Business Booming For Bike Industry!

[sgtiger]

One of the local news channels did a story on how increased ridership has been good for the bike industry and focused on how it's helped to boost the economy in Portland. The featured business in the story was our very own Team Estrogen! Go Susan!:cool:

http://www.kgw.com/video/video-index.html?nvid=281801&shu=1

[redrhodie]

Cool to see a behind the scenes look at TE! Yay, Susan!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Excellent! :p

[VeloVT]

Hey -- did I see a PASSING LANE for bikes in that clip (bike lane with the same directional arrows to the left of the bike lane everyone is riding in)? That is so cool -- I'm totally jealous.

[Lifesgreat]

Fun to see the behind the scenes at TE. I want to come and help sort (the Monk in me, though it looks like it is already very organized). :D

[tjf9]

Hey -- did I see a PASSING LANE for bikes in that clip (bike lane with the same directional arrows to the left of the bike lane everyone is riding in)? That is so cool -- I'm totally jealous.

Yep, we have so much traffic going over the Hawthorne bridge, they had to put in a passing lane. We also get free coffee and doughnuts once a month just for riding. Portland is a pretty cool place to be a cyclist! :)

[Susan Otcenas]

I was approached by KGW a few weeks ago, and asked to take part in a story they were doing on the impact of bicycling related businesses in the Portland Metro Area. I know Mia Burke persoanlly (the women who spoke about the study in the segment) and I guess she felt I was representative of the industry. Interestingly enough, TE is out in the suburbs, not in the City of Portland at all, though definitely in the greater Metro area. Also, I got the impression that the reporters wanted to talk about new entrepreneurs starting businesses (hence their use of the line about how we started the company with money from my savings account, which is true) and seemed maybe just a tad disappointed when I told them we'd been in business for more than 10 years. I was also surprised that they didn't speak much about any of the other hundreds of businesses that are located in the area. (Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Publicity is good! :) )

If you'd like to read more about the economic impact of bicycling in Portland, take a look at this article on bikeportland.org
http://bikeportland.org/2008/09/11/report-bike-related-economy-worth-90-million-employs-1150-people-in-portland/

Lifesgreat - Thanks for the "organized" comment. It's true - we're hyper-organized in the warehouse. We have thousands of skus in the warehouse, and that organization helps us locate things very quickly. One of the most common comments new visitors to our warehouse make is about how clean and neat the warehouse is! I have very dedicated warehouse staff who do a fantastic job out there every day.

Susan