Q: Did you ever imagine that your career would involve restoring and selling kiddie rides?
A: I didn’t. I bought Kiddie Rides USA strictly for business reasons. I saw it and thought I could turn it into something.
It was one of those businesses that was tired. Its best days were behind it, but it seemed like there was another life for these things. I viewed it as a sales and marketing challenge.
Q: Kiddie rides seem like a quaint reminder of a bygone era. How much demand remains for them?
A: Certainly as a piece of vending equipment, the golden era of kiddie rides has pretty much passed. Now we’re starting to see demand from businesses that are using them for marketing. We have theme restaurants where the owners see kiddie rides more as a way for kids to have fun than as a way to make money.
Q: Who are your customers?
A: One fun segment is pediatric doctors who are buying kiddie rides for their lobbies. At that point, they don’t want to make money with them. They want to differentiate themselves.
It’s hard for a doctor or a dentist to say, “I take a better X-ray” or “I can fill a cavity better,” but the thing a person is going to remember is, “Hey, I had fun at the dentist,” or “I had fun at my checkup.”
Q: How much does a typical kiddie ride cost?
A: Depending on the amount of customization, the era and the vintage, a fully restored one is in the $3,000 to $5,000 range. We can get you into a used kiddie ride, as is, probably starting at about a thousand dollars.
Q: What are some of the more interesting requests?
A: This actually happened in Denver. We got a call for a jackass kiddie ride. I said, “Yes, we actually have a donkey.” It was an investment banker who was turning 40, so (his colleagues) bought it for him as a gag gift.
We went and installed it in his office after hours, so the next morning when he walked into his office, there was a jackass kiddie ride with his name on it.
Q: Where do you find the kiddie rides you sell?
A: The golden era of these as vending machines has passed, so there are people who have 10, 15, 20, 30 of these sitting in warehouses collecting dust. All of a sudden, the property will sell or their lease is up, and they’ve got to get rid of these things. As the last stand-alone kiddie-ride company left in America, they call us. Where else are you going to take them?
Q: What originally brought you to Colorado?
A: I’m a Kansas boy born and bred. I was a senior at Oklahoma Baptist University when I got an opportunity to do an internship in Moscow. I came back to finish summer school, and my buddy said, “Let’s go to Vail and be ski bums.”
Winter turned to summer, and summer turned to Traci, my wife. Eight years, three kids and a sold business later, we left Vail and moved to Longmont to raise our children.
Q: Tell me about your business pursuits before buying Kiddie Rides USA.
A: We bought a small garbage company in Vail. Here I was, a ski bum right in the middle of a building boom. I saw these baby boomers building mansions, and I said, “I’m not a licensed electrician. I’m not a plumber, and I don’t have the deep pockets to be a land developer in my mid-20s. I’ve got to find a way to tap into this business boom.”
I found this trash company for sale, and they hauled construction debris and portable toilets. I said, “How hard can it be to learn to clean a portable toilet?”
We got into Breckenridge and Keystone. Four years later, Waste Management wanted the company really bad, and so they bought it.
Q: How did you trip across your current company?
A: I found this late one night. I was on a business-broker website, and it was just one of those things. There was something about it that screamed unique, different. I’ve owned it maybe a year, and honestly, this has been the toughest business challenge because we’re trying to totally reposition the business. We’re trying to build a brand.
Q: What do your kids think of your job?
A: They don’t think I work very hard. They think all I do all day is put the quarter in, make sure it runs and ride it. My only disappointment is that we live 30 miles away, so they don’t get down here that often.
Q: Do they have their own rides at home?
A: We actually have a carousel horse in our living room.
Edited for space and clarity from an interview by staff writer Kristi Arellano.
