Modern Vespa

Usually I see posts on scooter shops closing but here is one that is opening. It is South Sound Scooters in Tacoma WA in the brewery district. It is being opened by one of the Chasing Ghosts, On Scooters, In Bars podcast people.

So, hopefully readers in that area will get out and support the new shop.

Great news. And I recalle an episode of CGoSIB talking idly about opening a shop/dealership at some point in the future.

You are right. A new Vespa dealership opening is a rare bird indeed these days. Good for them.

https://www.southsoundscooters.com/about-us-scooters-dealership--info

From my understanding, Piaggio can be a pretty demanding manufacturer for dealers to carry.

Over here it took probably about a year for a Aprilia/Moto Guzzi dealer stop carrying the brand and another to finally pick those two up.

Over Here, the changeover was lightning-quick: the dealer I bought Melody from in 2015 dropped Piaggio/Vespa (or perhaps it was the other way around?) a few years back; the current dealer, from whom I'm purchasing Mel's successor, picked the line up about a month or less later.

(The old dealer closed up shop less than a year afterward, confirming my suspicion that they just wanted out of the bike biz altogether.)

Piaggio might give better service to dealers down there. Here in Canada, they don't even bother to have distribution. Everything has to go from Piaggio Italy, to Piaggio USA, to Canadian dealers.

You can imagine how much dealers here love the fact that they are essentially paying duties and international freight fees twice over.

To put it in perspective, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, etc. all have Canadian head offices within about a 45 minute drive of me/Toronto.

At times I think Piaggio USA pays the mothership retail and keystones everything. People would be floored if they knew what distributors in Italy, who get things from Piaggio and mark them up, sell parts for.

Piaggio could put their scooters bound for Canada and/or the USA in a bonded warehouse and only pay customs duties once when they are taken out of the bonded warehouse. Apparently this is too much work for them or the cost is not worth it for them.

Someone from Polini told me there's a treaty between Canada and Italy that makes Italian motorcycle parts duty free. Not sure whether putting all the parts together changes that.

That's a great question. At that point it would still be paying international freight twice, but would definitely cut down on import/export duties.

If I remember the next time I am either of the three current and former Piaggio dealers around here I will ask and report back. Not getting out much to any dealers this time of year with the weather in Canada being what it is, so this may be a while...