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Dearborn’s Bikesport Closes After 14 Years

Bikesport closesDearborn’s Bikesport has officially closed its doors, forced out by a combination of circumstances including its credit card processing company; the country’s worsening financial crisis and a downtown filled with vacant buildings, according to the company’s website.

“A number of factors converged to make Bikesport, Inc. close,” says Bikesport founder and owner Tom Demerly. “Had all of these factors not happened within the same time period Bikesport, Inc. would have survived. It was the convergence of these factors that ultimately lead to our closure. The primary contributing factor was a “reserve account” established by our credit card processing company during the height of the financial crisis.”

Demerly says on his website that Bikesport’s credit card company said in January that it was establishing a “reserve account” in which they would withhold $60,000.00 of the bike store’s sales as security.

“Bikesport, Inc. did not have any outstanding liabilities to the credit card processor,” Demerly says. “We initially believed we could maintain operations normally but as the economy worsened and other factors emerged we could no longer operate without the $60,000.00 removed from our sales by our credit card processor.”

Tom details more about why he closed his shop at his website. You can click HERE to read what he had to say.

We are sorry to see Tom close his business at 21938 Michigan Ave. — his 14th year in business this year — and wish him the best of luck with his future endeavors.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • DearbornResident

    It’s unfortunate to see this bike shop close it’s doors. However, I visited the “click here for details” link to their website and I think it’s tacky and worsening for the area to show the “for lease” signs and empty buildings. Why not just state that the local economy is struggling and leave it at that? Those pictures will only deter others from continued visits to West Dearborn. Again, it’s sad to see any business close but why the degrading collage? Very unnecessary. If you’re concerned about the area and are truly wanting to make a useful point then make your appearance at city council meetings, etc.

  • Bob

    eh, can someone point to where this place is at?

  • Bob

    And could it be he went out of business because he’s competing with another bike shop right around the corner?

    Just a thought.

  • candymanpat

    Nothing “tacky” about them posting real and actual pictures of empty buildings, esp. on their website. These people Owners and Employees are great people! They used to be customers of mine on a regular basis, and every other place in the West Dearborn Area. The owners Graduated from Dearborn High and Edsel Ford. It’s really just Bullshit that the Area lost another business esp. a specialty store that did most of their business online.
    The fact of the matter is Most people on these sites never owned or worked for a businees that had to close, and really don’t know or understand what is involved with owning a business, It costs alot of Money everyday just to open the doors. Everytime a business in the West End closes other businesses lose customers from the owners and employees not being there.

    I wish Tom and Sarah the best, as well as their Employees. -Pat.

  • Donna Hay

    Pat, I couldn’t agree with you more.

    Dearborn Resident, what’s wrong with telling the truth about why the store was closed and show pictures? It is downtown Dearborn – what you see is what you get.

  • Dearbornette

    Very sad; I wish the owners well. Pat, you are spot on with your comments. Many of the people reading this blog have never had to pay for anything related to their work–their employer has always paid for it all. Every time I hear of a business closing, not only am I sorry for the owners, but the employees as well. I am sure it is very devastating to the owners who worked their fannies off. Withholding a $60,000.00 reserve? Geez, I don’t know what their annual revenues were, but in anyone’s book, that is a lot of money! No offense, Bob, but your comments are very harsh…at least consider the poor employees who have lost their jobs, too and this time of year. Depressing!

  • becki kain

    I am sad another business closed but after my experiences with Tom, specifically, I am not surprised. I bought a bike from the store, and they were great, at first but they only seemed to cater to triatheletes. I had an appointment to get my bike fitted, again, I was ontime, he looked at me, had an employee get my bike and put it on the trainer and continued talking, for AN HOUR, to someone about tri bikes. He never said a word to me – not “hey, i’m running late” or “hey, can someone else help you?”, NOTHING. For an hour he completely ignored me. after that, I gave up and I’ve never been back. The store had a reputation for only catering to people who buy really high end, all the time, not the rest of us that buy mid range, just as often.

    Again, it is too bad that it’s another Dearborn store but they had a reputation of treating a lot of their customers with disdain.

