The Presidential campaign is over and although we live just outside the beltway the appointments of cabinet posts has not gotten fully underway. So the few people that are coming in the store are talking about their uncertainty about the economy and ask about our winter hours. How are these hours working?
We may know that beginning in November we began an experiment. Three days a week (Monday, Thursday, and Friday) I open the store at 7:30 AM. The store is open until 1:30 PM and we close until 5:30 PM when we open back up for two hours until 7:30 PM. On Tuesday and Wednesday we are closed all day. Our weekend hours are 10-5 on Saturday and 11-5 on Sunday.
It is kind of working. There is no line at the door at 7:30, but people are coming earlier. I think we're working our way to having earlier hours throughout the year. When I note the businesses along Route 123 that provide services which people use as they go to work. Why not be able to drop your bike off for service as you go to work? It may not be practical to have your bike on the back of your car in the parking lot all day and then go to the bike shop on the way home.
There is another important point. If people are going to commute to work on a bicycle then having a bike shop open in the morning may provide support for that effort. The press to use a bike for commuting may have lessened with the drop in gasoline prices, but as a society we are looking for cost savings in our personal lives and commuting by bike provides those savings even with less expensive fuel.
How's those hours working? Not bad, stop by and do some business some morning.
Twelve hearty cyclists turned out for this year's Guilt Reduction Ride from Vienna to Herndon. The thermometer registered around 28 degrees this morning as we bundled up for the ride to the shop. There was quite a collection of bikes on the ride; uprights, long and short wheelbase recumbents, a recumbent tandem, crank forward bikes, and a trike. The temperature steadily rose as we rode in the bright sun along the W&OD Trail to the Herndon station. We reduced our anticipated guilt from overeating later in the day by getting some exercise and donating several canned goods for the CHO Food Drive. It was a great way to start the day.
