The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 65 - E-Bikes, Cargo Bikes, and Mountain Trails: How Biking is Transforming Bentonville
The buzz around Bentonville's biking scene continues to grow, and at its center stands Bentonville Bicycle Company, poised for an exciting expansion onto the Walmart campus. Jesse, the company's co-owner, shares the remarkable journey from a modest container structure near 21C Hotel to becoming the region's premier cycling destination for two consecutive years.
What started as a rental operation has blossomed into a full-service bike shop with strategic brand selection and a clear vision. Jesse's approach differs from typical bike shops – carrying just one quality brand at each price point creates clarity for customers while fostering stronger relationships with manufacturers like Pivot, who reward this focus with custom builds and special attention.
The new 2,500-square-foot campus location will feature a mezzanine design, offering two floors of cycling paradise strategically positioned on J Street facing the park. While their existing location will continue catering to mountain biking enthusiasts, this expansion embraces city riding with cargo bikes, e-bikes, and extended service capabilities.
Jesse's passion for e-bikes illuminates how cycling is evolving – once skeptical riding buddies now exclusively use electric assistance, finding it enhances the experience while still providing excellent exercise. These bikes have opened cycling to those recovering from injuries or seeking to ride with fitter companions without struggling.
Perhaps most fascinating is how Bentonville Bicycle Company will integrate with Walmart's emerging cycling culture. With dedicated bike captains organizing commuter groups from various neighborhoods and a goal of having 10% of associates biking to work, the campus is becoming a cycling hub. Jesse's shop complements Walmart's employee bike program perfectly – associates can try different bikes through Walmart's program, then purchase their own through Bentonville Bicycle Company.
Whether you're a mountain biking enthusiast, a curious beginner, or someone looking to transform your daily commute, stop by their Walton and Central location or visit the new campus shop when it opens. Experience firsthand why cyclists worldwide recognize Bentonville as a premier biking destination!
Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I am your host, josh Safran, with my co-host, matt Morris, and our permanent guest, rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bentonville, bourbon and business the B-Team Podcast Be here. Welcome to the B-Team Podcast. I'm your host, josh Safran, with our permanent guest Bobby and our co-host.
Speaker 2:Matty, matty, matthew, matthew, matthew, matthew.
Speaker 1:Matthew Mars, and we're here every Thursday for all things business, bentonville and bourbon. Today we're going to talk bicycles, another B, but before we get into that we have to talk about this bourbon that you brought in for us today. You haven't even tried it yet. I smelt it, yeah. But there's a back story here, because we went to a friend's house who was selling these Dustys. So Dustys is an old bourbon that's been sitting for— this is from the 60s, all right, so it's old, hadn't been opened before. And we're in this guy's house and he's going through and imagine a bottle of bourbon that's sitting. I mean it's old and they used to put them in these decanters and so Matthew picks it up and all you hear is it's a.
Speaker 2:It was in a car. So I was was in a car, but so so I was like, oh, this is cool. I picked it up and I started looking at it and the whole back of the car I lost.
Speaker 1:It was ceramic smashed and shit I don't know, so I guess you own that one now well, I guess I'll take this one.
Speaker 2:Is this like what you squeegeed off the floor to start now? It just the. The cork was still in there because the?
Speaker 1:part of the car broke the car was the lid, so he didn't want to buy it. So then he'd go hey, we have to taste it now. So we opened up, tasted it and then just I don't know what did you think? Did you try it? Yet I haven't tried that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well cheers.
Speaker 1:Let's cheers it up. I didn this is just.
Speaker 2:this is it's from yesteryear, it's stuff that this is stuff that you don't get. Very often you cast it back into that.
Speaker 1:It tastes like antiseptic.
Speaker 2:It's rusted, Bad yeah it's bad, I think it's good. Back in the car I hear you yeah, yeah, I think it's those peptides kicking in, it's something. Well, that means pour it into your glass and pour me something better. There you go, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, anyway, I've known Jesse for a long time. Yeah, he's an entrepreneur, business guy talent. I know him from the tennis circuit. We played tennis many, many years together and he is the co-owner of Bentonville Bicycle Company. You got it, and you guys have been on the square for we have been several years. Several years, yeah, and now you guys are about to be on the Walmart campus.
Speaker 3:We are. We'll be the only bike shop on the Walmart campus outside of Walmart's bike shop.
Speaker 1:So can you tell us that's awesome how the bicycle shop got you. That's a big deal. How did you get started?
