Media

Bike Couriers Bike Shop in the News

Pedaling principle - New bike shop represents a way of life for owner

by Ben Adkins
Business First of Louisville
23 November 2008

As a small-business owner, Jackie Green has an agenda, and making money isn’t the only item on it. “We are committed to establishing an infrastructure for cyclists,” he said. Green expanded that infrastructure when he recently opened a second location for Bike Couriers Bike Shop, the business he co-owns with his wife, Cindy Baker.

The new store, at 2132 Frankfort Ave., is substantially larger than the company’s downtown location, where Green started a bike courier service in 2001. Five years later, in October 2006, the shop also began to sell and service bikes. The new operation on Frankfort Avenue offers the same services. The stores have 14 employees combined, most of whom work full time. “I’m pleased that we have 14 people making an modest living off of bicycles,” he said. “This is part of the new economy.”

The owners viewed eight locations before choosing one to buy, he said. But they were determined to open the shop in the Crescent Hill neighborhood or, preferably, Clifton. “That’s a major corridor for cyclists,” he said. “Our focus is downtown and that inner ring of suburbs.”

Originally, the new location was planned for property Green and Baker own at 2833 S. Fourth St., between Winkler and Central avenues. But they decided it would take longer to build there than at the Frankfort Avenue location. Any extra revenue from the two existing stores could help support a shop at the third location, but Green said that plan is “on hold” for now. “I’m confident we can build a base (there), but we need time,” he said.

A former farm-dweller, Green moved from Southern Indiana to Louisville in 1999, gave his truck to an organic farmer and hasn’t had a car since. He stopped flying on planes in 1993. “When I look at what we are doing as a society, and I see the impact that transportation has on social and environmental issues — that impact told me that I needed to work in the transportation industry.”

Some customers share Green’s ethos, but he said others have been drawn there by rising gasoline costs. “When it hit $3, some people hit their threshold and would not, or could not, pay those prices for fuel,” he said. “And they started coming in the shop.” Revenue doubled at the Market Street location this year, Green said. For now, business is slow at the Frankfort Avenue shop — colder months typically are — but Green expects a surge next year. “By the time spring rolls around and people get back on their bicycles, they’ll know we’re here.”