I have a lot of the basic demographic info for the towns, but have no benchmarks to compare it to. On the other hand, I have certainly seen dealers apparently doing well in smaller communities. Locals report no history of a moto/atv shop. In contrast we noted no Italian restaurant (we were trying to see what the town might need... our list: Moto/atv, Italian restaurant, clothing store, eco-tourism, locavore/artisan market), and were told of a history of successful enterprise, closed due to retirement.
The town is basically blue collar with a tourism market and retiree community as well. It has low college education, low crime, average employment, moderately low average income (but this may be due to the retiree population). However, one sees plenty of million $$$ properties around. Basically, in my impression, it seems generally under-served for it's size and economic footprint. Restaurants and hotels uniformly reported about half full in winter, when we were there, and full up, need reservations in summer. The Chamber of Commerce reports a slightly increasing population, but generally stable conditions. There are like three supermarkets and a new membership type big box store is under construction. There are two large industrial businesses, and one other regional industry comprised of small businesses. Homes are generally owned by the occupants. Lot sizes are regular urban affairs in town and rural parcels out of town.
I think there is a big atv market with hunters, rural property owners, search and rescue, and one of the large industries. Moto's would be mostly trail bikes and tourists passing through.
We have a concept for a regionally appropriate moto accessory product line that could be used to make our shop into something of a destination. But are at a loss on going from concept to reality in that area as well. Also not sure we can extend the resources for two start-ups at once. Well, almost sure we can't. So it's start incrementally and then go from there I think.
