ALBUQUERQUE, NM (BRAIN)—Black Friday yielded mixed results for bicycle retailers.
Sport Systems in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reported a 10 percent increase over last year. Owner Duane Kinsley said total sales were split up evenly into thirds amongst bike, ski and snowboard. “It was a little unexpected,” Kinsley said of the increase. “We did a six figure amount on Black Friday. We had a couple 100 people waiting in line to get in at 7 a.m.”
According to Bicycle Retailer & Industry News’ informal Web site survey last week, 36 percent of retailers were up over last year, while 32 percent reported flat sales. Thirty-three percent reported sales were down. Just over a 100 responded to the survey.
Leisure Trends Group conducted a survey of its own in the outdoor, snow, paddle, run, scuba dive and cycling markets. LTG’s survey reported that 70 percent of retailers in these markets had increased sales over last year.
On Black Friday 2009 60 percent of retailers reported hosting a sale, this year that number increased to 67 percent.
Steven’s Bicycles outside of Fresno, California, reported “mediocre” sales on Black Friday. Owner Brent Kutzbach said that sales were down a little bit, in fact. He said slow sales Thanksgiving weekend and into the first week of December is pretty much the norm for Steven’s.
“It usually explodes for us after that,” Kutzbach said. Parents typically wait to buy bikes closer to Christmas so they don’t have to hide them from the children as long, Kutzbach said.
“I’m counting on having a big weekend this weekend,” Kutzbach added.
—Jason Norman
jnorman@bicycleretailer.com
