How long were you looking for a new place?
Since a year we were going trough Cologne with open eyes for a new location. We knew of our new place for a while, but thought it might be too large.
Downtown Cologne is actually not cheap to rent shop space, did you consider going outside of Cologne with the People's store?
We had two choices, keeping the clothing and Shoe-section as well and go even deeper into the city or kick it and go into the suburbs where the rent is cheaper. Fortunately our new space has a square-meter price like outside of Cologne. On the other hand it looked like a Sh*thole and we had to renovate everything. Even the electrics. I broke a water pipe the first day because it was so rotten. But this was the deal. In the end we could do everything like we wanted to and we don't plan to move again so soon, so it's perfect.
How did you start with the interior planning?
We tried to use as much of our old interior and just add some stuff or redo stuff which didn't work so good in the old store. We learned a lot in the last 2 years and so it was way easier to plan than the first time. I made a rough 3d plan and so we could check first if our own stuff fits in.
Did you do a lot of stuff yourself or did you call the guys from Extreme Makeover?
I wish we could've done that, but buildings in Germany are made of bricks and not plywood. It wouldn't be so easy for them to rebuild it in a weekend. Actually we made everything by ourselves with help from locals, the guys who worked in the shop and foreign bmxers like Chris Hardy from England for example who was in town at this time. He lived under our ramps for 2 months and worked on the store every day with his magic knifetool.
What display racks are custom built for BMX parts?
Most of it was built by one of our old teamriders Marcel Georgi. He has all tools in his van and came to us and built most display racks, the rim-display, grip/fork/bar-wall, glass-cabinets, shoe-display and so on. He built even swing doors like the ones in a wild west saloon. It was good that he rides so he knew what we needed. The rest is from a Swedish furniture store, but repainted or modified.
How much warehouse/stock space do you have at the new location?
The whole location is 240qm. The warehouse and office is 120qm, The other 120qm are the sales-area.
Who are running the shop on a daily basis?
Janosch Ritter runs the store on a daily basis, besides that we have some part-time workers like Jan Heinen (who also organises the mailorder-website), Spies and Christoph "Stricker" Nöckel. Sometimes we have some interns who help out, too. Harry's wife holds everything together in the background, doing the accounts, build up the computerbased warehouse system etc.
Was there any room for ramps or should riders just hit the street when they want to ride?
Unfortunately no place for ramps. The store is right in the center of Cologne. The transition banks at the Courts are really close. The Dom cathedral is a 10 minute ride away.
Do you have special events planned with/at the shop?
At the moment we have part of the seatbeat exhibition displayed in the store. We plan to have other art or photo exhibitions in the future. But so far we are happy that we have finished the new store in time. Now we need a rest.
Opening hours: Mo - sa: 12.00am to 6.00 pm
Location:
People's Store
Moltkestr. 81
50674 Cologne
Germany
Tel: 0221-5000570
People's Store