When COVID-19 quarantines hit, Michael MacFynn of Revolution Cycle expected sales to plummet. The reverse happened.
“From April 1st on, we were down to a very skeleton crew, sales had plummeted, and forecasting for the year looked very grim. But, by the end of April, we had sales that I joked looked like the USA COVID curve — our online sales had grown by 10 times, and then in May it doubled again.” MacFynn says.
If you didn’t have wheels by summer, you spent most of it waiting for a new ride — literally all major bike suppliers sold out, continent wide. Stores waited up to six weeks to get their fall orders early, and those sold out too.
Cancelled plans played a big part, but there was also a need to escape. “The influx of new riders is boggling,” MacFynn says. “People want to get out and not feel trapped inside, and people with young kids want a sense of normalcy in having the kids home for so long.”
By July, most bike shipments at Cranky’s Bike Shop were to fill next year’s orders
Summer wait time for repairs at Revolution Cycle were twice as long as previous years
Online sales growth for Revolution Cycle in April — which doubled again in May
This article appears in the October 2020 issue of Edify
