EBC's first cost-cutting measure in the Manchester store was to shut down the cycle clothing section, to reduce the floor space. That made sense as a business decision, because clothing sales require a lot of stock, all of which takes up space and some of which won't sell because it's a less popular size and or colour.
I expect many people use large bike shops as a 'clothing showroom' where they can try on a piece of clothing from a large manufacturer, determine which size they need, but then buy from an online retailer with smaller overheads. I'm not sure how they could have overcome this problem.
The Rapha shop works around it, by having a cafe, which provides an income stream for the business regardless of whether people buy clothing from the store. Different kind of business of course because they are selling just one brand: their own.
