*TIKIT* This little tikitTM went to market ...

WHAT DO YOU DO with a bike that's almost as easy to buy off the shelf as a can of beans?

Put it on the shelf! Well, almost.

Bike Friday recently teamed with two experienced local Eugene retailers - organic grocer Market of Choice and long established local bicycle shop Hutch's Bicycles, to literally, bring the little tikitTM to market.

"30,000 people come through these doors a week," said Bike Friday Dealer Development director, Michael Bennett (pictured left). "It's a whole new market for us, and a way to show the tikitTM to people who might not otherwise get to see it."

A tikitTM was painted and decorated in the Market of Choice trademark color yellow and "pear" logo. It's parked in store with an informative backdrop and slideshow. Apparently the store's head office has an identical tikitTM to ride back and forth doing corporate-type errands.

"When someone sees this display, they can take leaflet that directs them to a local tikitTM agent like Hutch's, where they receive a free Detours bicycle shopping bag if they buy one," says Mike.

Mike explained how you can wheel the folded tikitTM inside with shopping bag intact on the front rack, and pop groceries right into the bag - no need to lock it up in the elements outside.

Any bites so far?

"A woman from Canada on holiday saw the display, came right in an bought two to take back with her," said Len Schvaneveldt, owner of Hutch's (est. 1927)

Len appears to have sipped the small wheeled Kool Aid himself, proclaiming his personal Express tikitTM the "funnest bike I've had" - this, from a man who owns a lot of carbon fiber...

"I've a $7000 carbon fiber bike sitting back there and my Express tikitTMis as much fun if not more fun."

We proceeded to Hutch's where Len showed us his impressive tikitTM display, and even a vintage soapbox derby car made from a hollowed log.

"There's a Bike Friday for everyone, road, touring, commuting, racing whether you travel and whether you don't," he said.

Would Len recommend this " bicycle advertising" to other bike shops?

"Alternative advertising is the way to go," he says. "In newspapers and radio, you just get lost among the mass of businesses that are bigger than you. We're hitting people who might never walk through the doors of a bicycle shop. It really works - getting bikes out to businesses that will help our business, and getting people on bikes who really need them."

View the movie clip and contact Mike Bennett if you can see the tikitTM going to market with your local retailers and bike shops. And of course, when in Eugene, buy a baguette from Market of Choice, slip it into your new Detours shopping bag when you pick up your tikitTM at Hutch's, and ... bon appetit!

RELATED LINKS

Bike Friday tikitTM agents

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