13 West Campbell Street
Arlington Heights, IL 60005
847-222-7887

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Remodeling

What! no shelves, and no green carpet. yes thanks to a fair amount of hard work, we are at least 1/2 way done with the deconstruction phase of our build out.
Next, we paint, install flooring, fixtures, and of course stock.
Ever wonder what a bookstores worth of shelves look like when the are not holding books? Us neither but with the help of: The Friends of the Library (for taking the books), and Jim H. & Mike M. (for helping disasemble the shelves) this is it. a back room full of wood.
We have been staging alot of stuff in the back room so we only have to have a giant ugly dumpster for a few days.
We plan to keep a bunch of this wood to recycle into work benches and POP fixtures as our store developes.
oh, and a special thanks to Jim H. for mowing our lawn while we were working on the shop and our "Day Jobs".

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck to you! You might want to have an e-mail address on your blog for comments. But since you don't, can I suggest something: what about looking into Puky children's bikes, scooters, and learning bikes? It's a German brand that (so far as I know) no one imports into the U.S., and we very often get envious comments on our children's scooters since coming back to Arlington Heights. A learning bike, by the way, is a pedalless bike for children to learn balancing with. My 5 year old had enjoyed his since he was three; this year, he got a "regular" bike, and was balancing pretty much immediately -- no training wheels needed!

(Their website is www.Puky.net -- there's an English version because they sell in the UK.)

Anyway, it's always seemed to me that in this day and age, you really need a unique product to succeed as a small business. Good luck!

Peter said...

Wow, those are very cool bikes. I have put in an e-mail to them asking about US Distribution.
Thanks for the tip.
and about our e-mail adresses, our hope for this Blog is to open a public forum. I encourage you and anyone else to post thoughts, concerns, and questions here.
We check it frequently

Peter said...

BTW. my e-mail is: peter.csbs@gmail.com
if you truly want to communicate with me privately.

Sickboy said...

Looking better and better.

Anonymous said...

The Puky bikes are distributed in the US at http://gliderrider.com/.

We own one, and it has been a very good learning tool. We have yet to transition our son to a pedal bike so I have no experience on that yet...he's 5 years old in a few days. Some of the major brands were looking into bikes like this, but to date I do not know what is available.

It may be even simpler to sell a child’s bicycle with a handbrake and take the pedals off when they are learning. From second-hand experience this is a very effective way to teach kids to ride.

Unfortunately, based on personal experience, I expect resistance to a "pedal-less" bicycle will be hard to overcome. At the pre-school road rally my son was one of 2 kids (out of 50+) that had a glider-type bicycle (the other picked up the glider while in Europe). All the others were training wheel bikes. I've offered to loan it out a number of times to no avail. I did convince someone at work to buy one...but I couldn't convince my neighbor.

I’m looking forward to your bicycle shop opening. As a former employee of ABC/Arlington Bicycle it brings me some personal joy to see a bicycle shop coming back to downtown Arlington Heights.

All the best.

Peter said...

interesting, the e-mail I got back from my request for more info, said they were not distributed in the US. hmmm, I'll have to check out your link

Sickboy said...

Did Mike get to use a sledge hammer? If so, I'm jealous

Peter said...

Just a little, more fun was the Sawzzall distruction of a particle board shelving unit, we are saving as much as the wood as possible, so we didn't just crack stuff apart with a sledge. Mike used subsattially more finese then I.

Sickboy said...

Oh, so you were the tough guy huh? Sounds fun!

Anonymous said...

The Glider Rider is available in the USA (the non-brake is the German PUKY). These are a great illustration of the new (and better) approach to learning to balance on a bike, and really incredibly well-priced compared to many of the boutique wooden ones coming in to N. America and pulling down $275-300.

Plus these wooden bikes are way less functional than the Glider Rider.

The Glider Rider has a brake, kickstand, low-step through for ease of getting on and off and lets wee ones comfortably (and safely) rest feet. Free rotation steering has also shown to be much safer than having handlebars that "lock" and stick up at a "dangerous" angle when the bike is laying on the ground with the wooden models. Most kids I know have had great fun with these for several years.
Good for 2-6 year olds.

Retails for under $100.

What’s more, its been clinically shown to improve concentration, balance, coordination and even improve swimming ability. Seems the continuous stride pattern used with playful Glider Rider operation also assists in improving bilateral sensing, managing rhythm, timing and pacing, sustaining attention, and building multi-tasking skill. Check out the helpful video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgssmMKsiYk