Keighley’s Aire Valley Cycles forced to close despite Tour effect and being voted one of UK's top bike shops

I realise that this comment is very late. I found the article when looking for local shops in my area (I live in keighley and had always been curious why AV cycles was closed).

The reason that a lot of local bike shops  had failed to keep up with online sales was that Shimano's proceses made zero sense. There was a fixed "shop" price that they would sell to stores at, but this price was above what Shimano could be found at online. For LBSs to price match, they would have had to lose money on the parts. 

This has recently been rectified - Hence the increase in Shimano parts online (for example, at time of writing, a 6800 chainset is £140 on Wiggle and £160 on CRC. They were going for £110 a couple of years ago).

in the 80s I worked in a hobby shop and mail order was the big thing (old style internet) and we used to match the mail order prices charge postage if the mail order company did at their rate and had the same deal with suppliers that if we paid the credit bill within 14days we got an extra 10% of the trade price. it was a lot of hassle for a sale but it kept the shop open in the face of v/stiff competition, this along with good customer service and coffee (instant) made the world go round. people are so aware now but when they are spending a lot of money or a little money they want to feel that they are your most important customer ever. any lbs shops doing well have some or all of these attributes.

I do not believe a shop with the right ethos, good CS and maintenance and decent prices would struggle now. To claim Halfords is biting into the trade is a bit laughable for me.

Sometimes it is just that a shop might be in the wrong location or frankly is still stuck in the old times.

Must have been a different shop than the one I use to head to a few years ago. They weren't interested unless you were spending thousands or finally caught someone near the till. I loose count of the number of times I called to see if something was in the shop, told it was, headed over to be told it's internet order only.

Before anyone piles into Carlton, when he says "Bike shops that move with the times and are meaningfully connected to their customers are holding their own." I'm sure he's NOT saying Aire Valley wasn't. Just that the customer relationship is more important than ever, with commodity products and bikes themselves moving online (and many shops themselves maintaining online too).

Couches and good coffee and the craic sure helps - might mean an order through the store that was £5 or £50 more to the punter.