Oregon Dunes Businesses - Surviving the Winter
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Several ATV-related businesses will find their own ways to cope with the seasonal downturn in patronage brought to the area by off-road enthusiasts.For Rick Parker, a co-owner at Pelican Plaza Market in Winchester Bay, “diversification is what it’s all about.”
The squat, brown building houses one of the first ATV businesses that travelers on U.S. Highway 101 see when they enter Winchester Bay.
But inside, racks of riding gear and ATV parts transition to fishing gear and a small grocery store.
Parker said the store focused on fishing tackle until ATV parts became more profitable. Unpredictable fishing seasons made fishing gear a sink-or-swim business.
“When it was fishing, you’d just die,” Parker said. “If you get a good forecast, you’ll be busy.”
Now Pelican Market relies on the June through October ATV season to keep afloat, Parker said.
Parker said an ATV rental shop run out of a space next door closes during four months of the year because of the falloff in business.
At nearby Discovery Point Resort and RV Park and Dune Country ATV Rentals, managers take business where they can get it, said Simi Hoover.
Business is “very seasonal, but we’re open every single day,” she said. “You’ve got to be answering your phone to get any winter business.”
While Discovery Point typically has business during autumn from fishermen, Hoover said much of the RV park’s business comes from ATV riders during spring through fall.
Hoover said the park is almost subsidized by summer riding season.
“And that’s part of being seasonal,” she said.
According to Cathie Sullivan, that seasonal income is something that Reedsport may come to rely on.
Sullivan, who owns No. 1 Stop Sports Shop with her husband Pat, said Reedsport never recovered after the decline of local fishing and timber industries.
“We haven’t done anything since the ’70s to bring something here,” she said. “Fishing, compared to the ’70s and ’80s, is nonexistent. There are some events throughout the year, but it’s a drive-through town.”
An economic impact study prepared in September by Oregon State University for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department estimates that the ATV industry generated $22.5 million last year for local businesses, and created about 79 jobs.
Though the gear shop was nearly empty early this month, Sullivan said No. 1 shop stays busy through the winter.
Pat Sullivan estimates that 90 percent of the store and shop’s business comes from out of town, with customers from across the U.S. and parts of Canada ordering parts and shipping motors to Reedsport to be repaired at No. 1 shop.
And he said the shop stays full year-round, because it does not have a dealer affiliation.
That means that the store can service bikes first-come, first-serve rather than catering to customers with bikes of a specific brand.
“Being independent has its drawbacks, but it has more advantages that drawbacks,” Pat Sullivan said.
The rest, said Cathie Sullivan, is just knowing how to survive the winter.
“The thing about our sport is that you have to know our sport,” she said.
Source: http://www.theumpquapost.com/articles/2009/11/25/business/doc4b0c57e48a872060926087.txt
More information on the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area:
posted by Crowdog at
5:57 AM
<< Home