Wildman, who owns Malibu Yogurt at 825 E. University Blvd, uses his Main Street Pedicabs manufactured Billboard Bike to get to and from his store.

“Because it is my bike and because I ride it, I can park it just like any other car,” Wildman said.

Tucson regulates business signage, but the Billboard Bike doesn’t fall under those regulations.

Wildman says it is no different than people who stick advertising on their cars and drive around the city or the billboard trucks that drive around the city.

But, according to Dan Werner, director of sales and marketing at Mainstreet Pedicabs, it has one big advantage; no pollution.

“When you compare it to big trucks spewing out fumes, there is no comparison,” Werner said.

Many people don’t want their businesses associated with a loud and smelly truck and the Billboard Bike offers a carbon free way to advertise that, “really turns heads,” Werner said.

The bike, which sells for about $3,400, includes everything you need to get started except for the batteries to light up the sign at night.
According to Werner, the company hasn’t sold more than a few dozen of the Billboard bikes, but like the pedicab, when someone sees one, they want to know more about it.

Pedicabs have been advertising on the back and sides of their bikes from the beginning, but because Billboard Bikes don’t require liability insurance like pedicabs, more people are looking into the them, Werner said.

“Pedal power is a very cool thing,” Werner said. “Not only is it something you can use to build a business and earn money, but it is doing it the right way.”

Wildman said he has gotten a lot of positive feedback from people who have seen him out riding his Billboard Bike.

The critics were out again last week after The Times revealed that, faced with recession, Mr Mason was being forced to slow the store rollout programme. Worried? He hardly looks it. One minute, he’s jumping on to a Fresh & Easy rickshaw for a photo shoot; the next, he’s leading a chorus of Happy Birthday at the head office in Palm Beach, Los Angeles, to mark the chain’s first anniversary.

Asked about the prospect of a looming supermarket price war in America, he jokingly cites the line about amplifiers in This is Spinal Tap, the spoof “rockumentary”: “We’ll do better than the rest,” he says. “Our knobs go up to 11.”

Mr Mason dismisses speculation that Tesco’s most daring foray of the past decade is turning into failure. He wants people to focus on the “exceptional” achievement of the past 12 months.

In the dozen countries where Tesco operates, it has always entered a market by taking over an existing business, Mr Mason says. Fresh & Easy is a new concept, based on the Tesco Express convenience stores In Britain, and from a standing start it operates 100 stores, each of about 10,000 sq ft, across Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

While Fresh & Easy will not reach its original target of having 200 outlets by February 2009, Mr Mason expects to reach that goal by this time next year — that’s one new store every three or four days.

Whatever doubts analysts may have, they appear not to be shared by two of Tesco’s biggest rivals in America, Wal-Mart and Safeway. It seems that have seen enough and have responded to the threat with small-store formats of their own.

Nearly 600 Tesco staff played some part in setting up the business, including personnel managers flown out for three months last year to help with recruitment. They were easy to spot, coming in every Monday morning bright red from a weekend on the beach.

“Looking at the past year, you have to be deliriously happy,” Mr Mason says. “At the same time, we are absolutely focused on what we need to do for this business to be as absolutely successful as it can be.

“It has taken a bit longer to penetrate catchments around the stores than we thought it would [and] I think the reason is because this is the first mature market, well-served market, that we have opened into, so actually it’s not filling a vacuum and, therefore, has to earn its place. But as we go into the second year, we would expect to see unbelievably good like-for-like growth.”

Mr Mason, chief executive of Tesco’s operation in the United States, believes that one of the biggest problems of the past year has been a failure to make enough of Fresh & Easy’s price credentials. It claims to be 20 per cent cheaper than the average American supermarket, such as Ralphs or Albertsons, but it relies on an everyday low-price model rather than one-off specials, which can grab customers’ attention.

The emphasis on promotions is far stronger now. The array of fresh and chilled American and Hispanic foods, including breakfast burritos, carne asada and shrimp siu mai, still dominate a Fresh & Easy store. However, shoppers are greeted with specials as they walk through the door – After Eights are going for $2.99 a box in Manhattan Beach – as well as weekly offers, such as three apples or three pears for 98 cents. You could be forgiven for thinking that you had walked into an Aldi.

Mr Mason says: “There is a real difference between the way Fresh & Easy loyalists and secondary shoppers perceive us. The loyalists have worked out that Fresh & Easy is incredibly good value for money day-in, day-out. It’s a great deal for 52 weeks of the year. The ones who haven’t used it as much, it’s taken them longer to work that out, so we have got to use communication to accelerate that process and get them up the learning curve faster.”

The need for a change in emphasis stems from a high-profile three-month pause in the store opening programme in March. First revealed in a blog by Simon Uwins, Fresh & Easy’s marketing director, the move was taken as a clear sign that Tesco was struggling to read the market, despite years spent researching American shopping habits. The brake has also been put on a much-heralded move into Northern Californian cities, including San Francisco and Sacramento.

