So another Dearborn store is closing.

Sadly, it is a story that seems to be playing out all too frequently these days. With every step towards a recovery we seem to make when a new business opens, it feels like two steps back when one closes.

That’s certainly how it feels with Clayton Hatchard having to close his Adventure Bicycle store on Monroe. The bicycle shop was a dream come true for Hatchard, who would have celebrated his third year in business this spring. Instead, he is holding a 50 percent-off sale on every item in his store, preparing to permanently close at month’s end.

“I take most of the blame for my store’s downfall,” said Hatchard, a 12-year bicycle sales veteran. “I really should have closed up last fall when my ‘kind hearted bank’ overnight turned my line of credit into a loan. But like a stubborn mule, I refused to give up and the past six months have been brutal.”

Despite his rough ride, Hatchard remains refreshingly optimistic about Dearborn and his own future.

“I would open a business again if the circumstances were right,” he said. “And I would do it in Dearborn if the timing was right. I love Dearborn and I would never leave. I take at least fifty percent of the blame and the other fifty percent is completely out of my control.”

That’s not to say Hatchard hasn’t had his share of sleepless nights in the past year. There have been many, he says, but he was able to get through this tough period in his life because of the support of his wife and their 6-year-old son.

What you won’t hear from Hatchard is blame that his store closing was the result of paid parking in Dearborn. His customers parked for free directly outside his store. But that convenience couldn’t save his business. Interestingly, the same was true for Bikesport, a bicycle shop on Michigan Avenue in the heart of downtown west Dearborn that had free parking yet it, too, closed in November.

You also won’t hear Hatchard blame our city leaders, the location of his business or his landlord for the failure of his bike store (the building owners actually lowered his rent, he says, in his second year to try and help him). Instead,

he points the finger at himself, our collapsed economy and our state elected officials who he says haven’t moved quickly enough to try and jumpstart Michigan’s economy.

“Hindsight being what it is, if I had any inclination that Michigan’s economy was going to collapse I would have never opened this shop,” he said.

Unfortunately, his store closing is yet another business casualty in our city, this region and our state. All contribute to Michigan’s highest-in-the-nation unemployment rate, which is now a staggering 14.7 percent and experts predict it will hover at this level through much of 2010.

Hatchard at month’s end will join that population of people now jobless in Michigan, at least in the short term, but he says he will quickly get a part-time job. He also is considering going back to school.

The Dearborn resident was no stranger to the bicycle business. Hatchard previously managed a bicycle shop in Birmingham, selling everything from children’s bikes to $10,000 mountain bikes. He saved up money and decided to open his own bike shop in Dearborn, offering two-wheel transportation at more affordable prices than the business he ran for more than a decade. He says it was hugely satisfying to sell bicycles, kid’s bikes in particular, to people in Dearborn who were simply friendlier than customers he dealt with in Birmingham.

“It was fun selling bikes to people,” he said. “It isn’t like selling insurance. My reward for opening a shop in Dearborn is that I have a lot of happy feelings and I made a lot of good friends along the way.”

How soon before Dearborn’s economy will bounce back is unknown but this recession can’t last forever. When things do begin to improve, it is going to take people like Hatchard, who are staying in Dearborn, to help keep the momentum going.

“It is hard but it is not devastating,” Hatchard says of his decision to close his store. “But it is not the end of the world. It is just the end of Adventure Bicycle. I am not giving up on Dearborn and I am not giving up on Michigan.”

It is that kind of optimism that is gong to be needed if we are going to rebuild our city and this state.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Around Town, Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.