Electric scooter startup Lime is reportedly opening a new ‘lifestyle brand store’ in Santa Monica. As per trusted sources, the firm will certainly rent scooters out of the storefront. However, the big idea behind the brick-and-mortar store is placing heavy importance over customer engagement and brand experience.
This basically specifies hosting live events, by stressing on what one investor defined as rebuilding community relationships. A news report published by TechCrunch stated that Lime’s plans for the store are confirmed and the deal to build it came from the company’s investor Fifth Wall Ventures that facilitates partnerships between tech companies and real estate developers.
Sources have reported that several scooter companies do not own offices or hold any sort of footprint in the community, where the dock-less e-scooters appeared out of nowhere by the hundreds. This happened to cause considerable tension within some regions, as city regulators have striven to regulate the vehicles, occasionally banning them either momentarily or altogether.
According to sources familiar with the development, the e-scooter firm has secured major investments from Uber and Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. and managed to pull off six million rides during its first year in business. The firm has also been focusing on making its scooter and bike sharing business carbon neutral.
Reportedly, the e-scooter firm was also associated with two fatal accidents in September. Rules and regulations regarding scooter-riding vary widely across cities and states, with rules about helmets and whether one can ride on sidewalks and traffic being one of the many debated aspects surrounding scooter safety.
Along with its competitor Bird, Lime is presently operating in Santa Monica under an 18-month pilot program that mandates the contribution of $1 per scooter per day to city infrastructure projects like bike lane installations and upkeep, reported sources.
