On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 6:34 PM, Barry Isralewitz <barry.isralewitz@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

At 6 square feet (upgraded recently from 4 square feet), and part of a much larger (video rental) retail store, the Itty Bitty Bike Shop really is a pretty itty bitty retail bike shop, but has a surprisingly wide, well-curated selection given the space.

http://www.rentertainment.com/ittybitty.htm

Itty Biitty donates a good chunk of sales to local non-profit bike groups: one DIY repair co-op and one bike advocacy group. SInce the video store stays open all day until late at night, Itty Bitty provides a way for those living nearby (University students, on and off campus) to get emergency supplies like patch kits and tubes (the late-night hours especially valuable). The shop offers a good bit more, including lights and safety gear.

Oblig. Disclosure: I volunteer with one of the two non-profit bike organizations that receive donations from Itty Bitty, the DIY repair co-op The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign (www.thebikeproject.org). Our organization helped a bit with initital startup of Itty Bitty. Itty Bitty helps out with local efforts through retailing, for instance provides a second source (besides our DIY co-op) of rock-bottom-priced replacement batteries for the Planet Bike safety blinkies. Relevant since 800 - 1000 free PB blinky light sets are installed in town each year in a big free bike light giveaway funded and run by an alliance of local organizations

Cheers,

Barry Isralewitz
Volunteer, The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign

On Jun 22, 2012, at 1:28 PM, <christopher@holisticcycles.com> <christopher@holisticcycles.com> wrote:

We are a 400sf space, A bit exciting to do it all in there, and we share the space. We have to put it all away at the end of the day.

Christopher Wallace
Holistic Cycles
140 Harrison St
Oak Park, IL. 60304

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [TheThinkTank] (Physically) small bike shops/spaces?
From: veganboyjosh@gmail.com
Date: Thu, June 21, 2012 5:40 pm
To: The Think Tank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org>

hey all,

a friend of mine is doing a story on bike shops that are under 500 square feet. he's primarily focused on retail oriented shops, but when he put the call out on facebook, of course i thought some of you and your lots of things happening in space that shouldn't physically be possible.

of course he can't cover every small shop, but i'm looking for suggestions from you all for shops who have been around a while (longer than a couple years, i'd say) and are tiny physical spaces. borrowed space (ie, from a school or church, etc) is fine, as long as it's small.

so, any ideas?

thanks, and everyone who's at bike!bike! this weekend, give each other big hugs from me.

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--
Barry Isralewitz
barry.isralewitz@gmail.com

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