If you live in Portsmouth, you know the one bike shop that's basically downtown is Papa Wheelie's. They have a pretty decent location, I guess. They've got a very palpable roadie attitude though, which is thoroughly dislikeable. This isn't the kind of shop you bring your beater bike to if you don't enjoy being sneered at. However, being the one bike shop "in town," they do get a lot of the "I don't know why I keep getting flats" demographic.
That's neither here nor there though. What is interesting, however, is a recent news article from the Portsmouth Herald which reports that Papa Wheelies has been pinched for eminent domain. They aren't closing for good or anything; the city isn't putting in a new fire station or anything like that. The city just needs to do some work on the sewer lines and, from what I can tell, just needs to dig up their parking lot or so, for a couple months in the winter. Papa Wheelies says this will cost them 30% of their yearly sales and needs some six figures from the city to compensate. Whatever.
In other news, there are a couple other bike shops coming in in Portsmouth, or so the rumors have told me. One is right downtown, and should looks like it will be a douchey spin-gym. The other is a small bike shop sort of near Papa Wheelies that looks like it might be pretty cool, and entirely non-douchey. Something for the townie/normal people demographic.
We'll see how these develop.
Friday, December 5
Eminent Domain
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4 comments:
Great post G. In papa's defense two bad eggs spoil the bunch. unfortunately one of those eggs is the owner. Also Guss' in North Hampton is scrambling to it's feet shortly. If you need service in town call Bob's and ask if Dave is working. They stuff him way out back but he is excellent - far far better than the rest of the staff.
I suppose those sales figures must be correct, otherwise they would be called out on them. That's interesting. I never would have believed that shop actually moved that much product.
Roadie attitude?? Papa wheelies is one of the best shops in the seacoast region both in terms of products sold and customer service. Josh And Nat are super friendly and go above and beyond the requirements of the job to make customers happy. True, Dan Houston can be a bit of a jerk. But, the rest of the guys there are always ready to offer help. (Also, just for clarification, Papas is one of the top selling Specialized dealers in the country).
As a member of a local cycling club, you should not forget these shops are businesses we rely on for current and/or future sponsorship.
>the "I don't know why I keep getting flats" demographic.
^^ That's me, your big bro!
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