Speaker 3:Before we get to the city to be the first container structure We'll call it an artistic container setup in downtown Bentonville, because there wasn't a lot of space and started a rental bike shop, if you will, several years ago for fun, and it just immediately took off, got busier every year, busier every year, and then we opened up or we took over and bought Bentonville bike shop up on Walton and Central and that was about two years and change ago and that shop just crushed it and we've been bike shop of the year for the last two years in northwest Arkansas but yeah, that's you. But uh, yeah, our manager is key. We have a manager that uh, I, I mean, he's legit, he's really, really good.
Speaker 1:Where was the first location, though, you?
Speaker 3:guys were like right by, yeah, right by, across from 21C, okay.
Speaker 2:Right next to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, you always see a lot of people taking senior pictures in front of it, wondering what it was for a while. But yeah, that little unique space that's no longer there. No longer longer there. No, yeah, yeah, another building went up. But instead of relocating that, why would you open another bike shop not named bentville bike shop? Like I, I knew bentville bike shop would matter, just the name. But I had no idea it would be this big of a deal, because everybody knows bentville for biking. We can go. I can go to europe, I can go to the west coast and if I've got a bentville bike shop shirt on, any biker has heard of bentville, arkansas, for out like this is crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it. I like the shirt, like you got the topo map on it and all that?
Speaker 3:yeah, what's the girl? What's our girl? Spinner van. I actually want to do this to my porsche 911. My wife literally has been fighting me on it. Wrap it, you could always take it off. What I want to do? Yeah that'd be neat anyways. No, it's been been a lot of fun. Um, I think it started off as a hobby, something just to do for fun, and it's turned into a real business.
Speaker 3:This Walmart campus shop is going to be it's going to have a mezzanine, so it'll be two floors and it's going to be really nice.
Speaker 1:So rent bikes, sell bikes. What's the business model in the existing and is it going to be different than the new?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so our existing bike shop is going to be more catered towards mountain biking, the true mountain biker, the people coming down to mountain bike, and we're not going to change that. It's just got a really healthy following. We service faster than just about any shop. We just have a nice culture going on in there. We have no turnover. The new shop is also going to have mountain bikes, but a lot more of the city bikes, cargo bikes, a lot of servicing space. It's on odd campus.
Speaker 2:The service is nice too, because you can go to work, leave your bike there, drop your bike off.
Speaker 3:That's why we got the shop. I mean we went into all the people that decided who was going on campus. I mean, all the big bike shops were trying to get the space. So apparently we got it by flying colors and I think it was really our strategy around the servicing and really fitting in with what they were trying to accomplish. We're also the only shop that really stands for carries like women's biking apparel and women of Oz. We were the first shop I think one more that started carrying it. But just like trying to diversify what we're carrying in a matter and be relevant to all the different kinds of bikers.
Speaker 1:We had Steve Lane on talking about the campus selection and it was really interesting and he talked about the best, but also more importantly and he mentioned you specifically and he talked about the gents places, the groups that worked with Walmart to customize something specific for the campus. It wasn't like, hey, I'm going to put a pizza place here and everybody gets the same pizza Right, and so the vision of what you guys were building and creating, you guys probably won because of the fact that you guys were creating something specific for what Walmart was looking for, curated for them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, really. I mean culture, Like even our bike shop we have today. We're friendly with like all the bike shops, but we see ourselves as an enhancement to the culture of fitting in and not. I mean we're always sending people to other bike shops and stuff. We're friendly, but the Walmart part of it was very similar in that it's all about fitting in with the culture but really enhancing what Walmart's already trying to accomplish. We're not just putting a bike shop and sticking it on campus. It's how can this bike shop integrate into this campus and fit in and relate to all the different things they're trying to accomplish with the campus?
Speaker 1:So e-bikes too.
Speaker 3:E-bikes yep.
Speaker 3:We'll have a nice portfolio, but we'll be a little more of a wider spread on terms of gravel bike. We'll have some road bikes, a lot of cargo bikes, some mountain bikes and, just again, a lot of space allocated towards servicing and really we'll call it a lot of impulse people coming through a lot of several times a year. You got all the walmart associates coming to town for all the big meetings, stuff like that. A lot of bentonville bike shop stuff, women of oz stuff probably even do some stuff, my, I might. You'll see a migration with the walmart bike shop too. We're talking about things we can do together and help each other with, so there'll be a a nice partnership there, confidently and where are you going to be on the campus?
Speaker 1:Where is the?
Speaker 3:building. We're right I think perfect location. So we're right on Jay Street, so there's a Walmart pharmacy. You've got a few businesses in between, so we're on the corner that faces. So we're front facing on Jay and facing the park, right on that huge park. We're right where all bikes and the people are going to be walking around and stuff like that, with a lot of parking and everything else. But we weren't on the end initially and we pushed for it and pushed for it and they finally gave it to us.
