These days bike shops are more like a Starbucks than a garage writes Jen Wieczner:

• 12% of all bike shops now have coffee bars; 11% offer spinning classes; 5% serve beer; and quite a few have full service restaurants and massage services.
• They have increasingly taken on the role of community centers with some also having periodic art exhibitions.
• Bicycle shops have had to transform because while bicycling is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, Americans are buying fewer bikes.
• Bike shops can’t even hope to make money from bicycle rentals since cities are increasingly instituting bike sharing programs.
• For the most part the barristas that make coffee don’t also fix bikes since “finding a mechanic who can make a good espresso” is difficult. Not to mention hygiene concerns.

Read about the couple who decided to have their wedding in a bicycle shop, where you can find them, and some projections for the future over here.

Source: MarketWatch