Hmm… CnnMoney just did a list of the pricey things that are selling despite the tightening of purse strings everywhere. Cribs for $1000, ice cream for $17 a pint, …and a beach cruiser for $400? They chose to highlight Villy Customs – a custom beach cruiser mail-order company out of Dallas. CnnMoney listed $400 as the price tag for the beach cruisers, but you can’t get any of the bikes for less than $505 on Villy’s website and an Electra Townie sells for about that much. So what’s the hoopla? They could’ve just checked our website and found a number of pricey items selling in the cycling industry despite the poor economy. Sure, it’s cool to be able to customize your bike, but I don’t think that pricetag warrants a mention on that list. Why not choose an actual custom builder? Now there’s a story…
I’d take it with a grain of salt…. These sorts of stories are almost always a “pay-for-play” product placement arrangement setup by a PR company made to look like news or editorial content (you notice that the article is not written by a CNN employee). They show up all the time on TV news as “new gadgets you didn’t know you needed”, “innovative new drug for the treatment of ” or “this season’s MUST-HAVE Christmas gifts” type stuff.
Of course simply including a $400 bicycle in this article pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the article and the author.
topmounter – while it very well could be product placement (few things are not these days), it’s true that luxury retail spending is up. In our depressed economy, the only ones able to spend are the super wealthy – everyone else is hanging on to whatever they have for dear life.
Yesterday the WSJ had an article about luxury retailer Hermes inability to meet demand for things like silk scarves and hand bags that are far more expensive than any bikes. Someone has dough out there, and it ain’t me…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904716604576541701293396830.html?KEYWORDS=hermes
These bikes are priced as high end bikes. I was just looking at their website and they have bikes at over $1,000. And the lowest price I saw was $604. It depends on what you order and how you customize your bike. This business was on Shark Tank last night. They’ve been in business a little while but want to expand. I love the idea. Just wonder if it will only reach people with the big bucks.