This is an unashamedly parochial post, given that it's in praise of a particular bike shop, one that happens to be just around the corner from me. But I'd like to think lots of other bike shops could learn from Brixton Cycles.
Set up exactly 30 years ago – the anniversary party is tomorrow – by a group of friends who hatched the plan on ride from Land's End to John O'Groats, it is is a full co-operative.
This isn't just the John Lewis model, where despite the annual profit share-out the management structure remains very much top down. At Brixton Cycles decisions are decided by consensus at a monthly meeting and everyone is paid the same (set on a daily rate – some work more days than others).
The result is the sort of staff loyalty almost unknown elsewhere in the retail trade. The longest-serving staff member has been there 25 years. A number of others have notched up more than a decade.
This brings experience and expertise the likes of which I've never seen in any other bike shop. Whenever I've been there to buy something, I'm either provided with whatever it was I sought, pointed to something even more suitable, or (rarely; for a small shop they seem to have Tardis-like levels of stock) pointed elsewhere if they don't have it.
It's the only shop I've ever been to where the improvement in a bike after I'd had it serviced was so dramatic I wrote them an email of thanks.
It's not the oldest, let alone biggest, bike shop co-op in the UK. Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op (which now has eight stores, five in England) was set up in 1977 and has more than 100 members, who gain an equal share in the business after a year's "apprenticeship".
But it's worth recalling that Brixton Cycles started business just two years after the riots which saw many other businesses flee the area. Brixton is now (in some ways) very different, and the traditional queue outside the shop for its morning on-the-spot repair clinic is now just as likely to include a suited professional on a hybrid as a teenager on a BMX.
I had a chat with Terry Green, 25, one of the newest recruits – he joined 18 months ago – about what makes the shop special. He said one aspect was that everyone works both in the shop and in the stockroom and workshop, giving them wide expertise:
We've got people who've been here for more than 15 years. Even if I'm not sure about something I've got those guys to fall back on. Their experience is unrivalled.
He explained the way the shop is run:
We have a monthly meeting and we collectively decide on things we want to change, or make better, or make easier for customers. It goes pretty smoothly, because everyone's so laid back about things. If someone's genuinely got a good idea we'll usually try it.
It's a really, really nice place to work. Last Friday we were listening to disco all day, which really made things positive. The customers loved it as well.
I was in the cycle trade before I joined, but even when I worked in other bike shops I still spent my money in Brixton Cycles.
