Posted: 6/20/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Wesley Fane Dale Meadors, owner of Illini Scooters in Champaign, sits in front of a sign promoting the gas economy of scooters in the showroom on Locust Street Thursday afternoon. Because of rising gas prices, Meadors's store has been extremely busy, to the point of receiving new scooters in the morning of a day and selling them that same afternoon.

With gas prices at an all-time high, Dale Meadors expected to do very well this year.

The 69-year-old owner of Illini Scooters, 221 S. Locust St., said his store was so full of scooters at the beginning of the year he had to climb over the inventory to get to the back of his store. He doubled the inventory in his quaint store from about 30 to 60 scooters.

Now, Meadors is struggling to keep scooters in the store with only fourteen in stock Tuesday.

"Most of the industry I think geared up for double the sales," Meadors said. "Well, we're well above that. But that's the problem; I have no supply."

Many businesses are seeing hits to their bottom lines because of high fuel prices. But with many motorists turning to alternative modes of transportation to save money, the scooter industry is thriving.

"There's a lot of industries that are suffering; it ain't scooters," said Jeff Ryan, employee of Illini Scooters. "We need to lock the doors before we run out of scooters."

Larger scooters average about 60 miles per gallon of gasoline, while smaller ones can get up to 100 miles per gallon.

Filling a mid-sized car with fuel can cost more than $50, while an SUV or pick-up truck can cost more than $80. Scooter owners usually shell out less than $10 at each fill-up.

Knowing the advantage of selling a high-mileage product, Meadors made a large sign for display in the store comparing the gas mileage of an SUV, car and scooter.

Meadors declined to give out exact sales numbers but said he has sold "quite a few more" scooters than he had in the three years he has owned the business and said this would likely be the first year the store sees a profit. Meadors also said the spike in sales began in February this year, two months before usual.

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