MYSTERY SHOPPER Bedford & Biggleswade
Unlikely bed-fellows
Halfords
On our travels Mystery Shopper has come across a lot, parking tickets, sat navs leading us across army training camps and much more. It gets better, though. Read on to find out which bike shop stunned us with the advice ‘buy from a bloke in a van’ this month…
ON THE back of a sterling experience in Cheltenham last month, I’d hoped the winds of change were blowing through stores nationwide and that Biggleswade’s branch would similarly impress. This experience was, to put it blunty, quite amusing
from my position of anonymity – one in which this Mystery Shopper had to strain to resist a guffaw at the advice being dealt. Granted the assistant was proactive in approaching me, but I almost wish he’d have stayed away given the coming experience. “Why would anyone want to take a £1,000 bike
through the dirt,” said he, while err.. selling me a Boardman. “You’ll wreck it,” he continued. So what about the Carreras, I ask. “You’ll buy two of
those for the one Boardman. They’re not up to much when compared to a Boardman’s build quality.” I thought he’d just said I’d wreck it with a little mud? “Your best bet is to go up to Chicksands and mingle,
see what they ride and I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but I believe there’s a bloke who sells bikes from his van up there too, he’ll see you right,” concludes the salesman.
26 BIKEBIZ AUGUST Go Outdoors
LARGELY A curiosity visit, BikeBiz has noticed the rise of non-specialist chains gradually entering the bike market. Go Outdoors is no exception, aside from the gradual
creep being more of a full-on assault on the family cycling sector. Knowing I’d not find my performance mountain bike here, I switched the brief to ‘canal workhorse’ and proceeded to seek assistance. It was refreshing to see a healthy workforce in a store
as large as this and I was stopped on three separate occasions by staff looking to help. One even offered to fetch me a trolley so I could ‘take a bike home today’. During my time with one assistant I was told of the
store’s ability to fully PDI check a bike and glancing over at the Park Tool clad workshop, it was a believable claim, especially given the staffer’s reasonable depth of knowledge. While no expert on technical elements, I can see families being suitably impressed by the Diamondbacks and Claud Butlers on offer. As a specialist in outdoor gear and with a growing
presence nationwide, this could be another threat to the independent cycling business specialising in family bikes.
BIKEBIZ.COM
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