My belief is actually from my previous post. It is a belief that I developed from the news article about the neglect of an area in Gainesville. The area I am talking about it the area between the I-75 bridge on 20th ave and Tower road. Unlike many people at UF, I have lived in Gainesville for almost 12 years now and am very familiar with the city so I will describe it for you all. This stretch of road is about 3 miles long, has a bridge on one end, and only has sidewalks about half of the length the stretch. The neighborhoods and apartment complexes that are on this stretch of road are low income and most people depend on public transportation. This road has heavy traffic and very little safety measure for pedestrians. My belief is that there is opportunity to open a store on this stretch of land. At first I thought that creating a new form of transportation for people would be a good idea, but because the customers are low income and they have alternatives such as the bus it would be a better idea as a business man to open a store than try to wiggle into the transportation business. Because the transportation is so bad the residents of the housing along this road need stores that are close by so that they don't have to spend 3 hours traveling to the grocery store and back. My initial thought on what type of store to open is a gas station with a convenient store and fast food restaurant. I believe this would be very profitable because of the high volume of vehicles that flow through this road (being that it is one of the few that go west) and because there is only one mom and pop shop along the 3 mile stretch of road. There is actually commercial land for sale right now along the road that I imagine someone will make a killing off of in the near future. A majority of people along this road have a need for a store/gas station/fast food and those who don't have the need will still be attracted by the convenience and affordable food. My idea would also create jobs for those in the area who don't have means to travel far for work. I am 87.5% sure my idea would be a huge success.
The prototypical customer is nearly everyone that lives along the stretch of road but more specifically those without motorized transportation.
Iteration #1 ----- link to interview 1
I found that transportation is very bad and that some people waste more than 3 hours a day using public transportation. The buses don't run past 6:30 and 7:30 at the latest so for anyone who gets off work late they have to walk at least a mile on a road that is dangerous for pedestrians. The first gentleman I spoke to, Keith, told me he has had close calls with people in cars getting close to him while he was walking along the road, specifically the bridge. I also found out there is no convenient stores around. The closest stores are at least a mile or two. I also found that the roads are dangerous and do not have barricades on the bridge or sidewalks half of the stretch of road. There is not much support for bikers either so traveling far without a car can be dangerous. I found that there is a need for my opportunity because there is a large volume of people, most of which who lack motorized transportation, and not many stores around them. The most interesting thing I found about my opportunity is that there is almost no competition within a couple of miles of the stretch of road and there is lots of vacant land or land that hasn't been built on yet.
Iteration #2 ----- link to interview 2
The next man I spoke to, Jerome, said that he spends a lot of time waiting for the bus to take him to work and to run errands such as getting groceries. He said that there is a mom and pop store that has everything he needs for the most part, but my suspicion is he is modest and only shops there because he has no other option. He seemed like a very patient man and did not seemed too bothered by the fact that he wastes a large portion of his life on the bus or waiting for it to pick him up. The most surprising thing that I learned was that there is a store off of the road but it is down one of the side roads and is a small store.
Iteration #3 ----- link to interview 3
I learned that my opportunity would be very beneficial for some of the people along 20th. because the transportation is so bad a lot of people would rather walk to somewhere close by than try to travel via the bus.
I think that my original opportunity (transportation) would be way more of a hassle than what it's worth and possibly a failure. However, I believe that my most recent opportunity (opening a store/fast food/gas station) is very much a reality. I do believe my my opportunity is more accurate then when I started because I know better understand the needs of those in the area and what what they would like to change. There is definitely a trade off between adapting and staying firm. I believe there are somethings that you can adapt to and maybe more of the time you should adapt than stay firm, but there are also times when you have to stay firm on and hold your ground. Adaptation over time is key, times are changing and a business has to keep changing as well or it will get lost in the sands of time. We see many aspects of many different businesses changing today and it is all to adapt to their target audience.
I do think this would be a good idea for the people that live in the area, but would building a store cause the traffic to be worse. The buses in Gainesville are flaky sometimes so I do understand that aspect of this problem. I would be interesting to see if someone did buy that land to build some type of store of the surrounding communities.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a high volume of traffic and people need to travel far distances in order to get their groceries and other needs, then putting a store closer to to the people does seem like a good idea. This is especially true if there isn't much competition around. But there might also be an opportunity for, I suppose the city, to make safer pedestrian walkways. For people who would walk to your store, the safer they feel walking there the better.
ReplyDeleteI like the comment about how there is a need for the city to look into safer walkways for pedestrians. However, public transportation would be the cheaper and more convenient way to assist people into getting to where they want to go (however flawed it might be). The thing is, as a store owner, one has to look into why there aren't stores already in that particular area. Could it be because of the lack of other complimentary stores that would drive more traffic to that location? Is that location not so much an area with a high volume of traffic that would be enough for the store to turn a profit and succeed? Maybe there is a higher crime rate in that area and so the liability and risk associate outweigh the potential success. Usually more development is required for stores to see an opportunity in a certain area and it could be that it isn't quite there yet, but it takes an entrepreneur to see that opportunity before everyone else does. So great job!
ReplyDeleteI think the traffic aspect is interesting, and that changing this may depend more on state laws and county laws, but agree that public transportation may be cheaper and easier for most people. I liked your interviews a lot, you asked some good questions and really got to the root of people's problems and their concerns with traffic and traveling. Great job overall, really thought-provoking.
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