Passion turns success — Scooter Lounge cruises into Provo
Scooter Lounge owners Kaerlig Hurtado (left) and her husband David laugh as they pose for a portrait at the new location of their store on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 in Provo. Their grand opening will be sometime in March. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Various scooters at Scooter Lounge are pictured at the new location of the store on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 in Provo. Their grand opening will be sometime in March. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Various scooters at Scooter Lounge are pictured at the new location of the store on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 in Provo. Their grand opening will be sometime in March. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Various scooters at Scooter Lounge are pictured at the new location of the store on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 in Provo. Their grand opening will be sometime in March. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Various scooters at Scooter Lounge are pictured at the new location of the store on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 in Provo. Their grand opening will be sometime in March. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Various scooters at Scooter Lounge are pictured at the new location of the store on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 in Provo. Their grand opening will be sometime in March. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Various scooters at Scooter Lounge are pictured at the new location of the store on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 in Provo. Their grand opening will be sometime in March. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
It may not be here yet, but spring is just around the corner. And as the days warm, the fun-in-the-sun urge grows.
For David and Kaerlig Hurtado, owners of the Scooter Lounge now located in Provo, that’s one of the main reasons they are in business. True to its name, the Scooter Lounge sells street legal 50cc to 200cc motor scooters.
For the Hurtados, their Scooter Lounge is also about inviting people to join them in the fun. Every summer they organize at least one group ride to a national park, and usually when a new customer purchases a scooter, they celebrate by snapping a pic and posting it to the Scooter Lounge Facebook page.
Nicholas Sheffer was drawn to the Hurtados and the store because of the fun factor. Back in 2003, he wanted a cheaper way to get back and forth to school. At 6’4″ and 300+ pounds, he first thought he wanted a motorcycle to be “a cool dude.” His wife was not excited about the whole two-wheel excursion and funds were tight, so he shopped around.
He went into the Scooter Lounge, back when it was on 800 South in Orem, and got to talking with David Hurtado.
“There was no pressure to buy a thing, just a real person getting to know who I am. It was easy to become friends,” Sheffer said. “My wife was happy when the scooter I wanted was out of my price range.”
But Sheffer went back, and ended up spending the summer selling scooters for Hurtado. With his employee discount, he got his first scooter, and “12 years later it’s still going strong.” He’s owned five others over the years, and finally won over his wife, who will occasionally ride with him.
“The Scooter Lounge is family,” he said.
While many practical-minded people are drawn to scooters for the convenience and the gas mileage like Sheffer was (scooters average about 80-100 miles to the gallon), Hurtado rarely brings up those selling points.
“For me, buying a scooter is for fun. It’s not about the gas mileage,” David Hurtado said. “There’s all the practical reasons, but it’s still fun.”
“The gas mileage is a perk, but I don’t think that’s the main consideration. It’s not, ‘I’m getting great gas mileage.’ It’s, “This is fun,'” Kaerlig Hurtado said.
Scooters have always been a passion-turned-business success for David Hurtado. He’s “been playing with scooters since I was too young to drive,” and has always had a love for the classic, retro designs. And that love is evidenced in his store. Classic scooters line the walls overlooking newer but retro versions. The main scooter line the Hurtados offer is from Genuine, and while its Hooligan is more sporty looking, the Buddy and the Stella lines are pure throwback, not to mention best sellers.
The Hurtados also picked their line of scooters because they are very dedicated to quality. David Hurtado jokes that even though he’s a mechanic, he doesn’t like fixing things.
“I don’t buy it so it will break, and I don’t sell stuff that will break,” he said.
That said, Scooter Lounge is also one of the few fix-it shops for lower quality Chinese imports — the type that became very popular during the Great Recession. Though it’s a significant revenue stream for the business, David Hurtado has a bit of a love-hate relationship with them.
“People that come in for a repair are never happy to see you. And it’s frustrating for them because repairing a low-cost scooter is the same as repairing a higher cost one. You’re doing the same thing,” he said. “And I hate taking money for repairs when I don’t think they’re worth the cost of the value of the scooter. I’ll tell someone that, and they’ll still want it fixed, so I’ll do it. But I feel bad.”
“Especially with those ones, we know something else will break on it soon, and they’ll be back in, saying, ‘I was just in here for repairs,'” Kaerlig Hurtado said.
Kaerlig Hurtado is a nurse by profession herself, working part-time at Utah Valley Hospital. Even though the scooter business started out as her husband’s gig, she’s now involved as a regular, keeping the books, ordering parts and inventory and working the front end.
“In 2009, when my daughter went to kindergarten, I started working here more, and I found out I really liked it. And Dave and I enjoy working together. It’s really strengthened our marriage,” she said. “Plus, I like working here a bit better. It’s more fun to own a business and work for yourself. It’s definitely his hobby that became our way of life.”
As for David Hurtado’s career, before the Scooter Lounge, he was a small engine mechanic at Brigham Young University for many years, and then worked for a Vespa dealership, so he knows quality scooters in and out. In owning the Scooter Lounge, he looks for scooters he’d want to buy and then tries to sell them, just hoping he’s right. So far, he has been.
“It’s been a good business, we’ve grown a lot. When we started out, I don’t think I had a five-year plan, I just liked scooters,” he said. “Now we have a loyal clientele, and we’ve built a reputation.”
The Hurtados started the Scooter Lounge in 2002, moving to locations in Orem as their business grew. After renting buildings for 13 years, they looked at buying the Orem building they were in, but when David Hurtado saw the city’s plans for redeveloping State Street, they decided to look at moving to Provo. They settled on the Provo location because it was the right price in the right place. On Feb. 2, they opened at their Provo shop on the corner of 300 South and 500 West.
“We’ve been looking at Provo for quite a while. What’s happening now in Provo, there’s a real momentum for small independent businesses to succeed. There’s a lot of good things happening,” David Hurtado said. “Provo is developing in ways that encourage character and uniqueness.”
They now have a place to grow, and are excited to stay put. David Hurtado is enthusiastic about the revitalization happening in downtown Provo, the boost the new LDS temple will bring, and the store’s proximity to the FrontRunner line. He’s also excited about Provo’s future plans to develop his intersection area into a more walkable retail experience. The Scooter Lounge will have its grand reopening at their new store March 12, just as buds and bulbs hopefully start to show their heads to the world, to welcome new and old customers alike.
In that vein though, David Hurtado said there is also the safety factor to scootering. Anyone who has ever been in a scooter or motorcycle accident will attest to the dangers. And while David Hurtado readily agrees that in a collision, you are better off in a car than on two wheels, he also feels scooters are just a bit safer than motorcycles. Scooters normally don’t have the power a motorcycle has, and aren’t driven at higher speeds as often.
“You can’t get yourself into trouble like a motorcycle,” he said.
Additionally, scooters are made to out-break and out-maneuver anything else on the road. Scooters are a newer phenomenon to the U.S., but have been popular in Europe and Japan for decades. They were originally specifically designed for those smaller roads and more crowded car/pedestrian tight spaces, David Hurtado said. But to learn the tricks to making tight turns and evasive maneuvers, and using the strengths of the scooter to your advantage, he recommends virgin scooter riders sign up for a motorcycle class through the Utah Department of Motor Vehicles.
“You have more avenues to avoid collisions on a scooter than in a car. You have more escape routes,” he advised. “You have to be defensive, alert, and wear proper gear.”
Once scooter lovers are outfitted, though, the Hurtados hope everyone will simply enjoy going on errands, or running off to work just a bit more.
The Scooter Lounge has moved, and will be holding a grand reopening March 12, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Now located at:
302 South 500 West, Provo
