I just got back from a 10-day trip that started from Madison to Raleigh North Carolina and back to Madison, and right back on a plane for Los Angeles, than from LA to Seattle and back to Madison. I didn't total the mileage, which isn't as important as the 21-bike shop visits and the 6-supplier visits along the way.

I joined Elliot Gluskin, my partner in The Gluskin Townley Group research consultancy in Los Angeles and we visited with suppliers and retailers as we drove from LAX to Seattle over 7-days. The primary purpose of our trip was to call on suppliers to present a revised and updated bicycle sales retail-tracking program. The secondary purpose was to learn more about specialty bicycle retail - in this case along the Pacific coast north of Los Angeles.

Below is my summary of the strategic significance of the overall bike store tour:

Strategic Significance

You can't judge a book by its cover, and you can't judge a bike shop by only its exterior appearance. The first three bike shops described above were average to slightly above average in exterior appearance, with average to above average interior layout and merchandising - but their staff and the staff attitude made all the difference in the shopping experiences we had, which as noted scored from 4 to 4+ on a 5 point scale. All three are clearly specialty retailers with a focus on the consumer.

The fourth - had one of the best buildings for the specialty retailing of bicycles that I have seen in quit a while, and I got excited just being there. The layout and merchandising was above average - but the shopping experience was a 2 ... at best. Two of us walked in and neither of us was acknowledged or spoken to by any of the three staff on duty, and we left after 15 minutes feeling disappointed because of the high expectations the building and interior merchandising had built up.

The excellent level of service provided by the three retail staff people we encountered didn't happen by accident. It was the direct result of the ownership and management paying very close attention to ongoing staff education and to hiring people-people. The fourth experience, I am afraid, is the result of just the opposite.

I wish I could tell you that the majority of the 21 bike shop visits-mystery shops we did on our trip were like the first three I describe in this Journal post. Unfortunately, like the fourth experience I describe here, we were ignored, or had to actually approach the staff in most of the bike shops we entered - continuing the disturbing trend we have encountered in other regions of the country.

We plan several MP3 audio files about the trip and our bike shop visits, and we will let you know when you can access them on the www.bikeprofits.com web site and in the member's area.

I also will discuss the growing problem of hiring, educating and retaining good staff during my next Master Mind Tele-Seminar, Thursday May 18, 2006 at 7:00 PM CDT.