Bicycle shortage caused by coronavirus pandemic leading to Ocean City bike shop to close after 85 years

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    OCEAN CITY, NJ (KYW) — A huge increase in demand for bicycles since the coronavirus pandemic is now leading to a big shortage. One bike shop in Ocean City is seeing its impact.

The brothers who own Annarelli’s Bike Store on Asbury Avenue in Ocean City say there are just not enough bikes to sell for them to stay open.

“We were going to retire in two or three years, but this is going to move it up,” Michael Annarelli, co-owner of the shop, said.

Annarelli is planning to close the doors to this 85-year-old family-run business at the end of summer.

“The supply line got blown up,” he said.

Annarelli says since the pandemic, many bicycle factories have been shutdown because of COVID-19 so now tires, bike locks and bicycles — just about everything he sells — are now nearly impossible to come by, making much of his store’s walls bare.

Still, the brothers are grateful for what the store gave their family.

“It’s been our livelihood for three generations,” Annarelli said.

Their grandfather first opened the bike shop in 1935 during the Great Depression. While the family is working to deliver pedal power to this beach community for a little longer, what they’re really hoping to leave behind is their thanks for all the customers who stuck with them for decades.

“Very grateful to them because they put food on our table, clothes on our back, educated our kids,” Annarelli said. “We feel very fortunate.”

After the shop closes in September, the family plans to sell the building.

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