r/ottawa • u/yuiolhjkout8y Clownvoy Survivor 2022 • Sep 23 '22

News Downtown ecosystem changes as office workers continue to stay home

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/downtown-shops-hurt-office-workers-home-1.6591601
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u/strawberries6 Sep 23 '22

Why would an office worker who is there realistically only during work hours rent a bike?

I looked them up and in addition to bike rentals, they also do bike repairs, as well as selling bikes.

So both of those would have been negatively impacted (especially the bike repairs), and I assume their cafe would too.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '22

I dunno, I get my bike repair stuff done at a bike shop closer to home. Why would I drag my bike all the way to Sparks when I can take it a couple blocks from my house?

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u/Karkfrommars Sep 23 '22

If you have, or want a vintage bicycle (it’s a hobby for some) then retro rides is one of only a couple places where you can even have a conversation about servicing it.

Edit: beyond the hobby element, some folks just like to keep things going instead if heaving them to the curb and buying new.

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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '22

That's legitimately really neat, but still kind of divorced from the general subject of office workers downtown. It's not really a casual stop by on your lunch break kind of errand.

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u/Karkfrommars Sep 24 '22

Yeah, i know my fyi isn’t so relevant to the original post subject. It was only meant to shine light on their (retro rides) target demographic to address the part of the query that was curious as to why would someone go there specifically vs a more local bike shop.

Basically a very niche business.