BBB Warehouse in Springfield to Close, Zombie Bikes and Burro Bags to Relocate

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Burro Bags

The BBB Warehouse at 1520 Main Street is closing. We announced this Saturday at the Live Urban Jacksonville Weekly 50th Show extravaganza. Sources close to the matter say Mack Bissette from SRG called to say the the space had to be vacated. The specific reasons or future plans for the space are unknown.

Future Plans

Zombie Bikes is rumored to be moving to a similar location in Springfield. Burro Bags is looking forward to finding a more retail oriented spot in the urban core.

Urban Jacksonville Weekly #44 – Burro Bags

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IMG_1290
Chris Williams of Burro Bags

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Thanks to special guests Chris Williams of Burro Bags and Big Dunn.

Burro Bags

  • small messenger bag shop on Main St
  • typically worn by cyclists
  • also make koozies, t-shirts
  • Tony – what kind of bags for gifts
  • Chris – totes, wallets, hip bags ($20-$40)
  • started out doing custom bags
  • 1520 N Main St
  • about a dozen stores in the US and London
  • Mark George line
  • Joey – how did you get international?
  • Chris – started giving stuff away, recently purchased ad, traffic blew up
    get your marketing for free, distribution comes with it
  • Ian Chase produced commercials
  • Joey – video gives you more content in the same space
  • www.burrobags.com
  • twitter.com/burrobags

PARTY! – BBB Art Show

December 12th
3pm-5pm Craft Fair in the parking lot
party/art show at 6pm

BBB Complex Art Show

  • Artist Series bags
  • artists took home patterns and adorned them their way
  • DJ Furoche
  • leftover liquor from Ante Up III
  • keg
  • raffle for $1000 worth of good stuff
  • bike frames & parts
  • Sweet & Flour gift certificates
  • Sponsors
  • still taking items for raffle

Springfield Retail

  • moving away from walk-in business towards e-commerce
  • BD – biggest problem is being next to the bike shop
  • ZOMBIE BIKES NEEDS VOLUNTEERS!
  • parking has little to do with business
  • median sucks, it’s really stupid
  • Tony – Mayor Peyton, tear down that wall!
  • Joey – benevolent landlord arrangement key to incubating retail?
  • worked out of home first
  • proven model that it works
  • still vacant properties that could be used
  • Tony – they lazy
  • the idea is that the property has a “sense of place” = VALUE
  • types of people who own property don’t understand these progressive solutions
  • Big Dunn loves Springfield

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Producer Jack Diablo (left) and Big Dunn

Music

Wednesday, December 9th
Shantytown
Infintesmal Wednesdays

Thursday, December 10th
TSI
Tam Tam The Sandwich Man and the Magical Sugar Cookies

Recommendations

Big Dunn – postsecret.com
Tony – RAM, duh (2 weeks left) then FRAM – December 19th 6:30-10pm Community Party on the River (free wine)
Jonathan – 5 day series on the state of downtown in the TU next week (next week’s guest?)
Chris – go to Jags games so he can watch them on tv
Joey – jagsonville.com Jag ticket giveaway photo contest

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Jonathan wore his glasses today, he hurt his eye

Burro Bags on Urban Jacksonville Weekly Monday, December 7th

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Matt and Chris from Burro Bags. Copyright Jensen Hande
Matt Bort (left) and Chris Williams (right) from Burro Bags. Copyright Jensen Hande

Chris Williams from Burro Bags will be on Urban Jacksonville Weekly this Monday to talk about the current state of Springfield’s favorite messenger bag/t-shirt/accessory company. This month they’re hosting the second annual BBB Complex Art Show.

the BBB Complex Art Show features some of Jacksonville’s hottest artists customizing one-of-a-kind messenger bags, roll-tops, and hip bags. Artists have been selected and the date is set for December 12th.

We’ll talk about the art show and what’s next one of Jacksonville’s most innovative retail businesses. With a special guest appearance by Big Dunn in the studio.

Please be sure to watch the show live online at 9:30am. We’re testing new mic’d audio from the soundboard into the live internet stream, so it should sound awesome. Let us know what you think!

Watch Urban Jacksonville Weekly

www.urbanjacksonvilleweekly.com
9:30am Monday, December 7th
Send questions to Twitter and Facebook or txt me at 294-4800.

BBB Complex Art Show

If you are interested in getting involved as a sponsor or to donate items for the raffle. It’s a great opportunity to get your company/store/restaurant/whatever name out there so let us know if you want to be involved (burrobags@gmail.com).

Big Dunn

Burro Bags Launches Website

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Burro Bags Launches New Website

Burro Bags launched a new website and joined Twitter today. Big media day for the guys at 1521 Main Street. Congrats Matt and Chris!

Matt Bort and Chris Williams enjoy the more shanty things in life: cheap beer, second hand bike parts, old sewing machines and free meals. Chances are that if we aren’t available at our shop, we are supporting our favorite booze hole, Shantytown Pub, around the corner.

