Hoback Sports Stays Open During Covid-19

Yesterday evening when I was wheeling out a Specialized Como E-bike that I’d helped a customer buy over email, my ears were alerted by a high pitched yelp coming from the car a few parking spots away. Immediately in rescue mode, I was relieved when I realized it was just a young boy who had put together that beautiful baby blue SE Racing BMX bike his dad was wheeling towards the car was for him! Disbelief, joy, and gratitude were abundant – it looked like the best moment of that child’s life, and many “thank yous” were exchanged as they drove away. 

It had been a while since I had shared “new bike day” like that with a child, it’s usually a regular highlight of my week working at Hoback Sports, and I had almost forgotten how contagious that joy can be. There seems to be a lot of debate over whether bike shops are essential but luckily in Jackson, WY our community and elected officials have always included bike shops as essential businesses from the start of our local COVID-19 policies. To us, it’s pretty obvious that we’re essential as bicycles fill many needs, from transportation to the health benefits, to the mental and physical joys that a bike ride can bring.

Before we were able to get back to work, we had to do everything possible to make sure we were putting the safety of our staff and customers. We have worked hard to ramp back up our services, but realistically we’re all re-learning to do our jobs in this new era. We have set limits to the number of employees allowed in the store, bought masks for all of our employees, and placed industrial-sized orders of rubber gloves, hand sanitizer, and alcohol disinfectants. Everything is a little harder and takes a little longer but it has been great to be able to work the past few weeks and help the community get on bikes with so many of us getting cabin fever inside. 

Part of this new era of operation was to set up a more efficient curbside system. It’s not enough to not let people inside if there’s madness in the parking lot; so we’ve set up numbered cones, asked our customers to pull up to a specific cone and call us from the parking lot. They stay in the car, we bring their products out to them and wave through the windshield. Additionally, our general manager set up a sneeze guard blocker at the front entryway for the smaller walk-up sales like tubes, accessories, and quick grab and go services. Customers have been great so far in understanding and re-learning how to shop with us. 

One of our priorities was to find easy ways for our customers to buy local online. Luckily the bike industry has a long history of protecting their local bike shops, so many programs were already in place like Specialized’s “Click and Collect” order process. For years you’ve been able to place orders through the Specialized website and have the order shipped to your local Specialized retailer for a pickup. We were already set up for this, so we just had to share the word with our customers. Luckily many were listening and took advantage of shopping from home while still buying local. Several other vendors have similar programs or systems such as the “find it locally” button you’ll see on many cycling brand’s sites where they can search bike shop inventories and tell you if what you’re looking for is in stock at a shop near you.

Our biggest hurdle so far has been getting our procedures for taking bikes in for service, as everything entering the store has to be disinfected. Also due to social distancing practices, we’re only able to safely have half of our usual technicians working at one time. This took us time to make sure we were doing the right thing in the right way, but I’m proud to say we’re back to working on bikes on an appointment basis. This means calling or emailing ahead to set up an appointment to take in your bike. We’ll have you show up at your scheduled time,  meet you in the parking lot to chat about what the bike needs, sanitize the bike, and then take it in for service. Our goal here is to eliminate several people showing up at once and control the flow to our door. April and May are already our busiest months for bike shop work, as people get their bikes out of the garage in the spring. It’s been a challenge but we’re ramping up and things are going smoothly so far. 

What we’re going through at Hoback Sports is not anything unique. Every bike shop in every community has had to go through their own struggle to take care of their community while also being safe. The best thing you can do if you want to get on a ride is contact your local bike shop.  Most of us are here working diligently to help you get some fresh air in your face to ease the stress. Keep in mind that things have changed and we’re all re-learning our jobs in this new era and everything takes a bit longer, so a little patience goes a long way. We appreciate the privilege of being able to keep sharing our love of cycling with our community and look forward to the many rides to come as we all work through this together. 

Give us a call at 307-733-5335 or visit our website hobacksports.com to schedule a service appointment or place a pick-up order.