Speaker 1:So if you're coming up, jay, from Walton, you're on the right-hand side right before you get to 8th Street. Yes, oh, that's a great notification. We are next to the food court, we're across the street from the Walmart guest services, we're next to the Sam Walton auditorium. So high traffic area.
Speaker 3:I think you're actually centralized for what you're trying to accomplish or you're in good shape, because a lot of people only have so much time. Yes, so you're going to be centrally located in almost all the offices.
Speaker 1:And have they shared? Who's in the plaza with you? Is that public knowledge?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I don't know if it's public, but they've shared some of the places. I think there's going to be a little get your nails done. I think it's going to be in that little space there and I think there's an actual pet place. I believe I don't know if that one was final and the Walmart pharmacy is the one I really cared about because the amount of traffic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, It'll go into it. And is that? Are you sharing a wall with them?
Speaker 3:No, there are two shops down. Okay, basically we're on the end. They're on the end and and by the park. How many square feet are you going to have? We'll have 20, I think, 24, 2,500 square feet, but we're going to have a mezzanine built in Texas right now. That will really give us a whole other level for, like we'll call it, the office space and the storage and everything else. So we're going to have just a really awesome space downstairs.
Speaker 2:I think those cargo bikes are becoming. They're huge, they're everywhere.
Speaker 3:You see those as much as you see mountain bikes. Everybody's selling a lot. But so what's a cargo bike for the folks that don't get their kids on the bike because, let's say, you want to take your kids to school and you got that little seats for them in the back or they can put their hands in the bars? So we started carrying a brand actually it's iconic with guys our age but a radio flyer, yeah, everything else. They're also a walmart supplier. Um, strategic paul came up with.
Speaker 3:My partner found them because I was looking and looking and looking and I wanted the right one. So it hit a sweet spot Good quality bike, but not as high price point as some where it's prohibitive, and our Radio Flyer. We landed on it and they love it because, first of all, we're on Walmart campus, which is just going to grow the relationship, but a lot of people recognize a brand and then their price point. They hit with their'll call it the lego style add-ons. You can just really do some cool stuff. It's where we just started carrying a few months ago and we're selling all of those in mountain bikes and we sell a lot of mountain bikes, but those are we. We we're turning over several like. We've sold man probably two to one of those over the higher end mountain bikes in the last months.
Speaker 2:Serious yeah yeah, we're selling them. That's awesome. Do you have a cargo bike man? What are? You wouldn't know, but I but I see him a lot and I, yeah, I think it would be neat to see, especially like for you. It would be because you can run down to the neighborhood market and back.
Speaker 1:Like angie would love one of this feels like you got a place to go buy a bike I love it, do you? Own a bike I have multiple that's like. Why did I know the answer?
Speaker 2:that's the last time you're on your bike matt, when was the last time we were on the bikes? I bet it's been a year. Yeah, we need to get back a year ago. Yeah, we're ready, just bring it into jesse for it yeah we'll take care of you guys, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure, for sure. What brands do you carry? Um, so, for the higher end, like mountain bikes, pivot okay. Um, like, yeah, pivot. Norco, we have some rocky Mountain Moran, but a lot of people carry Moran. We have some I call them candy brands. Like Nolly Mullet, we have a really strong brand. We'll call it assortment, but we've really tried to do at our bike shop is carry only really one brand in each sweet spot in terms of price and stuff, instead of having too much overlap, and our customer likes that. But the bike brands love it. We get more attention than a normal shop our size or a single or two shops like Pivot, for example. Big brand I'm up there with the geometry of the Specialized and stuff, but a little more custom. He's always had a great reputation and he's very loyal to us. He does some special stuff for us. He actually just built me a custom bike.
Speaker 3:That's sweet, but it's just a really good brand for us?
Speaker 2:Do they still make the Switchblade?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2:I used to have one of those. Actually, I love that bike. Yeah, it was like my first high-end bike. Yeah, that's my blue one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's got a lot of dust on it.
Speaker 2:It does have a lot of dust, yeah, but you're tired, but they're good bikes.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, they're one of my favorites.
Speaker 1:So what's a good starter bike for somebody like myself that doesn't have a bike that wants to use it and has zero. Why do I?
Speaker 2:have a new one, electric.
