We’re big fans of Stumptown Coffee Roasters here at Stumped in Stumptown. Hey, when the sky’s as gray as it gets in Portland, everyone needs a pick-me-up.
Stumptown Coffee developed a reputation for seriously good beans over the last decade, and Portlanders reveled in its anti-establishment approach to… erm… growing coffee beans.
Now, the news just broke that Stumptown Coffee Roasters has been sold to a private firm.
Every year, ambitious young people move here with dreams of business ownership. So, why has Portland’s small business vitality ranking with the Business Journal survey dropped year-over-year?
Portland’s always been renowned for strange bikes whether it be the high-flying double-deckers or the laid-back almost-pedestrian-because-they’re-everywhere recumbent bikes. When it comes to cars, Portlanders love Volkswagen, Subaru and anything hybrid. Well, what happens when Volkswagen’s luxury brand, Audi, gets together with Portland’s hardwood-bicycle manufacturer, Renovo? Oh, yeah, baby – hardwood performance bikes!
One of the many great things about Portland is that it’s big enough (without being too big) and techie enough that we tend to be a test city for lots of new technologies. Unfortunately, AT&T doesn’t feel we’re ready for the next generation of cell speeds (4G/LTE).
Portland’s Airport (PDX) was the winner among North American airports for most timeliness departures last year according to FlightStats.com.
We applaud Portland’s Airport – we think they’re swell and truly one of the best airports we’ve visited. That being said, Portland came in first by having only 86.02% of its flights leave on time. The average airport has 75.29% of its flights leave on-time; one in four flights leave late!
What is it?
IKEA (“eye-key-ah”) offers 9500+ household products ranging from a 3-pack of wooden kitchen utensils for $0.49 to entire rooms for thousands of dollars.
According to Wikipedia, IKEA was founded in 1943 by a 17-year-old named Ingvar Kamprad who named the store using his initials (IK), the first initial of the name of the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd) and his home parish (Agunnaryd) in Småland (also the name for where parents imprison … erm … stow … uh … leave their kids while shopping – pronounced “Smallland”).
Where is it?
Address: 10280 NE Cascades Parkway, Portland, OR 97220
Phone: 503-282-4532
Hours: Monday-Sunday, 10am-9pm
Website: www.IKEA.com
How is it?
IKEA.
The word conjures overwhelming excitement in the hearts of shoppers everywhere. For me, I first heard of IKEA when I moved to Syracuse, New York for school (I know — it’s a post about Portland and one of the first things I do is mention another city – sacrilege!). While in the great white north, experiencing IKEA simply meant receiving their epic catalog of products promising everything that particle board furniture has to offer, but, with no location nearby, shipping charges so exorbitant that cardboard boxes became a better fit for my nightstand needs.
IKEA blessed Portland with its own store location, conveniently planted within driving distance of the international airport just in case you need to buy an affordable but attractive kitchen table with matching chairs, and then hop a flight out of the country to escape your escalating credit card bills.