Jim Rogers

Wheel Fun Rentals and Chem-Dry

407 South Holladay Drive, Seaside

Jim Rogers runs Wheel Fun Rentals and Chem-Dry with his son Jesse and daughters Grace and Veronica. Rogers rents out all manner of cycle, gas-powered and electric inner-city transportation, land- and water-based. Hes got shops located on Columbia Street, Ave A, 1st Avenue and the main office on Holladay Drive, where he also has the office for his carpet- and upholstery-cleaning business. Hours are from 9 a.m. to sundown. Call (503) 738-8447 or visit www.wheelfunrentals.com

What do you do?

In the wheel fun rental business, we provide fun and entertainment for the tourists that come to Seaside and the North Coast. We rent out bicycles, surrey bikes, scooters, electric cars, motorcycles. On the water, we have the paddle boats, bumper boats, kayaks, paddleboards. We kind of have two divisions. One is the motorized and then one is the pedal products. We have four locations in Seaside.

How did you get started doing this?

Its a long story, but I was sitting here one day, and I saw some surrey bikes riding by, these kids having a wonderful time yelling and screaming and smiling and having fun. I found out where the person who was renting them out bought their products. Consequently, I bought 16 units and started my own business. I saw an opportunity and capitalized on it that was 20 years ago. I was doing the Chem-Dry carpet-cleaning company. We were running carpet cleaning out of this store, then I decided to open up a rental business in conjunction with the carpet-cleaning company.

What is the volume of your business?

We have a customer base in the Chem-Dry of about 400 customers. And we serve the territory from Raymond, Wash., to south of Tillamook Pacific City, Neskowin, down there, is our territory; its a franchise. We do a lot in the summer. We might do 30 jobs five jobs a day. We might do 30 jobs a week during the summer, and its probably half of that during the winter. Our volume varies depending on the weather. The weather is a very important factor in our business. You have a limited tourist season. It runs from like March to September, and thats when we do a majority of the business. The rest of the time, we do very little matter of fact; if its raining, we dont even open.

How does the economy affect your business?

The economy has slowed down the business, I would say, in the percentage of maybe 20 percent. People have less spendable money. Wheel Fun is probably about the same. Its dropped off 20 percent with the poor economy from what we were doing four years ago. Wed had a real wet spring, and combined with the poor economy, its just not leading to what we were doing four years ago. It all combines the economy and the weather to reduce our sales.

Edward Stratton