Mike Dennis, retail analyst at Piper Jaffray and a long-time sceptic of the Fresh & Easy story, reacted with a note questioning whether Tesco may decide to “head for the exit” and quit America, writing off £1 billion of losses and capital investment in the process.

Mr Mason reponds: “People can write what the hell they like, but my view is the best thing for us to be is prudent.

“With each of the businesses I’ve been involved in, whether it’s with Express, Extra, dot.com, Tesco Personal Finance, Fresh & Easy, you have a business plan and Tesco has a tendency to set very stretching targets. I don’t think any one of them has at first hit that plan, so what you do is adjust your original plan and adjust your original activities to bring the two back together, so ultimately you generate good returns and good returns for your shareholders.

“When something is going really well, like the store extensions in the UK, which are going phenomenally well, then you go as hard as you can.

“When things are not quite getting there, well, we slowed down our early rollout of dot.com ten years ago until we improved the operating model, as it wasn’t clear to see how you’d make money. Now if you think about how much money most people managed to lose because they didn’t do that, well I think it gives you a great insight into how Tesco manages these things.”

One look at the American media suggests that Mr Mason’s caution could be well-founded. British executives upset about the doom and gloom in newspapers on this side of the Atlantic would have turned pale at news in America last week covering housing foreclosures, credit card charges, airlines cutting routes and the financial perils faced by the country’s carmakers. In one small town east of San Francisco, 90 per cent of homeowners are in negative equity.

Mr Mason says: “The better we do, the faster we will go. If it proves to be hard yards, then we may have to go slower, but we will be opening stores all the time.

“The only difference it will make is that we become the fastest ramp-up in history – instead of absolutely the very, very fastest ramp-up in history.”

Q&A

If you could change one thing in the financial and commercial environment, what would it be?

The economic turmoil is obviously a difficult situation for everyone, but for Fresh & Easy, by offering great value and not compromising on quality, we are in a great place to offer customers a good deal

Who is or was your mentor?

There have been many influential people to me, especially at Tesco, but (Sir) Terry (Leahy), in particular, is a real mentor to me

Does money motivate you?

I’ve got seven kids, so absolutely.

Which business person do you most admire?

Not quite one person, but the Medici family of Florence

What was the most important event in your working life?

It has to be moving to LA, to start Fresh & Easy. It’s proving to be an amazing opportunity. Bringing Clubcard to the UK market comes a close second

What gadget must you have?

My BlackBerry

What does leadership mean to you?

To create a compelling vision and share it. To lead by example, motivate others and create a positive team-based culture where everyone is treated with respect

How do you relax?

Watching my kids play sports, re-learning golf and eating with my family

The bloggers’ view

“I have tried to like it. They just opened a new one in Palm Desert. With their robotic checkout stations … their stupid product selection … their employee-vacant aisles. Hmmmm … I always feel like I’ve entered some food twilight zone. Please don’t make me go back”

Jim Bob H (www.yelp.com)

“I actually like them better than Trader Joe’s. I like their prepared meals, a bit on the expensive side but very convenient. They have nothing but self-checkout, which was weird but it’s the future. At least they had someone to bag my stuff and gave me a $5 off $20 coupon”

Mr Hollywood D (www.yelp.com)

“These Fresh & Easy people are clearly lovers, dreamers, grocery store poets, obviously from Seattle or somewhere, where people still do manifest the almost Emersonian hope of locally grown fresh organic produce at prices your neighbors can afford. With a hint of tarragon”

Sandra Tsing Loh (www.scpr.org)

“The only time I would see myself shopping there is if most of the population was infected by some rage-inducing virus and I was one of few to survive and needed food”

Corazon R (www.yelp.com)

“American Express is a proud sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival, and we’re committed to helping generate the energy and commerce that has helped revitalize lower Manhattan – our home since 1850,” said John Hayes, chief marketing officer of American Express. “Last year’s Festival drew more than 325,000 visitors, many of whom attended the events, shopped in downtown stores and dined with neighborhood merchants, making Tribeca a tremendous success.”

“We are delighted that American Express is returning for its third year as Founding Sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival,” said Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal. “With its commitment to lower Manhattan as strong as ever, American Express truly exemplifies the power of corporate citizenship. The Festival could not happen without their support, and we are deeply grateful for this wonderful collaborative partnership.”

Festival venues, activities and participating restaurants are situated throughout lower Manhattan, and, beginning May 1, American Express will provide complimentary double-decker bus service to downtown screening houses and special event locations. In addition, a fleet of three-wheeled, chauffeur-driven bicycles known as “pedicabs” will circulate throughout the neighborhood and pedal attendees to downtown stops, free of charge. The double-deckers and pedicabs will be fully wrapped in familiar American Express green tones.

