MALTA — Longtime bike dealer Les Plaine has decided to close two satellite shops, one in Malta and one in Albany. Plaine is now focusing on the headquarters, Les Plaine and Son, located at 1816 State St. in Schenectady and converting a second Schenectady location into a warehouse. His stores also sell skis and snowboards.
“I found that the customers that were located up North were very content to come to Schenectady because of the bigger store, the wider selection that was available in Schenectady... most of my customers were willing to come there. I turned out to be my own biggest competitor,” Plaine said.
Collamer House Bike and Ski, Plaines’ Malta location, located at 450 East High St. opened in 2014. The shop is more of a boutique and iswithinahistoricbuildingbuiltin 1835. The Albany store, Broadway Bicycle Co. opened in 2011.
The Schenectady headquarters is roughly 68,000 square-feet, six or seven times the size of the satellite locations, according to Plaine.
“Although that Malta store was doing very well, I didn’t feel like I needed to have a store there to service that market,” he added. Plaine says Collamer house was the best of the satellites.
Plaine and his family have been in the bike business since 1945 when Lou Plaine, Les’ father, first opened up the store. Les now runs the store with his son.
Both Malta and Albany locations are for sale or lease by Vanguard-Fine, LLC, a real estate agency based in Albany. Collamer House Bike and Ski is being sold for $395,000 and is 26,000 square-feet.
All inventory and equipment from both Malta and Albany are now in the Schenectady headquarters and are on sale for liquidation.
