The Motor Pool

The Motor Pool: We’re Baaack!

Low angle tropical plants with a welcome sign to hot weather

After motoring down the I-95 corridor for the better part of three days, then being instructed to take some back alley roads by Waze, we finally made it down to our new digs in Florida last week. Its taken us roughly a week to get everything sorted out including all of our inventory unpacked, racked out and ready for immediate picking. That said, we’re up-and-running and ready to resume business. All of the orders we received while we were on hiatus have been dropped off and should be meandering their way to their final destinations throughout the course of this week.

We’ve also instructed all of our principal vendors that they can resume shipping any orders they may have been holding for us over the last few weeks. We’re also getting updates on some of the delayed shipments that should be hitting the roadways this week, most notably the latest Forces of Valor releases as well as the recent spate of Hobby Master shipments. Barring any further issues, these should be arriving by the third week of January at which point we will make a herculean effort to get them turned around the moment they come in. That’s about it for now — we still have some things to address such as obtaining a replacement desk since the one I ordinarily use broke during the move so we’re temporarily using snack trays as stand-ins for sturdier office ware.We are also in dire need of some packing supplies since most were used for the move. All things being equal, we’re sort of glad the transition was made in early January rather than at any other time of the year since it gives us more time to ensure everything is done properly and on time. Thanks for bearing with us during this transition period.

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Tales of Transparency: New Motor Pool Home Page

Please be advised that we have given our designer the go-ahead to update our home page which we alluded to earlier this year. The update will likely be implemented and undergo rigorous testing over the next 24-72 hours. During this time frame, all of the internal links will be tested to ensure they are working properly and point to the correct destinations. None of the category landing pages or product pages will be affected by this update. You may experience some issues viewing our web site and/or placing orders during this time frame so we would appreciate it if you could bear with us until the home page has been updated.

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Meet the New and Improved Motor Pool

Even though we’re still a couple of months away from moving into our new digs, we thought you might be interested in how our new site will look when completed once the Shopify migration has been fully implemented. The image above reflects a mock up of our new and improved home page, which is designed to make finding product as easy as possible.

You’ll find many of the things we already incorporate on our existing web site, thereby making it as intuitive as possible given the many different lines we stock. For instance, the same color scheme and overall interface will be retained, albeit with a lot more bells and whistles to keep you coming back for more. While its still far from completion and doesn’t reflect all of the retail sales channels you’ll soon be able to find us on, we figured you might like to see what’s behind the curtain sooner rather than later. Enjoy!

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The Motor Pool – More than a Play on Words

The Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, as it looked way back in 1908 upon its completion. Initially a dirt covered toll road with ropes acting as guard rails, it was designed for use by the elite of New York looking for a fast way to “motor” out to the Hamptons. Bereft of any lights and with wild animals still scouring the island, it was an adventure, to say the least, just to get out of the city, much less drive all of the way out to the summer residences without so much as a flat tire. The borough of Manhattan can be seen in the distance.

Over the years, some people have asked us how we came by the name “The Motor Pool.” The obvious implication is that is has something to do with an army Motor Pool, where military vehicles are repaired, put into storage or are simply awaiting assignment to different military units. In part, that’s true, but it also pays deference to The Motor Parkway, a segment of which runs right behind our house in Oakland Gardens, Queens, New York. While vehicular traffic hasn’t run along the highway in several decades, there is a lovely bike path that is used by joggers, runners, bicyclists and other enthusiasts year round.

The Long Island Motor Parkway (LIMP), also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway and Motor Parkway, was a parkway on Long Island, New York, in the United States. It was the first roadway designed for automobile use only. The road was privately built by William Kissam Vanderbilt II with overpasses and bridges to remove intersections. It opened in 1908 as a toll road and closed in 1938 when it was taken over by the state of New York in lieu of back taxes. Parts of the parkway survive today in sections of other roadways and as a bicycle trail in Queens.

William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, was an auto-racing enthusiast and created the Vanderbilt Cup, the first major road racing competition, in 1904. He ran the races on local roads in Nassau County during the first decade of the 20th century, but the deaths of two spectators and injury to many others showed the need to eliminate racing on residential streets. Vanderbilt responded by establishing a company to build a graded, banked and grade-separated highway suitable for racing that was also free of the horse manure dust often churned up by motor cars. The resulting Long Island Motor Parkway, with its banked turns, guard rails, reinforced concrete roadbed, and controlled access, was the first limited-access roadway in the world.

The Motor Parkway, as it looks today, now bracketed by trees, fauna and other growth and serving as a popular bike path, runner’s lane and mile long walkway near our location. Just don’t ask us about the supposed ancient Indian burial grounds, now covered over by trees, situated just a block or two away from us.

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The Motor Pool: More Improvements and Refinements Ahead

 

 

Each year, as part of our self-reevaluation initiative, we look at ways to improve our web site given the current state of technology. Earlier today, we rolled out a new suite of buttons across our main web site, all of which will hopefully do a better job of maintaining the overall look and feel of our present template.

Later in the year, our web hosting solution is planning on rolling out a brand new version of their e-commerce platform — which we have signed up for — one that will include a number of important front end and behind-the-scenes features that will help to keep us on the cutting edge of online retailing practice. We will share further details regarding the proposed update once we have gained familiarity with it and make the necessary tweaks to best address our product portfolio and audience.

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Happy New Year!

New Years

As 2012 draws to a close, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our longtime customers as well as the many newcomers that have joined our growing family over the past twelve months. Without you, we wouldn’t have succeeded over the past twelve years, taking a simple passion and turning it into a well-known global business. So, here’s to a happy new year, bright and prosperous future, and, of course, a well-deserved thank you for patronizing our site. We look forward to serving your needs in the year ahead…

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