Gas prices this high for this long? It's downright
uncomfortable. In fact, it's enough to get consumers to change
their behavior. Rising prices have many consumers turning to
alternatives-- from car-sharing services to scooters--and
entrepreneurs are reaping the rewards.
Take Scott Griffith, CEO of Zipcar Inc. based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The $15 million car-sharing service lets its members reserve a car
online by the hour or by the day, walk to the nearest pickup
location and drive away--gas and insurance included. Currently,
Zipcar operates in 29 cities and gets an average of 2,500 new
members per month.
"The gas prices last August and September really triggered
a tipping point in interest in [our service]," says Griffith,
46. "We saw an uptick of about 30 percent in membership
applications, compared to the same time frame in 2004."
Content Continues Below
In fact, this January, a total of 17 car-sharing programs
existed nationwide, serving nearly 92,000 members-up from
76,000--plus members in 2004--according to Susan Shaheen, a
University of California, Berkeley, researcher. It's a trend
that Griffith, who joined Zipcar as CEO shortly after it was
founded in 1999, has anticipated for years. "The swings in gas
prices are hard to predict," he says. "It has people
questioning whether to change their habits."
For some, that means getting up on just two wheels--with a
fuel--efficient scooter or motorcycle. Last year, Erico
Motorsports founder John Beldock noticed solid sales well past
the typical August drop-off: "Sales went strong through
December," says Beldock, 40, who founded the Denver-based
scooter and motorcycle shop in 1993.
Overall, Beldock expects to sell 800 scooters and motorcycles
this year, up from last year's 650, and he plans to expand the
shop's scooter rental program. "We're going to have
our best year ever, for a lot of reasons," says Beldock, who
predicts sales of $7.5 million this year, compared to $6 million in
2005. "Fuel is one of them."