The following transcript was generated using automated transcription software for the accessibility and convenience of our audience. While we strive for accuracy, the automated process may introduce errors, omissions, or misinterpretations. This transcript is intended as a helpful companion to the original audio and should not be considered a verbatim record. For the most accurate representation, please refer to the audio recording.
Zac Ziegler: I'm Zac Ziegler, and you're listening to Oregon Rainmakers from KLCC. On this edition, I talk with Eugene and Sue Cathcart from Willamette Mountain Mercantile in Oakridge.
When you pass through a small town, there are a handful of shops you expect to see on Main Street: a general store, a gas station, a motel, maybe a few restaurants or a bar. Absent from that list: a shop that sells specialty mountain bikes, books and camping gear, and also fixes bikes. But if you drive along Highway 58 through Oakridge, you'll come across a place geared toward outdoor enthusiasts. Willamette Mountain Mercantile takes advantage of Oakridge's growing ecotourism and outdoors economy. The area is becoming well known among mountain bike enthusiasts, hikers and disc golfers for its network of trails and ample space to enjoy time in nature. On a recent trip to the shop, I spoke with Eugene and Sue Cathcart, a married couple who are also co-owners and partners in Willamette Mountain Mercantile. My first question: How did they and the store end up in Oakridge?
Eugene Cathcart: Well, I first found Oakridge through my boss and mentor, who was a pro racer in Flagstaff, Arizona. He came to Oakridge in 1998 to do a fairly famous 100-mile mountain bike race called the Cascade Cream Puff. When he came back to Flagstaff, I was 16 years old, and he said that was really cool, that I should probably go up there sometime and check it out. So in 2000, I came up here and rode the 100-mile race. I was the only junior in the event. I finished it, and it left a great impression on me. Then a few years later, in 2004, our friend McKenzie opened this bike shop, and in 2005 he invited me to come work here as a mechanic, so that was the introduction to us landing in Oakridge. That was 21 years ago, and in that time I've worked here as a mechanic, salesperson and service manager. Then I met my lovely wife when I was working here one day, and I'll let you tell a little bit about that.
Sue Cathcart: I had been an avid cyclist and mountain biker for years, and my friends always told me, "You've got to come check out Oakridge." I had always been busy in the summer, but finally the window opened up, so I came here on a mountain bike vacation, and I walked into the store and thought, wow, this is a really special place. Then I started riding, got to know the town a little better, and I fell in love with the town. I fell in love with my husband, and the rest is history. That was 15 years ago that I came here on a mountain bike vacation, and I decided to stay.
Ziegler: Yeah, and I'll say it's a lovely small-world coincidence that you and I overlapped in Arizona. That made me laugh. But I get it, because Flagstaff is a huge mountain biking community too, and it definitely supports more than a few bike shops. But that's also a city of 60,000 to 70,000 people. You're doing this here with a population that's maybe a tenth of that.
Eugene Cathcart: Yeah, I think we're looking at about 4,000 people here in Oakridge. Oakridge on its own can't really support a bike shop like this, but we're fortunate to have a nice mix of local clientele and visitors who pass through, rent bikes from us and have their bikes serviced. Altogether, it works, just barely.
Sue Cathcart: One great thing about being here is Oakridge is a hub for people coming from other places, so we're always meeting interesting folks. They come here, see our trails and our shop, and they know they're going to have a good time and be well cared for.
Ziegler: Most of those out-of-town folks, do they come in here because they loaded up the truck, and I know I've been there where I've taken my bike off, looked at something and thought, oh crud, that's broken, or oh, I forgot my gloves, and they just happen to realize there's a bike shop in town? Or is there some other connection, some kind of network? Do people come in saying, “Hey, I heard you've got a cool shop here”?
Eugene Cathcart: I think it's a real mix. Our shop has a reputation as a fun place to stop and visit, so we get a lot of folks these days who just stop in to check us out. But we're also here for all those repairs and things that come up: you forgot your gloves, had a flat tire, need a new set of brake pads. Those are all things we help people with.
