BIKEIOWA NOTE: Bikes to You was BIKEIOWA's very first sponsor.
KUDOS & THANK YOU TO CRAIG & APRIL COOPER !
Bikes to You, a Grinnellstaple, wasrecently recognized by the Iowa
Tourism Office and the Travel Federation of Iowa, receiving an
Outstanding Retail Experience award. The S&B’s Graham Dodd met with
Bikes to You co-owner Craig Cooper to talk about how the awards would
affect the future of his store, as well as tourism trends in Grinnell.
The S&B: Could you talk about the award you recently received from the Iowa Department of Tourism?
Craig Cooper: We received the Iowa Tourism Award for small retail
experience. My recollection is that was the retail experience for towns
with a population under 10,000.
The S&B: How do you think that fits into the larger development of tourism in the city of Grinnell?
CC: One of the things I’d like to talk about first is that Emily
Counts, who formerly worked with the Council, and Rachael Kinnick have
been instrumental in making sure Grinnell is on the map, so to speak
when it comes to submitting businesses and destinations for awards like
this, and I am honored that they chose our store. Emily recently wrote
the nomination both for Faulconer and for us, and Rachael kind of
oversaw that, and then it was obviously up to the judges to decide, but
at least they put us in the mix. On top of that, I think Bikes to You
feels like we have a destination retail store. We are fortunate that we
are located first of all in Grinnell, which has the College and provides
a portion of our sales revenue, and we are also proud to be one of the
10 official RAGBRAI bicycle shops. By being a part of that we get a lot
of statewide and, quite honestly, national exposure for being associated
with that. Between those two things, I think that is how we got where
we are.
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