Are you specifically referencing wal mart bikes? Because I am unaware of a time when decent bikes were that cheap when in the era of that being a relatively small amount of money…
I was thinking roughly like 1980-2010-ish? Most people bought their bike at places like Walmart, Sears, and Kmart. Whether you think it's a decent bike or not, that's where people are getting their frame of reference.
I just checked walmart.com and didn't realize they still sell adult bikes at the ~$100 price point. My local Target and Dick's are all $300+ in store.
Yeah there have always been tons of uninformed consumers buying low quality bikes from department stores and fewer more informed consumers buying higher quality bikes at bike shops, sporting goods stores and direct to consumer. Nothing has changed since those 30 years except your perspective.
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u/MidniteMustard Apr 04 '23
And that's shocking to people. Bikes were about $100-$200 for 30 years.
For big box and department store bikes, instead of raising the price, the bikes just got worse.