They must know "bikers" don't much care for the flashier showrooms and in most cases probably prefer the enthusiastic bike dealers.
I think many of these go downhill as they grow anyway, I suspect George White was a keen "biker" and loved motorcycles, but I doubt he is to be found in his shops too often and probably spends most of his time on a Yacht somewhere.
"Traditional Bikers" are dissapearing fast, and by "Traditional Biker" I mean those who have always had a love of bikes, started off on a moped, progressed to a 125 / 250 or whatever was allowed back in their day before quickly whizzing through a test so as to get on board some sort of huge powerhouse of a bike.
As a lad I had a picture of a GPZ900R on my wall, a couple of years later I got a FS1E, many college mates had trendy 50's, but these were restricted and slow so I got a FS1E (Had an AP50 as well at one point) I avoided a 125 and got a cheap 80 to pass my test and then bough a 250LC which was cheaper than my mates RD125's - and a lot bloody quicker, by nineteen I was on a GPZ900R - although by then the ZX10 was out, but I was certainly happy!
These days teenage kids get a ped because it is all they can have until they hit 17 and can have a car, I would say at least 25% of 16 year old boys had mopeds when I was a kid and most went on to 125's and about half of them to something bigger - I doubt a fraction of that do these days.
I think BMW putting bikes in the car showrooms is a win for them, we will still go there if we want a BMW bike, trendy born-againer Power Rangers will happily hunt down the S1000RR in these showrooms, as will the non born again Power Rangers who buy whatever Bike Magazine tell them to. Not forgetting those who have watched Long Way Round over the weekend and need a fully stacked GSA to impress the neighbours.
As well as covering bikers both past and present they expose the bikes to the tin box brigade who would never have ventured into a "bikers" habitat providing them with a stream of potential new customers, I doubt all that many convert, but I suspect the car-bike converts these days outweigh the kids coming through the ranks by some margin.
I am sure most of us prefer things the way they were with a smaller fiendly dealer where you know the bloke selling the bikes, the chap who works on them and have a warm feeling because they are kindred spirits.
BMW are out to make money and I think this strategy will work, much as I dislike these setups, I too suspect most of the staff "are not real bikers" and only want to rob me of all my cash (Not certain the kindred spirits did not also do this, just I was happier to give them my cash)
The one upside is if it does stick more bums on seats it will help to keep the industry alive and motorcyclist numbers up - and we need that desperately.