Speaker 3:So quick electric story, just for kicks. None of my friends rode one except my partner and he just, I'm sorry. He's a big biker. Everybody in the biking community pretty much knows him. He's like this six foot four tree litter from lithuania, but he won't stop smoking. So his first bike when he really got into it was an e-bike. And all 10 of us will say this core group of guys just teased him. No one was going to ride an e-bike for the life of him. All 10 now have an e-bike and most of the 10 only ride their e-bike, and that's only in a matter of like three years. But e-bikes are fun. Um, I do both, but I tend to ride the e-bike more Because there is still some exercise on the e-bike.
Speaker 2:Right, You're sweating on the e-bike. There's no lack of it.
Speaker 3:You still get a really good workout, but it's just way more fun.
Speaker 2:You could go further, especially guys like us who don't bike all the time. We could jump on there and we could go spend the entire afternoon just cruising around. You're just tearing it up, yeah, and they're like the reason I got one. Besides, I'm overweight, but we were on. We were riding the back 40 one day, way back in the day, when that was, you know, the only thing to do, and we met these people from st louis and their dad was with them and he said, like both of his sons were super fit and he's like the old. The e-bike has made it to where I can still go on all these trips with my kids and he's like they can ride their bikes and he goes, I stay on the e-bike with them and just cruise, and that the e-bike makes us so much more done, because otherwise I would get to the top of the hill and I'd be tired and everyone would be like you ready. I'm trying to breathe right now.
Speaker 3:Or you rode up the hill one time instead of yeah yeah, the percentage of people that ride an e-mountain bike that couldn't ride without one is very high.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of people, whether it's age injuries. I got my foot in the door with an e-bike because I was actually injured. My lower back couldn't handle a non-e-bike.
Speaker 2:I got pretty hurt and my partner was out of town my partner was out of town, so I asked if I could borrow his bike, and that was it. Yeah, one time it's all. It's not just about the bikes, I mean, it's all kind of cruisers.
Speaker 3:You see, you ever see somebody riding those cruiser bikes around? They're not smiling. It'd be a surprise, like yeah, or they're taking their kids to school, or it's an older couple on their beach cruiser e-bikes. But um, there's a reason they're so popular.
Speaker 2:I think it changed the industry. It it's totally changed. Yeah yeah, it just opened the door to sell many more. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, you got it in. Like you go to even some of the big cities like New York and everything else. There's less cars riding around and driving around in downtown New York and all the food's being delivered on bikes, mail. There's all kinds of yeah, electric bikes around the world. Really yeah.
Speaker 1:What's the opening price point on an electric bike? What's if you want to get into it In my shop or just anywhere?
Speaker 3:Well, I want to focus on your shop. Maybe it's really heavy ones that need a lot of mechanic work for $500, $600. But our shop, the lowest price point we'd carry on one, is probably around $1,300, $1,400. But that's not bad for an e-bike. No, no, yeah, for an e-bike. Okay, and that's a good quality bikes at that price point.
Speaker 3:In my opinion, the best quality cruiser bikes and not a mountain bike for the money is called Electric Bike Company. They're one of the I think the second to open in the US. But he manufactures a lot of his own parts at the factories that make the brands, but he's not paying all the overhead. So if you go buy his bike, leather seats, all the components are really high end and it's all put together in the US and a lot of it's built in the US. But for the money they have the best bikes but they're not in the cargo bikes with carrying your kids on the back, but they're cruisers. We had them in our rental business for three years, four years and these things I mean rental bikes get beat up. Yeah, you know, if they're good, plug and play, everything about it. My wife's. I made her get her second one. She's on it ever got are that cruiser, but really high quality. But you can get them as low as 1300 on that brand and up to 2500.
Speaker 1:They're really nice, and you got service them as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:Okay. So if I say, hey, I want to spend the 2500 on a bike, you get a really nice bike, but is the cost to maintain it Again, I pay that on a card or is it built into some kind of subscription model with you, if I like?
Speaker 3:when you buy a bike from us, we'll give free tune-ups for a year. And on the cruiser bikes that aren't mountain bikes there's very little servicing, Very, very little. You're not jumping, You're not tearing through mud and rocks. Usually I have one kid that kind of changed that up a little bit. But no, they don't really need a whole lot of servicing and and they're pretty easy to work on. But like bikes, these electric bikes last a long time. I mean batteries and motors and everything else last a long time, unless you are jumping through the air and you're breaking your own bones and crashing on the bike and stuff. They really are pretty resilient.
Speaker 1:And you have an e-bike, and you have one Yep and you guys don't use them.
Speaker 2:Well, we don't use them enough. Yeah, we don't Clearly enough, yeah, we don't clearly. It'll come borrow one of mine I want to try and just get. If you go on, it's like no, it's like. I equate it to like so I'm what you should. I'm a big dirt bike guy, so yeah it to me it's like riding dirt bikes, but like because you shred I remember when rich drew was on you talking about how you used to shred all the time.