Ziegler: Let's mosey a little ways in here, as we get the air compressor firing up. One of the sounds of a bike shop. We're obviously starting in a bit of the workshop end of things here, it looks like, along with a little break station. I see the coffee machine.
Eugene Cathcart: We live and work here, so we've got a good spot for everybody to hang out, have some coffee, work on the computer. This is where we check in our inventory and park our stuff during the day. Over here we've got a nice selection of spokes and wheels, and in a shop this size, a lot of things live near or on top of each other. It's a bit of a daily battle trying to keep the workspaces clear.
Ziegler: I can imagine. Let's mosey on over here into the retail side of things. What's the thing you most often find folks stopping in and asking about? Are they coming in because they punctured a tube or did some damage to a tire? What's the usual?
Sue Cathcart: One thing this shop is known for is current conditions. We're kind of the gateway to being outside, whether it's on bikes or on trail, so people are always coming in asking, is this trail open, or how do I best access this? Sometimes that's camping gear, and sometimes it's what you see in this room: what tires do you run in Oakridge? Almost anything works here. This room is a combination of new tires for your bike, since you come here and don't realize your tires are worn out, and if you're here on vacation, we've got tires for you. While we're satisfying your technical needs, we also have shirts and logo wear to remember your vacation by. It's a combination of information, whatever you need to be outside, and a few trinkets to help you remember your good time.
Ziegler: That's totally one of those things. Who doesn't love a little shirt that's a nod for those in the know? Let's walk on along here. We've got an extension of the retail side, and something that caught my eye as I was walking around: I see some books I read to my daughter when she was little, over in your little bookshop area. It looks like more than just trail maps and nature guides.
Eugene Cathcart: Absolutely. A couple of our mainstays here at the shop are avid book lovers. Some people call us the Oakridge Bike Shop, and others call us the Oakridge Bookshop. We have a great selection of fiction, nonfiction, natural history, a bit of botany, some local field guides, bird guides, a little bit of everything. Lots of kids' books, actually. Those are probably our bestsellers.
Ziegler: I can imagine. Lord knows how many times I'd be traveling for work and come back with a kids' book for my daughter, because she loves to read. How did you decide to incorporate books into the shop? Was it just, hey, we've got a little space here? What made you decide to branch out into something that seems a little unique?
Eugene Cathcart: That goes back to one of the founders of the shop. She was a bookseller in Flagstaff, at McGaw's newsstand and at one of the used bookstores there, and she's just a book junkie. She loves everything literature, so she's really the inspiration behind the books. I'm more on the bikes end of the shop, but I value the books too, for sure.
Sue Cathcart: One great thing about the books is, for our shop, we try to have something for everyone, and there's a lot of variety available in books. So, say you're on vacation and you stub your toe or something goes sideways, you can always come in here, find a good book and find a spot down by the river. Everything's a little bit better.
Ziegler: I see the section over here with maps and stuff. You're talking about being a broker of information. I wonder how much that plays a role, where people come in and you say, let me show you on the map, and they realize, oh, I need this map.
Sue Cathcart: That's how a lot of conversations start. They'll come in, ask questions, and we show them this map on the wall. We talk about what they're looking to do and how we can get them to the spots where that can happen, then we'll lay out a plan for the day or the week, and they can grab a map, stick it in their pocket and off they go.
Ziegler: When you're in a small town, how important is it to, for a better term, be diversified? To have multiple angles that bring people in the door. It's more than just bikes. It's also camping, books, all kinds of things.
Eugene Cathcart: It's a work in progress. The shop's been open 22 years, and we're still having those meetings every day. It's really important to have the right product, and we're always trying to figure out what that is. We've tried a lot of things over the years. We used to carry Carhartt workwear for many years, and Danner boots, and some of those products haven't worked out so well. We're just trying to lean into what has worked for us, which is nice mountain bikes, mountain bike accessories, books, and logo clothing has been pretty helpful and successful for us too.
Sue Cathcart: A lot of times, even though we're in the middle of Highway 58, our shop is considered the end of the road. So if people come up from Eugene going on a camping trip at one of the lakes and say, oh, I forgot my tent poles or my sleeping pad, we try to carry those things as well.
