Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	12/11/2005

Higgins Bike Shop - Greensboro Landmark

My son's bike needed some work a few weeks back. The service my wife received at Higgins Bike Shop was so friendly that I decided if I ever got around to buying a bike for myself, like I had been meaning to do for the last 10 years or so, Higgins would have to be the place. Most anything you buy is going to be from China so you might as well spend it on a local merchant I figure.

Yesterday after church we decided to swing up Battleground just south of Cone Blvd to stop in at Higgins to pick up a bike tire tube for my other son's bike. (While trying unsuccessfully to pump air into it his uncle, visiting for Thanksgiving, had inadvertantly ripped the valve stem out of it.)

The old gentleman who came out to service us turned out to be Glenn Higgings himself. As I chatted with him, I decided that it was as good as day as any to finally buy that bike. Along the way to my purchase of a "comfort bike" with 27" wheels, Glenn filled me in on how he had been selling bikes in Greensboro for 48 years; the last 32 at the Battleground location.

Glenn's from Galax, Virginia. Getting out of high school as WWII was ending, he got his real start in the businesse world with the Kroger grocery company. He eventually was transfered by Kroger into the Greensboro area where he started selling bikes as a side business. As more and more vetrans and GI bill graduates started getting the better jobs at Kroger, Glenn eventually decided to go full time on his own. And the rest is history as they say.

Things could be changing however. Glenn said that the land his bike shop and adjoining building are on are worth about $850,000. He's had an offer for even more than that and if the deal goes through he would be moving to a rental location up the street. Either way, looks like Glenn is not to worried about Wall-Mart and Sports Authority putting him out of business. (I told my kids to mark Glenn's datum point down as they weigh the merits of going massively into debt for a college degree of increasingly debased value.)

Sidebar: If you ever wondered what it costs to rent strip mall space along the busiest street in NW Greensboro, Glenn says the single unit stalls across the street from him (the strip with Great Clips just north of Krispy Kreme) go for $2000/month.

8:12:11 PM

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