  • ydub

    I wonder how much the move played into things. They never seemed to have the visibility once they moved into the back of Nichols.

    Agree on their customer service and attitude. Over the years I purchased 3 bikes in the $700 range from them but I suppose that’s not enough to get even a low end tri bike…. Snobs or not they will be missed…

  • RJR

    becki: you are spot on.
    unless you were buying a $2,000 bike, the store wanted nothing to do with you.
    the reality is that people do not have money these days to spend on bikes that run from $2,000 to $5,000, which is what he sold. sorry. i am willing to bet that had more to do with closing than anything else.
    look at Jack’s bike store on Michigan. they sell a range of bikes and the sales people will talk to you even if you are buying a $300 bike.
    it is all about service and the right price. if you don’t change with the times you close.

  • kay

    The three most important words in retail….service, service, service. Perhaps if they had been more inclusive, they would have survived. But we all feel bad for them and anyone losing their business and wish them the best of luck.

  • DearbornResident

    service, service, service…. exactly. quit blaming the vacant store fronts for the failure. there are PLENTY of successful, long lasting businesses that ARE MAKING IT IN DEARBORN. It such a damn shame that you would stoop as low to post other empty building fronts as your ‘REASON TO CLOSE’. Simply you should have admitted defeat, went down with some pride, and thanked all of your former customers for their support. Shame on you for trying to make the area and West Dearborn in whole look like a dying community. WE WILL BE A THRIVING CITY SOON AGAIN. I’M ASHAMED OF THE PEOPLE ON HERE WHO HAVE THE PESSIMISTIC ATTITUDES. MOVE OUT AND LET THE OPTIMISTS IN!

    What you see isn’t what you get! It’s survival of the fittest. They weren’t ready to compete with the competition and other online services. Losers always want to put blame on others! Even if you were the last business to close in Dearborn, you have no reason to put the area down. You made WRONG decisions. If people are riding bikes then they need a place to shop! Give them service, give them value, give them quality, give them a reason to come to you! People don’t care if a ‘for lease’ sign is next to the bike shop. You failed, sorry to hear, but move on. Don’t blame the area, don’t try to put Dearborn down.

    YOU KNOW WHAT’S FUNNY???? NO WHERE IN THEIR WEBSITE DID THEY THANK DEARBORN FOR SO MANY YEARS IN BUSINESS….???? THAT’S JUST ABSURD. TIME FOR A NEW BIKE SHOP TO TAKE OVER I GUESS.

  • Donna Hay

    Dearborn Resident – sorry but I have been waiting for the optimists to move in for a very long time now. Just can’t get anyone involved in any type of improvement for this end of town. No one from the city will actually say what they have been trying to do to get businesses to move into this area. Someone has to be going after new business and I wish whoever it is/was would share the reasons why these people don’t want/won’t move into Dearborn. You say we will be a thriving city again and I certainly hope you are right.

  • cloe

    Just to let you know that there is a very nice, friendly and well-priced bike shop at 3806 Monroe, 6 blocks South of Outer Drive in West Dearborn. It is a very nice block of businesses that is pedestrian and parking friendly. Visit the area. You might be surprised and make quite a few new friends.

  • kay

    Dearborn Resident…You are so right. All the optimists need to make a New Year resolution to attend as many council meeting as possible….storm the beaches!! Write letters to the Mayor, speak at the meetings, raise some heck. I’m willing and planning to be there as often as possible. We can take the city back from the politicians. They work for us.

  • qwerty

    Even if you bought a $2000+ bike Demerly wanted nothing to do with you. My wife and I bought bikes and we went back to by some accessories and Tom was on the computer tying up the phone line and we couldn’t use our VISA so we walked out. I took the bike in for a tune up and he had if for over a week. when we got it back, it had the same issues that I took it in for. He also had an issue with waiting to order a bike for someone until he had another bike sale to pay for the first one….no wonder the credit company required a reserve.

  • Darren

    cloe is right…there is a nice, family-oriented bike show on Monroe in the strip next to the 7-11.

    Sorry to hear about Bikesport.

  • Brian

    Let’s not forget the bad customer service BS was known for. Too bad they are blaming everyone but themselves.