Speaker 1:I was talking about how he spent with rich.
Speaker 2:What we should do is plan a nice weekend and rent one for the weekend, yeah, and drop it off at my house, and then we could all do it at my house and we could go.
Speaker 1:I can't go with Jesse because he would go. You don't go with an expert.
Speaker 3:I'll ride with anyone.
Speaker 2:He'll ride a cargo bike on the mountain bike. Oh, we could go right past him. We could go pedal up to the gear garden.
Speaker 3:That's right, it's just fun. Honestly, you don't care how fast you go. I'm over that. It's just about riding.
Speaker 1:So you've become a biker because you're not playing much tennis and you're not playing much soccer, trying to start back up.
Speaker 3:Just quit soccer last year. More bike riding is definitely in my future.
Speaker 1:Because he was a big soccer player, and a big. You have multiple businesses that you're involved with. This is not enough hours in the day to do everything, so biking has now become more of the passion.
Speaker 3:It's more, but my kids are getting older so they don't need as much. I have plenty of time. But yeah, I changed up. I'm pretty much every day doing something, yeah, but biking. I have a lot of yeah, biking friends. I can call last second because I live on the trails. A lot of people live near me. It's just like we jump on our bikes and go. That's what's cool about an e-bike, as long as it's charged. If you had a long day or you're not feeling well, it doesn't matter, you're still gonna get a good workout.
Speaker 2:But you jump on the bike and just run out your door and you go and you get out and get fresh air, have this, but you can turn it. I can turn mine to where it's barely doing anything.
Speaker 3:You can turn it off if you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you don't have to have it on turbo mode and you can get as much or little of a workout as you want to get.
Speaker 1:And just plug it in to charge. Yeah, just plug it in.
Speaker 2:It's easy and battery lasts, and the battery nowadays is nuts what they last.
Speaker 1:Why don't you guys use it more? It just sounds like it's almost too good to be true.
Speaker 2:We just need to. It's a time thing. It's like you have 50 things that you do and you've got to rotate to different.
Speaker 1:For you in downtown Bentonville. Do you have one too?
Speaker 2:She has a cruiser. We have plans today but we have to come do the podcast.
Speaker 1:It wasn't the rain. So the rain, yeah, the rain. Well, it's not.
Speaker 2:You know, I know it was like I bet with the new, but with the new store on campus, it's going to be hard for you guys to to figure out how many rentals you're going to have, because I think you're going to find out you're you're going to rent a lot of bike.
Speaker 3:You're going to start with something like. Our shop already rents a lot. Well, luckily, we've been doing the rental thing for a long time. We're pretty. We're really good at that because we didn't wait till this shop, like Benville bike shop, now we started renting. Man the learning curve there. We did some funny stuff in the beginning.
Speaker 3:Anyways, the rental bike the rental bikes part of a bike shop is really important in this area and if you're not renting bikes, you're just missing out. But you got to have the right bikes and spend some money on them too. But yeah, you get a lot of loyalty out of that too, and even the customers, especially at Return to Town a lot of them that bring their own bikes. A lot of times the bike breaks down or something like that too, but we've done a good job of having the right bikes, the right sizes. The new shop will have a lot of cargo bikes actually we just started running cargo bikes as well, but a lot of both, because a lot of the people coming to visit town the campus people, the associates and stuff they're not looking to come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mountain bike, they want to go around the town? Yeah, so we'll have both. So did so with with mountain bikes. Do you have just different tiers of bikes you can rent?
Speaker 3:we do. I mean we don't get down into lower tiers.
Speaker 2:But we have kids, bikes, and, and then we'll have a mid tier and a high tier, like pivots are most of the time, which is nice because then when we went to Moab, you could fly there, rent the bike that you may own and you don't have to have the case. To carry it in Moab is a fun place to get a new bike.
Speaker 2:There's only a few trails you can ride. Everyone says so, we. We went out there, we spent a week and we were on the way home. We were like it's Bentonville has better trails. It really does. I know a lot of people say no, but our trails are better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they are better, but there's some still. Like you said, there's some cool stuff out there.
Speaker 2:We did the whole enchilada and I thought I was going to die. You can't use an e-bike there. You can't use an e-bike there. You gotta ride. You were riding up, you have to. You go from snow to 90 degrees. Uh, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:You go from like 11 000, 10 or 11 000 tough riding there too, yeah what's the percentage of um sales on uh buying versus renting? Like is renting a bigger piece of the business than someone coming in and buying a bike.
