Local HD Dealer closing

[PMitchell]

Details Here! (http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_links/links_article.aspx?storyid=85151)

As a follow-up news story,(see video on site) it was stated that a new H-D dealership franchise cost is $10 million!
Elyria is a western suburb of Cleveland and the local economy was dependent on the automotive industry, which has been steadily declining with plant closings. Avon is a more up-scale community about 10 miles away.

[DavidTaylor]

Based on the picture of the store that's closing, I'm sure that part of it (along with the economic issues) is that they don't have the square footage and layout to bring it up to HD's required specs for a dealership now, at least not in a cost effective way. San Mateo HD here in CA (I used to run their HOG chapter) had a similar issue 15 years ago. Opened a second larger shop to try and meet the corporate needs, and kept the old small shop open for used bikes, parts, some service, as well as the fact a lot of us didn't want to walk into a clothing boutique to get parts. HD wasn't happy with that and tried to force the same requirements on the old one so they closed it up and moved everything into the new place.