The bike shop took off in 2020. With an unprecedented demand for bikes and time to set up an effective online shop, we doubled our output this year. We shifted to appointment only for in-person shopping and began shipping a variety of parts online. As the shop continues to grow, we’ll have more opportunities to hire graduates from our GAP program and offer participants valuable employment.
We know that because of the current circumstance, donations that organizations like ours depend on, will undoubtedly be fewer going forward. We can’t control that. What we can control is what we pour our energy into, the items we have available in our shop and how we help those in our community by filling our unique role.
While many of our regular activities slowed down, the donations of bicycles to our shop kept rolling in, as strongly as ever. We continued to receive bikes from generous individuals in the Calgary area as well as from the Calgary Police Service, Calgary Transit, Calgary Library, Okotoks By-Law Services and more. These valuable donations helped us supply our Bike Club programs, both those held in person that were cut short or those held virtually. They also supplied a much needed morale boost for the team that gave us something to focus on and much needed normalcy in those uncertain times early in the pandemic.
One of the incredible silver linings of the pandemic has been the growing popularity of bicycles. Despite closures in March and April, we were able to serve our community through our social enterprise bike shop and get more reliable bikes out onto the streets. Our customers and bike donors have been so wonderful at adapting to the new protocols and procedures for visiting our shop. Our new appointment system allowed customers and donors to shop or donate safely. It also encouraged access for folks who might have previously been intimidated by entering a bike shop environment to feel safe to ask questions and make their purchase on their terms. While we hope to have more open hours in the future, appointments are definitely here to stay!
Number of used bikes sold in 2020.
The percentage by which we exceed our bike sales goal in 2020.
We had hundreds of one on one customer appointments in 2020.
Number of bikes donated to TWV in 2020. (Only 92 less than 2019!)
- Bike Club Participant
