Shop Locations

If your organization is just starting out, any location is better than no location. Choosing an ideal location is a luxury of funding and organizational success. All the same, sometimes success can be attributed to location, location, location.

Good Locations

• Next to a University Campus: This is especially good if you are a volunteer organization. With every spring comes a new batch of energetic students to replenish your volunteer supply.

• Near public transportation: Buses, trains, subways, and light rails put you closer to people with higher social conscience or greater need for a bicycle and your other services. The ideal would be part of a Transit Hub.

• Near high foot traffic areas: Just like a for-profit business, there is no better way to get customers than a highly visible area where people just "stop in to check out what you do."

Bad Locations

• Industrial: You will find some sweet warehouse space out here, but it can be hard to get volunteers to come out to the middle of nowhere.

Stories

The Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective used to have a location in a very low-income part of the Salt Lake Valley. While it was almost impossible to get volunteers down to the space, or paying customers, they did provide a wonderful service to the community. Then they moved to an industrial side of town that was next to a light rail train stop. While there was a significant decrease in walk-in low-income customers, the drastic increase in volunteers produces more bikes for low-income receipients than the old place. So the lesson they learned was that the best location is where your volunteers are most likely to go and compensate with reaching low-income populations through out-reach programs.