Checking in with a trip report (with pics!) to the far east reaches of the U.S. MerchantOS attended a trade show called action bike and outdoor in Atlantic City then I headed north to New York City to visit some customers and hang out with my sister at her pad in Harlem over the weekend.

Action Bike And Outdoor

We met two shops using MOS at this show. This is fairly significant given that by my estimate only about 100-200 retailers actually attended! If you want uninterrupted access to vendors attending this show, you as retailers should go. If you’re a vendor and want a lot of exposure to retailers in these industries, don’t go!

I Heart New York

I drove into the city from Atlantic City. My first driving experience on the East coast. What’s with the gas stations and restaurants in the middle of the highway parkway? How do you go back the way you came? Wrong turns or missed off ramps cost you dearly in time! Tolls as much as $12! I was for sure the n00b on the road out there.

Customers!

My goal was to visit as many customers as possible on Friday and try to see a few more on Saturday. Here’s a roundup of who I made it out to see.

Luck Wang

This children’s apparel shop is on the bleeding edge of hip. I had to score something for my 9 month old and found the perfect howling wolf shirt. Kit runs two nearby locations and has his inventory up on Shopify for E-commerce sales.

Kiosk

Kiosk has an array of styling and sometimes retro items. Due to my unannounced visit, I sadly missed the owners but did get to check out the shop and check in with the present staff. Kiosk has a single store front tucked away in the SOHO on the second floor. They get a lot of touristic traffic passing by but also run a Shopify E-commerce site.

Toga Bikes

Toga Bike Shop is one of our first twenty customers to use our point of sale. A must visit. They have four locations around the New York City area and I swung by their West side location. Eddie helped fill me in on what we can do better for them.

Mod Squad

Up in Harlem these guys have a very pleasantly laid out shop. What I can only describe as a bar layout in back provides a great hangout area for customers to banter with the repair staff. Dale over there gave some great feedback about allowing all employees, regardless of their rights, to be able to see their hours clocked. A great suggestion we’ll try to accomodate.

The Spokesman

This shop is delightfully packed with a wide array of inventory. We went over some of the functionality of MerchantOS.

More Shop Visits

One of the best parts about this trip is we get to directly connect with customers to find out what they need and learn first hand how our software works in their shops. This is a great way for us to learn to enhance the software and witness first hand how our software interacts with employees and customers in their store. We’ll try to pre-anounce our trips so shops can request a visit in the future.

See you soon…