Comments on: The League and the store “that shall not be named”

By: kamagra

kamagra — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:28:05 +0000

Create cross references for acronyms and initialisms. For example: MTB, see mountain bike.

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:48:01 +0000

Thank goodness for big box retailers. I have been bike shopping and wanted to replace a bike I had bought at Target that just wasn’t suiting my needs. However after visiting many of the local shops I quickly came to realize the prices at the small bike stores are way out of my budget, I would not be able to afford a new bike if not for the major retailers. I tried to find something I could use, but for those of us with less disposable income it’s a necessary evil.

By: Local_Cyclist

Local_Cyclist — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:29:35 +0000

Last I checked, this is your mission:

To promote bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation and work through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America.

The bit about Wal-Mart in the enews was a measly 2 sentences long. Whiners, give it a rest. Cycling enthusiasts should just be happy that cycling as an alternative form of transportation is getting larger coverage. That’s what you want, right? Or would you prefer it to be an elitist sport where the underprivileged can’t afford to get involved? That doesn’t sound very bicycle-friendly to me.

If anything, IBDs should be able to see the larger picture: if underprivileged consumers get their first bike at Wal-Mart and love the sport, then they will save money and make a more expensive purchase at an IBD. Wal-Mart will give them a taste, and the IBDs will give them a heightened experience.

Bike League, stick to your mission statement and not industry/brand loyalties.

By: walmart versus the independent bike dealer - Community Powered Cycling

walmart versus the independent bike dealer - Community Powered Cycling — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:12:14 +0000

[...] The League of American Bicyclists recently announced a National Bike Month promotion being held by Walmart. Rather than welcome and applaud the involvement in cycling by America’s largest retailer, the world’s largest publicly owned corporation, the readers of the newsletter cried foul because Walmart is the purported enemy of America’s Independent Bike Dealers. To wit: Anyway, the fact is we screwed up. We wanted to highlight our excitement that a retail giant picked up on May being National Bike Month and even built a promotion around it – in fact all we did was forward the promotion…. We’ll need to mend a few fences with retailers over this furore; we know there’s a huge sensitivity when it comes to the mass merchant channel and that we likely would have heard from a few retailers even with the right language in the article. The League is and always has been a staunch ally and promoter of IBDs in all that we do. [linky] [...]

By: stacey2545

stacey2545 — Sun, 30 May 2010 01:01:03 +0000

That seems to be a problem with box stores in general in rural areas. They put a lot of small, niche businesses out of business. Book stores, hardware stores, nurseries, music & movie stores. Rural areas are just as likely as low-income urban areas to be food deserts. I certainly hope that getting Wal-mart more involved in the cycling movement will help develop a market for the independent bike shop in under-served areas, rather than giving Wal-mart yet another industry the local independents can’t compete with.

By: Misinterpretation of bike safety trumps state law in Pasadena « BikingInLA

Misinterpretation of bike safety trumps state law in Pasadena « BikingInLA — Sat, 29 May 2010 07:27:25 +0000

[...] budget conflict sinks this year’s Tour of Missouri. The Bike League apologizes for mentioning the big, evil retail giant in their newsletter. A Santa Cruz area father is shot at trying to retrieve his son’s stolen [...]

By: Tom Ezell

Tom Ezell — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:26:44 +0000

One thing I like about the League is that we promote ourselves as representing and encouraging “people riding bicycles,” without obsessing too much about where they bought them. I just came back this past weekend from teaching a class with a shop in the northeastern part of our state that is the only bike shop in a 120-mile radius, and that’s a common situation across the rural South. In these cases, Wal*Mart or a similar “box store” is about the only place you can get a bike.

I love my local bike shops… they take excellent care of me, and I do my best to return the favor. But there’s a lot of folks living in under-served communities who need and love bikes as well, and they need the League’s support, too.