My shopping trip review..

[Guest]

Hiya peeps, firstly it goes without saying, I have no affiliation with the shops I am about to mention.

Firstly I took TheWife over to MCA in Leicester. You know the people, they take out a single page advert in Ride and Bike magazine every month.

Anyway, TheWife is a midget and the only stuff that tends to cater for small people seems to be Dainese. MCA seem to stock a lot of said brand and their website would seem to back this up. After a nightmare of a drive into the centre of Leicester (an hour from our house) TomTom said we were 400 yards from the shop and bingo there is a carpark. Parked up and walked the rest. So far so good.

We've heard the saying "You never get a second chance to make a first impression". Their first impression let me down. The shop is not as big as the advert leads you to believe and I'm not exaggerating to say parts of the carpet were held down with gaffa tape. With the endorsement of Performace bikes magazine ringing in my ears (An Aladdins cave of biking gear) I'm prepared to let cosmetic downfalls pass by. The shop appears cramped and higgledy piggledy.. We wander in and find the stuff we are looking for. Promptly a fella walks in and says 'Alright'

'Alright m8, you work here?' i ask.

'Yes'

I never woulda guessed. Wearing one of these bobble hats with the tails etc.. TheWife starts firing questions at him.. he can't answer. Fair enough, he explains he hasn't worked there long and goes off to get 'Dan' whos worked there for 6 years and should be able to help. Promptly enough 'Luke' turns up.... His initial demeanour was not good enough in my opinion. Especially as I can hear him huffing and puffing when he leaves the room. Rightly enough I am paraphrasing in my head how to tell him to stick his shop, i was that pissed off. His return however was an improvement and he got better as the sale continued. He was helpful enough and TheWife got what she wanted.

I got the impression that another customer was riding him hard in the other room for a discount on his one piece leathers and this may have contributed to his poor initial impression.

Anyway we left happy enough in the end, but I won't be going back anytime soon, purely because the hassle to get there isn't worth the effort when you get there.

From there we travelled on to Hein-Gericke in Leicester. Completely differerent set up. They have their own parking on site and are far tidier overall. As soon as you walk through the door we were greeted in a friendly way. (And I know from going there before they'll leave you alone if you are just browsing). Gent asked what I was after, i explained over we went, tried it on. Sorted. One new jacket, oh and I treated myself to a Kettenmax chaincleaner whilst I was at it. Thats the kind of shopping I like, in, buy, out.

Just thought I'd share with you.

[Korben]

Good write up mate.... Must admit I have considered going to that shop.... You get the impression it's mahoosive from the adverts.

Don't bother with the Nottingham HG though.... Tiny in my eyes...