As we said yesterday, the mailbag is great reading and Tom S., who sent in the idea for our post, had another closely related thought with equal merit. First, let’s let Tom explain it:
You’re walking through a Walmart Supercenter, and there, between Automotive and Sporting Goods, is a small motorcycle. The decal on it says it’s a Briggs and Stratton Sting.
It’s prep’ed and ready to ride, minus gasoline. It comes with a packet to take to the local tax office to get your title and plates, an information sheet with companies that will insure it, and another sheet that gives the locations of every Briggs and Stratton authorized repair center in America. It’s priced at $999. There are DOT full face helmets in matching colors on the shelf next to it, along with the ten most common repair/maintanence parts. You roll it up to check out, they scan it (which activates the warranty), you pay (cash, check or charge) and roll it out the door. Push it across the parking lot to Walmart’s gas station, fill up and ride home.
Why not? Sears and Montgomery Wards did this 40+ years ago. Lowes and Home Depot are selling $3000+ riding tractors in just this way today. My local Walmart is full of young families, working poor and Hispanic “guest workers” that could improve their lives with some low cost personal transportation – but would never walk into an enthusiast oriented motorcycle shop.
If you’re already a rider and especially if you have many years of experience, this sort of idea will have little appeal to you but this isn’t aimed at you. Rewind the memory tapes and think about being 15 or 16 and really wanting wheels. Personal mobility is a wonderful thing. How about those young families Tom mentions? Can’t afford a reliable used car but a brand new low cost small displacement motorcycle, maybe. Look around you, there are many other folks out there waiting at bus stops that could make great use of something like this.
Is the world so different that the 50cc Hondas from the 60’s have no place? Things have certainly moved beyond them following the customers as they grew up but what about new customers? None of these are freeway cruisers but many people could get along without that and these bikes could actually be a little fun for new riders. My Briggs and Stratton minibike, when I was 14 or 15 got a ton of use and I had a blast. The “Oh so cool” crowd will look down their nose at these things but the “have to get to work” crowd might like them and be very thankful they’re available.
Maybe we’ve come full circle and there is a low end market waiting again. Wal-Mart is a zero intimidation place for people to buy one of these. Some details of the process would have to be worked out but I think something like this has a lot of potential. Would it work? Who knows? But how much would it actually cost a major motorcycle company like Honda to try what we suggested yesterday? How easy it would be for Wal-Mart to try what we’re suggesting today. If it bombs, at least you know. But if it works, …
Update: A few more thoughts: Don’t look at this as expanding the motorcycle market, think of this as an entirely new and separate market for similar products. Compare heavy duty commercial gym equipment and home exercise equipment. There are some crossover users but many home users would never set foot in a big gym yet they use their equipment frequently and may spend a lot of money on it.
This isn’t the motorcycle market, it’s the transportation market. There are low income families who can’t afford a single used car let alone two, but could afford two of these motorcycles for both adults to get to their separate jobs. This isn’t high bling leather and chrome, this is daily short commutes and trips to the doctor, pick up a few groceries and visit with friends miles away. New capabilities otherwise unavailable or on someone else’s schedule.
todd says
maybe they could purchase their M1 motorcycle endorcement at Walmart when they are getting their fishing license… I like the idea of bringing more types of motorcycles into the states, no doubt. One problem is that Walmart would not purchace from Honda, they would purchase identical bikes from Kinetic or Jianshe in China (for around $150 ea in bulk) and the consumer would be stuck with inferior quality junk that will make them unhappy with the whole “motorcycle experience”. new riders need training and I can imagine a law suit against Walmart because they did not force the new riders to complete a safety riding course or varify age before purchase and someone’s 14 year old kid ran his new Walmart bike head on into a big rig.
I guess that has all been figured out though, since they are selling electric mopeds (which require an M2 license and motrized scooters which require a class C -car- license and be at least 18 years old in California).
-todd
sigint says
You could do this and the best way, perhaps, would be to create demand for it. Not because people need it but because it’s popular.
I live in an area where TONS of people have scooters (and I live in a rainy area). It’s the big thing here and people are spending $4K+ USD on some of them. In order to sell motorcycles at Wallmart, you need to make people want it for all the wrong reasons.
That’s how a lot of things are sold. And in the motorcycle category you know there are tons of people here that buy literbikes because they look cool and people want them. The performance on the bike is more for show than a love of the engineering.
Prester John says
Two history lessons: as students of Harley and Indian will tell you, the Model T drove American motorcycling into the sporting-enthusiasts corner shortly after the first world war. But then in the 1960’s, a world of muscle cars and family sedans the size of today’s biggest SUVs, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha built the foundations of their lucrative US operations on modest bikes. Contained in both of those truths is a lesson for today’s industry. I’m not sure what the answer is, but I doubt that the way things are now (see the Kneeslider “Motorcycle statistics” post from a few days ago) is 100% of the only way they can be.
One crutial component in sell something is to put it in from of the customer. But if I’m a Honda dealer in today’s market, I’ll be hornswaggled before I take a $13,650 VTX1800 off the show room floor and replace it with a $1750 Hero-built Honda Glamor 125.
But look at the big box stores. They have great foot traffic, they have the right kind of foot traffic for the product (people stretching their dollars, retirees, 15-20 year olds) and they don’t currently have very much on their floorspace that sells for as much as $1000. If selling small motorcycles works, it increases store revenue. There are complications with selling titled road vehicles, sure, but Walmart already sells firearms without getting their pants sued off.
The quality thing – big issue. I’ve read many web stories about shoddy Chinese scooters in the last few years. One of the reason I suggested Briggs as a supplier in my story was that they already have service outlets all over America. Also, going through a big box, quality is self policing: if it doesn’t hold up, they take it back.
I know a fair number of middle aged (and older) motorcyclists who just bought their first bike. I know more who’ll regale you with stories about the Bridgestone or Cushman they rode at 15. Figure out how to sell a basic bike at a big box: the customers gain a little freedom, save a little gas, have a little fun, and 10% wind up as motorcycle enthusiasts. Not so bad.
Tom
mark says
I think it would make perfect sense for Walmart to sell mopeds, if they don’t already. In my town there’s a skate shop of all things that specializes in longboards and mopeds (weird combination, I know). The advantage of a moped, especially for a lower-income buyer, is that they don’t need to be registered — although from what I’ve been able to see while driving by the aforementioned skate shop, these things still sell for over $1000, so I’m not sure that the price part of the equation is quite as effective as suggested above.
I also agree that small-displacement motorcycles would make sense for Walmart. I just think that they’d end up priced high enough for buyers to be able to purchase a decent used car for the same price. Bear in mind that DOT and EPA regulations are much stricter now than they were in the ’60s. Two-strokes aren’t even legal for street use nowadays, for example. To be honest, I’ll be curious to see how many of the Chinese/Pacific Rim low-cost, small-displacement four-stroke bikes actually end up approved for sale here.
If the Chinese/PacRim companies are able to attract customers in the US, more power to them — I for one would love to see more people on bikes, whether they’re proper motorcycles or scooters or mopeds. Maybe they could convince Walmart, even Costco to carry their bikes. But I can’t shake the feeling that the bikes making it to the US market would end up priced fairly high.
–mark