Downtown scooter store opens

Downtown startup Kiss My Gas Scooters officially opened this morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

Joe Berrer, co-owner of the store along with his wife Shanna, said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that the the couple soft-launched the business about a week and a half ago and has sold seven scooters.

Berrer told the Springfield Business Journal for the story "Startups roll dice on downtown" that the store represented new territory for the budding entrepreneurs.

“We’ve never done this before,” he said in the article.

“I’ve been in sales, my wife has been in banking, and we decided we’re going to do our own thing," he added, noting that he used to work as a salesman at Friendly Ford and his wife was a teller supervisor at Commerce Bank.

The Berrers plan to start by selling 49cc scooters but will add higher-powered 150cc scooters when it obtains a motorcycle dealer license.

In a news release, Joe Berrer said the Springfield market is ripe for a store that sells motorized scooters.

"We have been planning to open a store for some time, and with the rising gas prices, we feel that the time is right," he said in the release. "There are not very many choices for scooter stores in town, and with our location being downtown, it makes it possible to take better care of our customers."[[In-content Ad]]