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.