Problem The Project consists of taking the old idea of a bicycle retail store, and completely rethinking the design from the ground up. To do that, the current business design model for bicycle shops must be re evaluated. Currently bicycle shops include massive invintory, and not much flexibility for customization of products. Current shops have very high overhead, which requires a high level of turnaround, putting pressure sales, which is not always beneficial for the customer, or the bike shop.
idea Cafe 814 completely changes the traditional model for the bike shop. For this design, a focus on a high level of customer service, low overhead, and fully customizable bicycles were the ideas that were most important. To accomplish this, adapting to technology was essential, and working with web based cycling retailers so that the customer can design his or her bicycle on the Cafe 814 application to the exact specifications desired while working with a mechanic and bicycle fit specialist to ensure a properly fit and built bike. The online aspect of this model also gives the customer an availibilty of a huge inventory of related products to choose from. This model gives the customer a fully customizable experince that they have come to expect from the online marketplace, with the comfort of having the help of knowlegable experts in the bicycle industry helping them every step of the way. The model also gives the bicycle shop the ability to focus on customer service, instead of pushing
Plan To acheve sucsess at this new model for a bicycle shop, a retail location must be chosen in this case the retail location was an abandoned warehouse in downtown Durango, Colorado. The space is near local bike paths, and has a central location in town. The space gave the flexibility of customization with its wide open floor plan. The bulding also had an asthetic that was desierable as well, with the local stone used to build the walls and tin roof.
Once the decision was made to have this building as the new site of Cafe 814, a lot was done to ensure that the needs of the customer were met, as well as the employees that worked there. Because of the focus on servicing bicycles, ample room was given to the mechanics shop area, a bar was created so that customers could observe their bicycles being worked on, from an elevated level. Next to the shop area there is an area made specifically the ordering of custom bicycles and equipment. There will be several computers lined up under a model bicycle housed in a frame above. A bicycle fit studio willl be located near the computers to ensure a proper fitting bike.
A coffee shop was added at the other end of the building, this could be transfomed at night into a bar, with bar seating, as well as smaller seating arrangements throughout the space. adjacent to the coffee bar was an elevated seating area, that could also be transformed into a stage for live entertainment. The retail space wouldnt need to be changed much from when the coffee bar transforms into a bar, because of the fully custom nature of the store, there wouldnt be much invintory to move out of reach of bar patrons.The new retail space includes a new roofline with windows that bring in the southern sun, and an outdoor seating area.