Recently on an old-home visit to Chicago I dropped in to my childhood LBS. The same display racks, hand-built of cedar 2x4 by the original owner, accessories and tires in the same place, and owned by the son of the man who fixed my 20 inch 1-speed until I learned to hold a wrench. The store was started by a former racer, his BSA is on the wall. Not even the store-front has had a face-lift, just some touch-up to the original signs.
Ken Freeman Ann Arbor, MI
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Bianca Pratorius Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 7:33 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Boutique buying in the classic era -- Not quite the same!
Someone commented that there were bicycle boutiques and chain store shops back in the 70's. I can not remember seeing any chain stores for bicycles in New York or in San Francisco or in San Diego. Two stores do not a chain make. Furthermore the boutique buying I am describing has nothing to do with poseurs in the 70's spending way too much for Nouvo Record and Paramount and the like. Of course people have always desired to possess something which seems incredibly well crafted, and of course people back in the day bought racing bikes when they probably would have been better suited to an English three speed. The point here is that the present day boutiques have been perfectly modeled after women's high end clothing or shoe boutiques. Women's clothing stores are an exercise in absolute fashion and total appeal to the "look". The modern stores I am seeing involve total commitment to selling cycling equipment as a fashion statement. There were always stores that placed Campy stuff in showcases for us to drool over. The difference was that the staff was motivated more by function and less by fashion than the current crop of merchandizers. Ask any of our shop owners like Dale if he ever hired a salesman based on his European hair cut or his French accent. Ask them if they deliberately purchased carpeting to create a venue wherein ultra high prices would seem less out of place. Ask them if there were backers for their grand opening so that one could drop a half mill for advertising, stock and interior construction. I remember the old shops as having been started on a wing and a prayer of a single dreamer, without the obvious guiding hands of investors hovering over the operation. I am telling you that Bike Tech in Miami is a dead ringer for the old clothing boutique "Charavari" in New York, if anyone recalls it.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl.