Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Another bike dealer gone bust !

[Simon Reed]

"The Bike People " formally Carnell/city & the original Carnells in Doncaster,have gone bust !yesterday/today,i've been down to rescue a bike from the workshop before it got swalloed up by the liguidator !
they were doin some warranty work !

The doors are closed,and men in suits and clipboards are stocktaking !

Another chapter closed !

[Redruth]

I think there's a big Carnells in Milton Keynes, too, isn't there. Might be worth a post Xmas trip to buy up some liquidated stock.

What, me, a Vulture? Never

[BDG]

From what i hear it won't be the last one either before the spring.

[Simon Reed]

Theres no more Carnells left in the Country !! when they bought Motorcycle city,they ran the co for a while then the whole group of car & bike dealerships were bought by the Royal bank of Scotland,who carved it up then shut the bike side,country wide !Doncaster was sold off,& run as the bike people for a while now that gone tits up !!!
like uve said,wotch this space,they'll be more !!!

[madmav]

Well to be honest , they survived longer than was expected! and they have become a victim of their own success.

and it all started when they turned the bike trade into the car supermarket trade !
They not only took out the little bloke off the strret corner, where most of us can remeber goin to in our youth for anything from a DELCO plug spanner, to a lenght of HT lead and everything inbetween!

proper bike Shops!!!!

when i was a youth the shops were: Brownhills (honda) shop, custom (kawasaki) shop in Hednesford, The (Suzuki) center in Cannock and even The (yamaha) shop in Brownhills on the other side of the road to the Honda shop!!

and whatever bike you wanted thats the shop you purchased it from ! and the other shops were visited to make a full days viewing on a saturday Essential,

single Franchised dealers was the way in them days .

Untill the likes of city , Carnell, bikes uk etc etc seen the Rabbit and decided to Flood and F*** up the bike trade with multi franchise Faceless supermarkets ,,

They Wiped out whole biking communities, and it is great reading Morts post about Nelly's as it reminds me of how my shop was in the 80's.....

JHP are doing the same thing and creating a community (Ducati) where you can go view,Buy and chat about bikes that you like , instead of hearing "just £100 deposit on ya credit card today will secure your new bike SIR"

and Before i'm shot down in flames i have been in and around the bike trade all of my life!! if you havn't please don't comment!!!!

Goodridance To them and bring it on (Independents) i'ts the way back FORWARD in biking as it is a FRATERNITY ! A COMMUNITY ! and A SERVICE! that should be second to none!!

Just my OPINION >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>mav

[KeefyB]

Mav,your observations are spot on.
We had a Carnells just down the road.I never bought anything from there.(Well,apart from their closing down sale! )

[NBs996]

i've not beein in the bike trade mav, but i'm gonna give my opinion anyway... You're spot on bloke.

There's faceless shops opening and closing too frequently down here on the coast, but luckily the little guys seem to be surviving too... just climb over the dismantled race bikes on your way to the parts shelf and if they haven't got it "it'll be here for you tomorrow mate, and it'll cost ya 50p, put the kettle on while you're 'ere". "Oh, and you'll need a special tool for that, here use mine just bring it back when you're done".
Or you could have.... "can't order that 'till we need a load more stock sir, and it'll be £99.99 which you've got to pay up front so we can f*** you around cos we've got your money already".

sorry, was that a bit of a soap box moment?

[chicken]

mav, having spoken to you the other night I know exactly why you feel so strongly about this!

I give as much as possible of my business (biking and personal) to owner-operated companies. The service is generally much better, comments and complaints are dealt with quickly, I know my money is not being spent on expensive national advertising, and I like that the shopkeeper knows my name when I go in.

This, in my opinion, is one of the reasons for the decline in society in this country over the last twenty-odd years. Prices may have come down, but salaries more so (inflation-adjusted) so cost of living has gone up.

Sorry, my soapbox moment over!

[Monty]

"The fact i've not been in the bike industry doesn't make me more or less qualified to have an opinion"-Steve you always have an opinion mate-it's what makes you you-we rely on it, and it keeps the board fun-we may not all always agree with you, but we all still want to read what you post.

As for me I tend to agree that the Carnells of this world are not for me-I have been in them and looked at all the bikes, but never bought anything off them. I have a family run multi franchise-Ducati, Aprillia, Honda, Suzuki-down the road from me and I know all the guys there, and I use JHP-oh and I use Denis Trollope in Bristol for all my TZ stuff-another knowledgeable one man band.

John

[uncle porry]

i don`t quite understand the way its being kind of celebrated that a big business has gone bust.....i`m all for the small business, but how many people here drive past a small local store to get to the big supermarket on the edge of town to do their food shopping......hmm...i smell hypocrisy...