Speaker 3:So I mean, yes, you're going to rent more bikes because you'll rent bikes cheap. You're going to sell bikes. You can sell more than one bike a day, but it's just a different business. Rental income at the end of the day is almost pure income, outside of the large investment for a bike, a rental bike. Our average rental bike price is probably $6,000. Like, I mean, you're spending a lot on the front side as long as you maintain those bikes, but bikes are really only good for one season. That's it. Yeah, I mean you can fix them. A lot of bike shops will fix them. We don't Just because they beat just everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, people go pretty hard on them but they're still good after a year.
Speaker 1:But their expectation is also really high, so we don't mess up. So after the season do you sell the bike for?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Sorry, okay, yeah we sell the bike, we get a pretty good price on them. But I mean we clean them up, we make sure they're running perfectly and everything else.
Speaker 3:But yeah, bikes are just like a rental car. Yep, yeah, it's not worse, depending on. I mean we. You see all kinds of stuff. You'll see 65 year old female jane who's totally thrashing and breaks her wrist and walks in with a smile on her face bringing the rental bike back on the way to the hospital. She's still smiling. So you just get all kinds of people like all kinds of people renting bikes. But uh, yeah, the people come out of town to rent bikes to usually spend a lot on. Like we sell again, it says bentonville on it so an enormous amount of our shirts and our swag and stuff like that we have. Do you ever looked at our coffee mugs and water bottles and stuff like that? It's nicer than Yeti. Like we have premium stuff. I mean you know me and my other life, like I'm connected to everything. So I, we, just we should have had.
Speaker 2:You bring in some. Well, and it's like, well, it's like, it's like the, it's like the when, back in the day, when we used to ride Harleys all the time, every place, you go, you buy a shirt, and that's what you do with bikes. Yeah, we go, you go to Moab and you buy them there. You go to Bentonville, you buy and that's just, it's kind of, it's kind of a neat, yeah, a memento that you, you know, you have.
Speaker 1:That's smart, Everson smart. How are you figuring out the business model at the new campus? Because, again, you're going to figure out like I'm going to be heavy here and I thought it would be heavier, but then I'm too light over here, Because you're figuring out as you go right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean you can make some assumptions and then you'll just slowly migrate space allocation to different things. But like, for example, bike shop manager came up with an idea in January we started carrying one wheels. No one's carrying one. What I was gonna ask, marketer, should we care? We're selling the heck out of so. One wheel is what one?
Speaker 2:wheel hoverboards yeah, and we like we have. They have like a yeah, but a yearly, yearly thing here and no one was carrying them.
Speaker 3:We are now and we're rocking. Do you ride it here and have you ridden? I used to. I can. Yeah, I had one at first made. Oh, one of the factories. I want to try, but I.
Speaker 2:God, that's all I got need.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but they are so much fun. They are so much fun. Do not sell or rent. But yeah, you can definitely eat my bike shop. My man, he's crashed. But anyways, we sell one wheels and all the accessories and we've done really well with them and the new shop is going to even do better.
Speaker 2:And it's really great as it doesn't take up much much bike shop space. I mean, you put a now is yours the kind? You stand on the front in the back of the wheel, you straddle the wheel. Uh, we can get those, but the ones we carry is the front back, okay. Those are the ones where they have the big event here once.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were riding that weekend and they're all yeah, they do, they come and there's a lot. There's a huge community here.
Speaker 2:The information's out there, but there's a huge one wheel community here too like that, like there's people from we were out to dinner that when they were having it. There's people from australia and all. Like you probably meet people all over the world that you would never think would come to bentonville, and the nice thing about you guys is you're you already have it, your business established, so going to the campus is just going to make it that much better. Yeah, it'll so. Will you keep the central location?
Speaker 3:We will Very complimentary strategies. There'll be a little overlap, but the great thing is if there's events going on let's say a Walmart campus event or something, we can move some people over to the other shop. But yeah, we'll keep those and we'll see what happens. But I don't see it being a problem. I've done some projections but the amount of business we can lose is only so much because of the amount of servicing and everything it's going to pick up. On one more campus Not very many people are going to want to People like Central.
Speaker 2:Well, you're right, by Kohler.
Speaker 3:We're in the middle of one of the trails, I didn't know just right in the middle, right near downtown Bentonville, but there's a lot of parking. We have plenty of parking where we're at. It's been a really good location. We're actually. We started in one small space. We finally got the next space next to us and we just took over a third space in the back where we're using for rentals and storage and stuff like that. So we now have three. We're actually buying three spaces in that current area.
Speaker 1:This is a part-time thing for you, right?
