to do with collecting and selling data on their customers.

Even if you could afford to pay the full cost up front now, that's no guarantee that you'll (a) remember to or (b) be able to (you may have spent the money on something else) service the payments when they come due, which means you then get hit with those hefty interest payments.

Plus, yes, every 'statement communication' is an opportunity to agressively try to induce you to buy more expensive stuff on credit, and every time you do, the more normal it becomes and the more likely you are to over-extend yourself, or forget to make a payment.

As far as the credit company's concerned, subsidising a few discounts here and there is just a marketing investment.

From what i can see most of the items are also for sale on the house of fraser and sports direct sites for the same prices and the same tie in discounts on certain items with the same sizes in stock.Makes you wonder if they are losing money like Evans too.