The Tribeca Film Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking capital, and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

American Express is the Founding Sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival. Part of a multi-year relationship, the Festival is one of a series of events – large and small – that American Express is sponsoring to draw people to lower Manhattan and help restore a sense of excitement in the neighborhood. American Express is a diversified worldwide travel, network, and financial services provider founded in 1850. It is a leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, financial planning, investment products, insurance and international banking.

For more information on the Tribeca Film Festival, call the Festival box office at 1-866-941-FEST (3378), or visit the Tribeca Film Festival website at tribecafilmfestival.org.

Content provided courtesy americanexpress.com.

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In the old fishing villages on the southeast coast of Spain, the streets are narrow, the parking is atrocious and the tourists are plentiful.

But for tourists who are too tired and sweaty to take another step under the hot Spanish sun, there is relief, thanks to a little Broomfield company that is bridging the walker-automobile transportation gap with something called a “pedicab.”

On a recent morning in March, a dozen or so yellow pedicabs lay ready for shipment to Spain in the small warehouse of Main Street Pedicabs Inc., a company that has championed pedicabs for more than a decade under the leadership of its owner and CEO, Steve Meyer. “We’re not only building pedicabs, we’re building a pedicab industry,” Meyer said.

Meyer said he stuck with pedicabs while others might have given up because he and his wife, Ruth Vanderkooi, simply love the business. And that’s even though they make less than they would if they were fully employed somewhere else, he said.

Meyer has a background in urban planning, and sees himself as sort of a champion of an alternative form of transportation that can add excitement and utility to boring cities dominated by automobiles.

So, thanks in part to supplemental income earned by his wife and to real estate development projects on the side, Meyer has persevered in the pedicab business and figures he’s easily the biggest pedicab manufacturer in the United States.

That may seem a strange claim for a business that has only two full-time employees and another 10 people or so that it uses on a part-time basis. But Meyer said he outsources most of the production and does only the assembly in-house. For instance, he uses a machine shop in Broomfield, a fiberglass company in Greeley, a tube-cutting company in Golden and a welder in Denver.

Pedicabs are three-wheeled vehicles that are similar to the Asian rickshaw, with a pedaler up front and a seat that can hold two adults in back. Main Street’s pedicabs have a base price of $3,400 and a fiberglass cab, 21-speed drivetrain and differential that allows the driver to turn on a dime.

Main Street sells them to operating pedicab businesses, a few of which it partly owns, including two companies with 20 pedicabs apiece in New York and Denver.

Main Street has produced about 500 pedicabs since its inception, and its production volume has been flat in the last four years, but Meyer sees a new day dawning for the business, and here’s why:

* The weaker dollar has made his price competitive in Europe, and he believes he has the best product. By 2005, he foresees half of his business coming from Europe.
* He is looking at setting up distributorships in New Jersey, the Southeast United States and Spain, which would increase the efficiency of his manufacturing operation.
* He is pushing the marketing of a cargo-hauling tricycle with a 24-volt battery system to supplement the pedaler’s power. He sees that being used in amusement parks, college campuses and business campuses. (He also has an Pedal-Electric Pedicab, which was the type ordered from Spain.)
* Manhattan Rickshaw Co., the New York operating company in which Meyer has a half-interest, was featured March 11 on “The Apprentice,” the television show featuring Donald Trump. Teams in the show competed against each other by operating pedicab services, and Meyer sees the exposure as another step forward in getting pedicabs accepted as mainstream transportation.

Revenue from ads, drivers

Pedicab operators make money partly from leasing their pedicabs to drivers and partly from advertising on the pedicabs.

Lease rates to drivers can depend on the location and event. For instance, in a Las Vegas mall, drivers lease pedicabs from the operator for $20 a shift and don’t charge their riders; they make money solely on tips.

At the Super Bowl in Houston, pedicab operators were charging drivers $100 per shift.

In Denver, the driver pays up to $50 for an eight-hour shift, and is restricted by the Denver operating company to charging the riding customers no more than $2 per block. The city licenses both the driver and operator.

Advertising also can provide important revenue. Indeed, in the Denver operating company that Meyer half owns, roughly half the revenue comes from advertising, and about half comes from leasing the pedicabs to drivers. Bud Light has signed up for advertising four straight years in Denver.

Jason Longsdorf, a planner with the city of Denver, said the pedicabs are a “great option” and “a good civic feature.”

“They filled a very small niche that’s grown with the LoDo and baseball crowd,” he said.

And Longsdorf foresees more growth opportunity for the pedicabs in Denver as hotel density increases downtown and the convention center expands.

Longsdorf said the licensing is necessary to ensure a certain level of safety, and Meyer likes the idea of minimum standards to maintain the industry’s image.

He’s getting calls from cities that are interested in revitalizing downtowns, and he’s seeing pedicabs move from novelty-item status into a practical alternative for people who can’t walk, or don’t want to walk, a number of blocks.

“Now, I think they’re going to become part of the transportation fabric,” Meyer said.