Speaker 3:Because you Is Paul doing this full-time. He spends more time there than I do. For sure he's still got his other business, but hopefully he sells that off. But yeah, this is my exit plan. I mean, I'm retiring younger than most people here pretty soon and got a lot of big businesses, so this will be again everybody's way off to really learn how to wrench on bikes. I'm pretty good, but not good enough to work at a bike shop yet, but my plan is to work at a bike shop yet. So but my my plan is to work at a bike shop in a few years.
Speaker 1:And the kids bike, I mean, I assume the whole thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, two race right now and then my, uh, one of my other boys did race. Um, he now snowboards every day before class in college out in Arizona, so in Northern Arizona. Another round though yeah, my oldest two boys are roommates in college in Flagstaff, arizona. Uh, and they snowboard us and rock climb and run and gravel ride and stuff. Wow, dad.
Speaker 2:Our grandparents lived there when we were kids and I always thought it was neat. We had friends that we would meet there, and I always thought it was neat that you could drive two hours and go snowboarding or you could go water skiing the same day, like it's, that's a neat place Down to Grand Canyon, up to Lake Powell.
Speaker 3:I grew up in Southern Arizona. I actually went to Northern Arizona myself. So did Stu, I think Stuart, I think it was Stu. Anyways, any of his beautiful pine trees right up near the Grand Canyon, that's where they're at Do you bike with those guys too?
Speaker 1:Are you in their biking group?
Speaker 3:with Stuart and Tal I have before. Yeah, my friends do. They go to Norway. They go do really cool stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I bet.
Speaker 3:But there are a lot of gravel riding too. I don't really gravel ride. I have, I like it, but I like mountain biking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are you most excited for for the campus? For?
Speaker 3:our shop or the campus. Well, we'll tell you both. I mean for the culture, the bike shop culture. There's such a huge percentage of Walmart's campus already riding to work like literally transportation, like Walmart. Have you gone over and seen what the Walmart bike shop looks like and kind of what they got going on over there?
Speaker 1:No, I've been past. I know that they have the white bike. Is it an e-bike or the white bikes that are going from building?
Speaker 3:to building? No, not this. So they actually have a bike shop for Walmart Associates that they can check out for free On the new campus. No, it's over on 8th Street but it's moving to the new campus Okay, right around the corner from us. Okay, but it's just for Walmart employees. But it's fantastic.
Speaker 3:They have scooters, they have all the bikes cargo bikes, fold-up bikes, like all kinds of stuff and you can check it out. But they have a whole cultural following it's growing of people riding to work and like whatever, like neighborhood you live in, there'll be a captain in that area. They introduce you that person so you guys can ride together. But that's growing and that'll that'll benefit us too, because people dropping off bikes for servicing because their bike shop's not really set up to service it's set up to service their own bikes. Their bike shop will be complimentary to yours. Yeah, theirs is for one more employees to check out bikes and get people on bikes. You'll come check it out for free, experience the different kinds of bikes, get interested in it and then go buy one okay, so there's more of a trial for them, but okay, I got it.
Speaker 3:Oh, so it'll really feed nicely to you exactly okay, and we'll probably help them with servicing, as they can't handle a lot of their own servicing and stuff like that, and they have a really good team running it, so it's one of those things that just worked out really well.
Speaker 1:Because they hired somebody at some point, and I remember who she. I think she worked for Junk Brands, courtney.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And her sole job was to ensure that 10% of the Walmart campus at a minimum was biking to work, which is really already happening, which is amazing.
Speaker 3:I mean, you think about that projection she's, she's doing a good job, she's really. And she I think she's just even traveled, didn't just try to learn everything I know and she went out and traveled to different cities already kind of doing the same thing, took all those learnings and it was brought it into that and, um, she's really because every new person that bikes to walmart is likely to come into your shop and get shirts or new bikers.
Speaker 3:So that's or go wherever and but yeah, we're very convenient and yeah, like I said, every bike shop has their thing. We're really good at giving people the right bike. We don't cookie cut anything Again. We'll send people to other bike shops. We don't have a problem doing it at all. We're all about building a relationship with that person walking in which fits exactly with what Walmart ultimately wants.
Speaker 1:I love that. Yeah, and the campus in general. What do you say?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, first of all, a lot of the employees are really excited that aren't there, but some of the interesting. I'll tell you a quick story. I was on one of the ORT buses the other day. I'm on the ORT board. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, the transportation board no-transcript. Jumped on the bus, timed everything called in their food to go at the new food court on Walmart campus. Had all their food ready to go, got their food as the bus went around, parked, then came back around there all at that bus stop and timed it to go back. So people are excited about food, the new rec center. There's this whole we'll call it almost like campus living. They don't live on campus, but if you're going to go there and spend a whole workday there, all the things, the park, the trails they've got a pretty exciting culture they're trying to create and I think most of it will be successful. We know from business owners what they're trying to do, but I think it's all coming to fruition. So people are pretty excited.
