Sunday, October 28, 2007

A Big Move - to Where?

Asking for advice!

Mark and I are looking to open a brick and mortar type retail shop. We've been discussing this since last year (well, January of this year actually), but there have been several things, besides Baby Bazooka, that have kept us from making any decisions.

If we had been able to tie those things up before, we wouldn't have waited so long. Now, we're waiting for Bazooka to arrive, and trying to make plans on what information we can get through the Internet and friends. We're not even sure exactly what region of the country we would like to be in yet, but we do have some criteria. One of the hardest things is I can't travel very far to check anything out, and probably won't be physically able for a month or so after the baby is born. However, we would really like to know where we are going before December rolls around.

We would like to be have our store near a population center but live a little further out of town in a 'farmland' type area, on an acre or more. If we could have the store and house on the same property (say off a highway exit or intersection) that would be ideal.

Our store would be a mixture of computers, electronics, coffee shop and workshop facilities. It would be a unique kind of place, with both parts and materials to buy, coffee and snacks to hang out in the lounge area with, and maybe classes and projects going on by local artists. Think about sitting in a coffee shop while people next to you build a Rube Goldberg machine in one corner and other geeks take turns between LAN gaming and fixing their machines with shop tools. There might be a 'yarn bar' and an assortment of basic art materials for sale, as well as promotion of local artisans and in-house reference materials on a variety of crafty and technical subjects.

Of course, this would be our ultimate goal. We'll have to start small. Our Ebay store is already getting to the point where we can rely on it for a little bit while we get settled. Where we go will definitely direct how much we can do how soon.

But where to go? Neither of us have real strong feelings about location. We've been looking at a few different regions of the country but would like suggestions!

So, here are the criteria we are working with:
Near high population but still some rural land nearby.
A welcoming environment, we're both eccentric geeks and we're hoping to attract other like-minded people. Maybe near a university or technological center, people who want to learn and tinker with things. Moderate temperatures, not too hot or cold. I grew up in Minnesota and can't take really high heat, while Mark grew up here and places more Southern, so he avoids the colder weather as well.

Suggestions please!
Invite your friends to give us some ideas too!
We'd like to hear your opinions about different areas!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Georgia is nice I'm just sayin'. :-)

Lynn said...

I think that the rural area surrounding Boston would work. Microsoft has still got a freehold there and all the colleges and Universities flourish with tech.
The shop I work at is this premis,but for spirituality, with a Barrista cafe like the Old country in it.
I suggest you need to add the bagged and boarded comic books and trade paperbacks to this mix along with die cast RPG stuff. Plus an unplugged jam night for the music geeks. I'm just saying :-)

Jeanne said...

How about Colorado?

RheLynn said...

Some of the places on our list to eye over currently:

Cedar City, Utah
Rolla, Missouri
South of Boulder, Colorado
Asheville, North Carolina
around Ft.Worth, Texas
near Sarasota, Florida
a certain area of New Mexico near the border

We've looked at Clarksville, TN and also at a few places in Ohio and are still wondering about them.

Chris said...

Colorado sounds perfect - there's so much tech in Ft Collins and along the rest of the Front Range.

Ladeewolf said...

Rolla is a nice area,Springfield Mo has a good college too. Jefferson City has a rural atmosphere as well, and some historical sites too. Personally if I was going-My DH and I have had this discussion too several times. I've always wanted to open a coffee, yarn, crafty thingy too. Well anyway I wanted to go to Ashville, NC. I love the crafty country-but rather Hip atmosphere there. They have some great festivals there too. It reminds me of San francisco-but so does Jefferson City Mo. All the twisty turny hills.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't recommend most parts of my area (Northeast). We have a high population, but the winters are very cold, and the cost of living is too high. Where do most of your ebay sales come from? That might give you an idea of where your customers are. I think there is a lot of tech and population increase in the research triangle of NC, but I couldn't speak to what the cost of living is like.

mrspao said...

I know someone who is in Fort Collins, CO and it does look lovely.