What the staff say

Kirsty Paton — has worked at Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative for just over a year. “I live across the road so working within the neighbourhood I know my neighbours and it really feels part of a community now. I’ve worked in other bike shops and this is better, with the shop being a cooperative, as you get to care about the customers a lot more. I started last August and I am a cooperative member here now as well, so I’m part of the company and get to tell people what to do! But in all seriousness, we kind of offer everything as we are not just a bike shop. There are customers who have been coming here for 30 to 40 years.”

Chas Nairn — has worked at the Cooperative as a senior sales adviser for 10 years. “I’ve been in the bike trade for 20 years working in other bike shops but this shop is nothing like any of the other shops I’ve worked in. Being a shareholder means we have some power to decide on certain things, rather than just one guy in an office deciding everything. Obviously there are still some executive decisions, but it’s good that we can actually have an input. I think we give a different attention of care to people, because it matters to us personally, it is not just a case of I’ll get paid anyway.

“In some shops you’ll see one guy who is really good, one guy is OK and the other is terrible, and the terrible guy just floats through because the two good guys do alright. But that doesn’t happen here. I think customers see that, because we give them what they want.”