You may not see a lot of motor scooters around town, but according to Adam Zemke, “everybody likes ’em.” Zemke, the owner of the new Ann Arbor Scooter Co. at Jefferson and Main, says the scooter industry is all about spreading the word.
“If you can, one, get people to know that you’re here and that they can easily access one, and then, two, let them know how much it is, it totally changes the initial perception and opens the door.”
Everything about the Scooter Co. is a little unexpected. It’s located in a raised office building by the train tracks that Zemke notes was once a CIA recruitment office, bombed by the White Panther Party. Zemke and his single employee, eighteen-year-old Alex MacArthur, display a few scooters outdoors on the walkway leading up the door.
The hallway-shaped interior is simple, more like a bicycle shop than a motorcycle or car dealership. Two rows of brightly-colored scooters from midrange brands like Wolf, Chicago Scooter Co., Lance, and SYM line the walls. A shelf on the back wall holds up the word #scooter, spelled out in bronze letters.
Zemke is an unexpected owner too. He’s a former engineer who changed careers five years ago to represent the Fifty-Fifth District (encompassing parts of Ann Arbor and Pittsfield Township) in the Michigan House of Representatives.
He moved from downtown to a townhouse in Pittsfield last fall. As a commuter, “I started to really recognize the parking congestion situation,” he says. “You don’t really realize it if you’re down there already, but getting down there is a huge frustration.”
Zemke thought a scooter might be the answer. They had been popular around campus when he was attending Michigan State, and he figured it would make downtown navigation easier.
He ended up being directed to Wolf, a reputable brand whose Chinese-made scooters were considerably more affordable than the luxury scooters like the Italian Vespa. But when he called to ask how he could acquire one of their scooters, “They said, ‘We don’t really have any dealerships in your area. Would you be interested in starting one?'”
Zemke went for it. Though their thirty-miles-per-hour limit means you can’t take a scooter on a highway, “You can easily take them between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, no problem,” he says.
So who’s buying them? Zemke says mainly students, who get around town by walking or bicycling but also want to make longer trips out to Meijer or Kroger. Other customers include avid bicyclists who have reached an age where bikes aren’t always feasible and “just-graduated couples in their thirties and forties.” They can pick up a new scooter for as low as $1,000, and insurance costs much less than a car.
And then there’s the style factor. MacArthur is headed for college this fall, but he’s leaving behind an unofficial slogan for the company: “Everybody looks cuter on a scooter!”
Ann Arbor Scooter Co., 450 S. Main, #4. (734) 431-2992. Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Closed Sun. a2scooter.com
