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When I stop into The Mendon Cyclesmith, it’s either to see my buddy Craig (proprietor extraordinarie), to buy something new and fun, or because something is broken. Yesterday, it was the later: one of the spokes on my road bike’s rear wheel decided to break after the chain hopped the top sprocket one-too-many times.

As always, the visit put a smile on my face, because I think it’s a universal impossibility for anyone to walk out of Craig’s shop without a grin on. It’s just the kind of guy Craig is, and one of the reasons he’s so unique in the cycling world: you don’t leave his shop feeling intimidated, you leave it feeling like you’ve made a new friend and he happens to be really good with bikes. And you’d be right, because both are the case.

But what really got me was yesterday. As I rolled out of the parking lot, a guy in a Jeep made the turn in toward the shop, and I shot him a quick wave. I’d never seen the guy before, but he grinned and waved back. He might have turned away and thought “OK, who the heck was that?“, but I think there was something more to it: I waved, and he waved back, simply because we have something in common – we both shop at Craig’s place.

I think you’ve achieved something akin to business nirvana when your customers feel like they’ve got a unique sort of camaraderie just because they shop there. The world needs more businesses like The Mendon Cyclesmith, where patrons coming and going exchange knowing winks, nods, waves and grins – because they all know what a great place they’ve found, and that connection renders them no longer strangers.