How Bike Shops Kept up with America's 121% Spike in Demand
Business Insider | October 20, 2020
When the coronavirus shut down public transportation and gyms, Americans returned to a trusted classic: the bicycle. In March, leisure-bike sales increased by 121% in the US. By April, bike shops across the country were cleared out of inventory.
Mehdi Farsi, the founder of State Bicycle in Tempe, Arizona. Usually, sells 30 to 40 bikes a day. But now, he's more than tripled his daily orders, to 150. In January and February, right around the Lunar New Year, all bike suppliers really were shut down for at least four weeks. Only a couple weeks later, he was completely sold out of bikes.
Offering preorder methods and ramping up production overseas were just a couple ways companies tried to keep up with demand. Mehdi also put a cap on the number of bikes each of his 300 dealers could sell in order to prevent larger shops from eating up all the inventory.
With so many more riders, the future of American cities might actually transform as well. More and more people are going to look to commute via bike, which is great for the environment. And, maybe we're gonna kind of see the next great American road cyclist come out of this.