Speaker 2:Just driving through 8th Street from downtown. Yeah, it's neat Getting on the freeway you could feel the energy and what is being created.
Speaker 3:People are excited and the food they're bringing in. Oh, they've got coffee shops. Oh cool, I mean three Onyx, they have, like I don't know, 20 coffee shops on campus.
Speaker 1:Every single building that the Associates are in has its own coffee shops, whether it's Kennedy or Onyx or Airship. Each of them is in a building on campus, like right next to one another, which is amazing. There's coffee everywhere.
Speaker 3:Everywhere yeah.
Speaker 1:And the eighth and plate's fantastic, the dining spot yeah, it's really cool. The 30,000 square foot fitness center. And then again going back to what Steve said and how well I know you and how proud we are of the barbershop, they're really putting well thought out businesses on the campus of people that are that they know the associates are going to, like p that's going to drive traffic, that's going to have people say I want to move to bentonville from silicon valley or boston or wherever to be on the walmart campus because of all the amenities. They've really done a good job of putting the well thought out plan together yeah, even the hotel.
Speaker 3:I think it's for employees or associates during the week and then on open on the weekends, but they've been intentional about it. Yeah, that Marriott's gonna be pretty cool too.
Speaker 1:I think May 15th it's opening, someone's coming quick. But I'm curious how they're gonna manage, like because Matt Marzienberg oh, I'm an associate.
Speaker 2:I'd like to see how they're gonna figure out who's gonna get in there or not get in there. They're not going to leave it empty during the week, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:A lot of Walmart suppliers will just stay there yes, literally just go there, and that's where businesses like yours and mine will also benefit.
Speaker 1:Yep, I think there'll be a lot of walking traffic. A lot of people pop in walk in.
Speaker 3:One of my favorite things about Steve and his group the real estate team that's working with Walmart and filling all these spaces is they are making it very clear that they're going to make sure that the businesses opening up are going to be successful. And if you have a concern or your communication, we've had some delay challenges but they're really listening and it's been a pretty good experience. The delays have been tough, I think, on some businesses, but it's not anyone's fault. It's just the process of finishing the campus. But in terms of them being intentional with us, walmart especially being intentional with us in the future, if there's ever an opportunity for our business to be more successful and we go communicate that to the Walmart project leads for this stuff, they'll go out of their way to make sure that they can help us.
Speaker 2:I felt that pretty strong. I did too.
Speaker 1:You can't put a price on that, I do feel collaboration and partnership. I feel like they really want to ensure success. They don't want to start turning shops over because they can't afford the bills or they're not getting the foot traffic. They're going to sign long laces, right? We sure did.
Speaker 3:We sure did. This isn't for fun, this is for fun.
Speaker 1:We sure did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I signed up, for sure.
Speaker 1:Do you want to share with the group a website or Instagram?
Speaker 3:or a place to find you guys. Yeah, I mean Bentonville Bike Shop, so just BentonvilleBicyclecom. We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook social media. We're the only bike shop that's at. Just about every racer is Whether it's a kid's race, we don't charge. We're doing the free tune-ups. There's a few others to go to some of them and they kind of, but we're at all of them. Thanks to paul, my partner, and bill. They're. They're everywhere, so we're almost at all the events. If you ever see a bento bike shop tent, you need your bike tweaked or tuned up real quick. We're not charging for it, just come up. So we do it, especially at the kids races and stuff like that too, and some of the professional races. We're always there and we've got our team there ready just to help people out.
Speaker 1:You guys should bring your bikes in to get them all.
Speaker 2:God knows, we're going to probably need them. Rob and I are going to search up the next race. We'll come in with the two flat tires. We'll be like I don't know what's wrong with my bike.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you what you get out of here, Fix your guys' bikes for nothing, but let's get your bikes fixed.
Speaker 1:I need to get an e-bike. Just come borrow mine first.
Speaker 3:Okay, I've got two really nice ones in my garage, just come grab one and just.
Speaker 2:You'll fall in love with it, especially with your knee, especially with my knee.
Speaker 1:Jesse, thanks for coming in. Thank you, appreciate your friendship. Super excited that you're going to be our neighbor on the campus. I'm sure we'll be spending more time together. Haircutting a bike ride. Haircutting a bike ride, all right, cheers. Thanks guys, cheers guys, thank you.