Matt and Chris from Burro Bags. Copyright Jensen Hande
Copyright Jensen Hande

Burro Bags on Twitter, Flickr and of course BurroBags.com

Springfield Retail Maps and Urban Jacksonville Weekly Tonight

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Springfield Retail Map

This week on Urban Jacksonville Weekly we’ll talk about the following:

  • First Wednesday
  • Mayors Race
  • Springfield local retail boom

Tune in to the Urban Jacksonville Weekly Ustream channel at 5:30 or listen to the episode when we post it later this week.

SPAR (Springfield Preservation and Revitalization) and SAMBA (Springfield Small Business Association) kicked off a series of retail flyers this week to promote area businesses. The first one lists restaurants and a second one is coming soon featuring Medical, Health and Wellness businesses of Springfield.

Two notable coming soon additions to the flyer are City Kidz Ice Cream and Uptown Market. Both of these will be located at the new Third and Main development. An interesting note about City Kidz is they not only have ice cream but soup and sandwiches.

One notable omission is Waffa and Mike’s Mediterranean, probably due to timing. I assume these flyers will be distributed to these restaurants and other retailers in the area.

Arturo Clothing Moving to Springfield (And Five Reasons Why It Matters)

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Arturo Clothing
image courtesy of Paper n Stitch

Update! I’m giving away a free Arturo shirt to the person who comes up with the best reason why it matters that Arturo is moving to Springfield.

Arturo Clothing, a local clothing maker and friend of Urban Jacksonville, announced on their blog they are moving operations to the BBB Complex at 1520 Main Street:

We are moving our screen printing supplies into the Burro Bags shop. This will be a great opportunity for both us and Burro to feed ideas off of each other and expand our companies!!


View Larger Map

This is significant because it not only increases the retail footprint of the BBB Warehouse, but of Springfield. Main Street can now boast four lifestyle retail businesses in one location. All thanks to the benevolent landlord SRG.

  1. Burro Bags – custom messenger bags
  2. Zombie Bikes – bike co-op
  3. Royal Treatment Records – record shop
  4. Arturo Clothing – hand screened shirts, bags and knitted hats

Arturo Clothing

5 Reasons Why The Arturo Move Matters

Sure, you can chalk one in the win column for my 2009 Predictions (yes, I’m keeping score), but it’s bigger than that. Here are five reasons why the move matters:

  1. More bodies on Main Street means more money will be pumped into local businesses like Chan’s and the BBB itself. It will also give the appearance of activity and set the tone that something is happening on Main Street.
  2. It’s a vote for Springfield retail illustrating the environment in the neighborhood is favorable enough to pick up and move current operations.
  3. Power in numbers demonstrates to the benevolent landlord that there may be something to this little retail experiment, encouraging them to keep it going indefinitely.
  4. Concentration of creative energy keeps everyone inspired and makes it more fun. Working in a vacuum sucks.
  5. Fill in the blank and tell me why you think it matters. Yes, I know it’s a cop out, but I gotta go get ready for work suckas. The person with the best answer gets a free Arturo shirt!

Here is a background of the BBB Complex and a link to the
Arturo Clothing feature on the Paper n Stitch blog.

CORRECTED: Hightide Burrito Company coming to San Marco, Uncommon Grounds closes

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Hightide Burrito Company

CORRECTION: This is not a franchise from Charlottesville, VA. UNF graduate Alejandro Juarez is opening this Hightide Burrito. The article UNF grad brings burritos to San Marco community has many more details. The information below is irrelevant. Read the updated post here.

Hightide Burrito put up a sign this sometime this week announcing their arrival in San Marco. It’s owned by Alex Juarez and appears to be a franchise out of Charlottesville, VA. From an article at charlottesville-dining.com

High Tide has that beachy-Mexican fusion vibe to it, but with less of a California surfer dude and more of a Southern, Kenny Chesney feel to it.

Whoa! That’s an interesting mix. I honestly don’t care what the atmosphere is like, if the burritos are better than Moe’s, I’m down. Charlottesville reviews are mixed, but I’ll wait to reserve judgement until I try it myself. It will be a great new alternative to La Napolera and Panera, nGen Works lunchtime mainstays.

Hightide Burrito

Current Burrito Rankings

  1. Burrito Gallery (local favorites!)
  2. Chipotle
  3. Mossfire
  4. Tiajuana Flats
  5. Moe’s

Uncommon Grounds Closes

On a somewhat related note, the local coffee shop Uncommon Grounds, closed. I’m not sure how ling it’s been closed. I honestly hadn’t been there in months. I am a pretty discriminating consumer and i’ll always give somewhere a second chance. In the case of Uncommon Grounds I made it up to 5 or 6 chances before I gave up. I’m sad to see it go, but I can’t say I’m surprised.

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