Skip to main content

Why I Think Bricks and Mortar Businesses are Struggling

This week, as part of my Valentine's gift to myself, I ordered a bike trainer from Amazon. I truly would have got one in town, but the cheapest in town was at Canadian Tire for $199.00 plus tax. Other places had them upwards $300.00 plus tax. I paid less than $300.00 for my entire bike. My bike trainer from Amazon cost $89.95. I added the front wheel riser for around $15. In total my order including tax and shipping was about $140.00.

I find bricks and mortar businesses are often not in tune with consumer needs. The one I ordered is supposed to be fairly quiet. The one at Canadian Tire is apparently so noisy one can't hear a TV over it or use it well in a condo/apartment building. What made them choose to only stock one option of the many available? I intend to get in shape while catching up on the plethora of TV shows I'm behind in. I don't think it's unusual for people to do cardio workout while watching TV either. If it was, the gyms wouldn't have TVs in the cardio area.

I also wonder why the bike-only shops either don't carry them at all or only have the super expensive ones. It feels like they want to discourage indoor biking. I'm not one for winter biking. It's too cold, wet, and slippery for my liking. I know some people bike all year round, but I never enjoyed biking to work as I'd just end up all sweaty with no way to clean up and usually got rained on.

I'm eagerly awaiting my bike trainer. To be clear, a bike trainer lets you use your regular bike as an indoor stationary bike. It's great for getting in shape during the winter months and I wish I would have ordered it sooner as my area was under such heavy construction that I didn't want to bike at all last summer.

I have more housework to do before it arrives, but this post was a nice breather. Time for some water and then I'll get back at it.

Ciao,
R~
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

2020 Vision

Mostly, I’ve been planning for the new year, but I discovered I know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was a recollection under the influence that brought this to light. I also discovered I still suck at drawing, but I’m okay with that. I used to think I had to be good at everything, and I’ve realized that’s just not so. Some friends and I recently hit up a local board game pub. It was a pretty fun night. The first game was Balderdash and I was terrible at it. Because I was the writer in the group, some of my friends thought I should be more embarrassed about it and hide the fact that I don’t spend all my free time learning advanced vocabulary. But I’m not upset about it. Why? Two reasons: 1. I now know what I don’t know. 2. If one takes a close look at the top selling novels on the market, the level of the language used is not the level of many of the words in Balderdash. Not that I’m comparing my own work to those, but audience is what matters in writing. To me, it is far better to e...
Read more

Warrior Wednesday - Cross-training

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] Martial arts are a great workout, but it can be easy to forget that we need to do other exercises to ensure total body fitness. That being said, it doesn't have to take a lot of time or be a miserable experience. One of my Iaido mentors, 8th Dan Hatekenaka Sensei, does hot yoga when she isn't practicing Iaido. She practices Iaido every day whether there is class or not. Now Iaido is great for many things. Swinging a sword about takes *some* strength, so it works the upper body. It's important to mention that we try to get a sword that is a reasonable weight. Many are only a couple of pounds because they are a giant razor and don't need to be heavy in order to cut things. Also, a light sword should be able to be swung as thought it were heavy and a heavy one as though it were light. It also is helpful to prevent repetitive strain injuries. W...
Read more

Change is in the Air

I've been making a lot of changes lately around my home and some of them might seem a little odd, but they're making me happy. One thing I've done is taken apart my dining table. I never eat in there or have people over to eat. It was just another horizontal surface that would collect things like receipts, odd screws from various projects, and countless piles of paper. I had been frustrated because of the clutter it encouraged, but also because I didn't have a space for my Yamaha keyboard. I had been trying to use my keyboard in the living room, but it felt too cluttered and it wasn't sitting at the right height. With it now in my dining room, I was able to relocate my storage bench, which happens to be the perfect height to sit at while playing my keyboard. I now have much more breathing room. There is still a lot of mess to handle here yet, but I'm making solid progress. A lot of people suggest the bedroom is the place to start when decluttering, but I haven...
Read more