Ziegler: I'm curious, with the name Mercantile, do people come in expecting more of a general-store vibe? Do you ever run into that, people walking in and going, oh, that's not what I was expecting?
Eugene Cathcart: One hundred percent, I've seen that reaction many times. People come in the front door and go, wow, you guys are like a bike shop or a bookstore. I think mercantile is a pretty neat term because it lends itself to so many different types of businesses. I believe the founders' vision was that we're here to serve the visitors and the locals, and we're figuring out how to best do that. Mercantile gives us a term that flexes with the times and lets us evolve without being stuck in one category.
Ziegler: We've got one more room here. Let's check out the camping supply room.
Eugene Cathcart: As you come in here, you'll see some of our camping supplies. We've got sleeping bags, backpacks, PFDs and things you might need to go out to the lake and have a good time. And you're also
Ziegler: Disc golf. I'm a disc golfer, so I appreciate seeing this.
Eugene Cathcart: Right on. Yeah, we have two great disc golf courses here in Oakridge. There's another one up at Willamette Pass, and another down in Dexter, so there's lots of disc golf around us. If you look around this room, you can see a lot of merchandise has been taken out, because we're looking to expand our bicycle service center. One of the areas where we've found the best success is bicycle service, and we're growing our service department to work on more technical repairs, like e-bikes. More advanced bikes are coming along these days.
Ziegler: Yeah, I was actually chatting via email with someone from the Disciples of Dirt, the local mountain bike group down in Eugene, and he was talking about how, maybe it's with age or just as trails get a little tougher for those uphill pedals, an e-mountain bike can be great, because you still get to do the fun downhill part, but you don't have to have those young, youthful legs to get you up the hill.
Eugene Cathcart: That's right, for sure. E-bikes are really fun, and they're definitely a growing part of the market. We both ride e-bikes in addition to our regular old-school bikes, which we often call acoustic bikes nowadays. It's a nice new segment, and we're just trying to build out our shop to be able to serve everybody.
Ziegler: With that service end, how important is having that ability to be full service? Because you get people like me, where it's like, I love riding my bike, but beyond making sure the tires are aired up, there are maybe three or four fixes I can manage. Do you find a decent number of people coming in looking for that knowledge, that ability to do repairs? Is that also a big part of it?
Sue Cathcart: Absolutely, we have great mechanics here, and it's fun to be in a town this size with a staff this good. It's getting harder and harder to find places to service your bike, and this is a great spot to do it. Somebody could conceivably make an appointment, drop off their bike for service, go grab lunch uptown at the pub or at our Mexican restaurant, then come back, pick up their bike, and they're off and running. It can be great.
Ziegler: You mentioned having that great staff. Is it difficult to have enough people with that knowledge base when you're in a town this size?
Sue Cathcart: It can be hard, but we've been lucky. A town this size, we have hundreds of miles of singletrack around us, so there's a real draw for people who want to be here and also love bikes. We've been fortunate that what this town has to offer has attracted the right people to staff our shop.
Ziegler: Yeah, I have friends who just set up life in a small town in Colorado because they wanted access to the trails they wanted to ride, and they absolutely loved it. They kind of said, well, we'll figure out work when we get there.
Eugene Cathcart: I think that's kind of Sue's story a little bit. She moved here because she loved the town and the people she was meeting, and figured out how to make it work.
Ziegler: Yeah.
Sue Cathcart: The shop has been a big part of that.
Ziegler: Well, thanks for bringing me in and letting me chat with you about the business, and what it's like to run a shop that folks might not expect until they see it, and then it makes perfect sense.
Eugene Cathcart: Well, it's been a pleasure, Zac, and thanks for coming to visit us today at the Willamette Mountain Mercantile.
Ziegler: That was Eugene and Sue Cathcart of Willamette Mountain Mercantile in Oakridge. This has been Oregon Rainmakers from KLCC. I'm Zac Ziegler. Thanks for listening.
