Scooter outfits thrive at UA, offer hedge to high parking, fuel costs
FAYETTEVILLE — A single trip to Fayetteville was all the persuading that Bryan Ilg needed.
Ilg co-owned a scooter rental and sales business with two partners in Iowa City, Iowa, and the trio were scouting college towns for a possible second location. Their first choice didn’t pan out, and on a whim, Ilg drove the approximately three hours from Stillwater, Okla., to check out the University of Arkansas campus.
“We immediately loved it,” Ilg said. “You could tell from the way the campus was set up and from the scooters we saw all over the place that there was a lot of potential here. A lot of potential.”
Ilg’s hunch has paid off so far. MopedU opened its Fayetteville location in April and already the store is outpacing the sales of the first outlet, which opened three years ago near the University of Iowa campus. Ilg said he sold 61 scooters in August and expects similar results in September.
MopedU and other stores like Rollout Sports are trying to tap into the UA student population. In many cases students are able to purchase a scooter and a campus parking pass for less than the cost ($961.01) of a reserved parking pass for an automobile.
It’s a niche market, but one that figures to see continued growth. While the percentage of students using scooters as transportation is
small relative to the overall campus population, the market is growing. In 2009 there were 91 scooters registered on campus. Today the number tops 1,100, and registrations topped 1,300 in 2012.
Prices in local stores can range anywhere between $700 and $2,000 for scooters. MopedU also offers rental by the day, week, month or semester.
Keeping up with the demand has required the UA to build an additional parking lot and increase the parking pass costs from $7 per semester to $57.72. Still, the campus can accommodate fewer than half the registered scooters.
“They’re everywhere,” said Andy Gilbride, education and instruction specialist for UA Parking and Transit. “We had to increase the cost of the parking permits so we could build additional parking. Even now, we’ve got more permits out than spaces.”
Reese Thrasher, a senior from Jonesboro, is one of those scooter owners fighting for parking. He bought a scooter as a freshman in December 2010, and while he took an initial $800 hit, the international business major has found it to be a smart investment. Thrasher estimated he fills up his scooter once every three weeks and it gets 72 miles to the gallon. Scooters generally have tanks that hold less than 1.5 gallons total, which means $20 could get a student through an entire semester.
“I haven’t totaled it up, but I’m saving a substantial amount of money,” Thrasher said. “I’ve been able to save hundreds of dollars just in parking each year. That’s not even counting gas I’ve saved. It’s been a great investment.”
Thrasher said he hopes to sell his scooter to his cousin, who enrolled this fall. If that doesn’t work, he’ll offer it up to fraternity brothers who are looking for a more economical way to travel.
Student-to-student sales are cutting into potential profits for local outlets. Still, Keith Owen, manager at Rollout Sports, said he thinks the demand will remain high at dealerships.
Rollout Sports opened in 2008 and initially saw much of its business from members of the UA football team, who were looking for cheap transportation. Once the popularity grew among athletes, other students started following suit. Slowly, the stigma of driving a scooter diminished, and interest spiked among the general student population.
A year ago the store had a record August, selling 82 scooters in a single month. Those numbers have been cut almost in half this year, but Owen said the decline is understandable considering his store is no longer the only one catering to the student population.
“I think the market is big enough,” Owen said. “It’s important to find ways to survive in the months that sales our down. We offer service. We have parts. That’s how we manage to survive as the competition gets tougher. And it’s getting tougher.”