“Big Al” Vergara, driver of the long, bannered Crime Inc. truck carrying the traveling business to events like the Hollister Freedom Rally, was selling to the backdrop of mellow, grooving music Saturday at the Fourth Street grassy lot.
As saxophone sounds blared, Vergara made his sales pitch, in rhythm, at appropriate interludes in the song as patrons perused custom bikes on display.
“I’m talking $20 to $30 jackets,” he said, pausing temporarily as lyrics in the recorded music took center stage. “Five-dollar T-shirts. Check ’em out. Can’t beat it. Clearance sale. Happy Fourth of July. Come on ladies. We’ve got $5 stuff for the ladies, too.”
It was that sort of scene at the Crime Inc. display where Vergara, an imposing, bulky figure with a goatee, had the mic standing from behind a counter raised off the ground. Crime Inc. has been coming to the Hollister biker rally—held July 3-5 this year—since 2003. The business has a clothing line and a custom bike builder, Matt Hotch, who has won the Hollister building competition a couple times, Vergara said.
“They just keep getting more radical,” Vergara said. “The bikes are getting more radical. Business ain’t what it used to be, but it’s coming back slowly.”
Business was brisk throughout most of the rally for downtown shops and rally vendors, which add many odd offerings to the existing mix of more traditional merchants.
Sold by at least two vendors were exotic jerky meats. Wild Game Jerky owner Justina Sabala of Merced mentioned how kangaroo meat has been particularly popular as of late.
“The reason why is because they’re overpopulated there in Australia,” said Sabala, whose favorite kind is Cajun alligator. “They don’t want to just kill them. They’re making jerky out of it.”
Why are bikers particularly fond of jerky?
“It’s not going to melt if they have it in their handbags,” she said, as customers filed by occasionally asking about her jerky offerings.
Earplugs are another product sold at the rally that bikers may want to consider using more often, said Hal Aronson, owner of Sound Sentri Hearing Conservation, a Dana Point business that makes and sells custom-fit, molded earplugs.
His business targets motorcycle riders, along with people who use gun ranges, go to music concerts, work in industrial settings or really any other activity appropriate for earplugs.
“If you look at motorcycling as a demographic, you’re probably looking at easily less than 30 percent of motorcycle enthusiasts actually understand enough about the hazards attributed to wind issues,” Aronson said from his vendor booth Saturday at the Hollister rally.
Sound Sentri puts an actual injection mold into the ear canal and it takes a “literal fingerprint” while using medical-grade silicon to form the object, he said.
He said the end product comes with a lifetime guarantee.
“They won’t change shape,” he said.
His business might be in good position considering that bikers are aging as a demographic.
“It’s certainly one of the pastimes responsible for a high incidence of tinnitus,” he said, referring to the ailment often called ringing of the ears. “And there’s no cure for that.”
Local businesses such as Johnny’s Bar & Grill were glad to have their temporary counterparts on hand. The biker rally is a big revenue generator for the bar, which stocked up on two to three months of product for the three-day event.
Johnny’s owner Charisse Tyson called the 2015 rally “fantastic” and said it reminded her of the energy at the event about a decade ago. As for the city council’s recent decision to make bars stop selling alcohol at midnight during the rally, Tyson said the bar staff was “kind of looking forward to it” Friday but that Saturday was “costly.”
“Saturday, it was just a bunch of fun locals who were dancing and having a ball, and it was definitely costly,” she said of the city mandate. “I can’t put an exact number on the thousands of dollars it cost me.”
Other local businesses that may not necessarily cater to bikers adjusted their offerings or even sold items such as water on the sidewalk. Bene owner Kathina Szeto—whose shop sells San Benito County-themed artisanal foods and other locally made goods—was selling trinkets and cold bottled water outside her shop over the warm rally weekend.
“People don’t come into our store. We’re like a fruit stand off the freeway,” she said. “This is a way we’re able to see what’s happening and be a part of it as well.”
