By James Durand
I wish life were easy, but it’s not.
As you probably know, we’ve been working on our dream location in Willow Point for longer than I care to remember. It is coming along slowly and we still hope to make it a reality in the next year or two.
In the mean time, we are happy in our funky little space in Campbelton and making improvements every way we can on a regular basis.
We are looking forward to the dream space, but trying to plan the new layout when we’re in the current building is very difficult. We don’t have high ceilings, we don’t have wide open spaces, and we don’t have enough square footage, so, for now, all our plans exist in our heads and on a few scraps of paper.
We’d been thinking of getting an interim shop to get us prepared ahead of time, but weren’t sure if all the extra work was worth it. Then our landlord gave us notice and our decision was made for us.
After an hour or two of sheer panic at the possibility of being a homeless bike shop, the hunt was on, and luckily, we found a space in two days.
It is in Campbelton on 14th Ave, just two blocks from our current spot. The interim space is bigger, brighter, and very similar dimensions to the space we’re building across town.
Now we get to do a full trial run with every aspect of our layout, pre arrange our fixtures, and make everything more efficient before our construction project is completed in a couple of years.
Like many things in life, it isn’t going exactly as we planned it, but I often say, “Adapt or Die,” and I’m not one to roll over and die …or even settle for good enough.
So, for the next week or two, we’ll be shining up the new space making it into an amazing bike shop, and at the end of November, we’ll be launching Swicked 2.0.
The silver lining to all of this extra stress, we get to make Swicked bigger and better now, instead of two years down the line.
I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’…
