It is not just the name that make Adriane and Shane Power a power couple.
The pair are former college athletes, and Shane still does college basketball broadcasting. Additionally, he is involved with nonprofit boards — he is currently board chair for Make a Wish Arizona — and is an entrepreneur in the healthcare space.
One of the newer ventures there is with Adriane. Together, they own Mobility City, a mobility equipment franchise in Gilbert that sells, rents and repairs power wheelchairs, scooters, beds, chairs and a bevy of related accessories. The Florida-based company has nearly 40 locations across the nation.
It was Shane who spotted the opportunity. He had been looking for another business to purchase, but the franchise opportunity with Mobility City caught his eye.
“What spoke to him initially was the fact that it's a useful service within our community,” Adriane said. “He's just so big on cause-driven anything behind your business. He's always tried to tie in a charity or something like that because if it's not doing some good, he's just not interested — period.”
Mobility City fits that as it helps people in need of help with mobility as they age or recover from injury or illness.
“Not everybody needs something long term, or they just had a surgery or they're coming to visit in town or whatever the scenario,” Adriane said. “So we have a lot of rentals with hospital beds and scooters and wheelchairs.”
Adriane does the day-to-day operations of the store while Shane mainly works out in the field, seeking partnerships and contacts, while also tending to his other interests.
“It didn’t take a whole lot of convincing (for her to get involved),” she said. “I see that it can be fun, see that it's going to be a challenge. But the fact that there's a model already, I don't have to come up with all of this from scratch. And having talked to them, they have a great support system where when you need help, there's always somebody there to tell you, based on their experience, the answer or guide you in the right direction to find the answer. So there's a science to it, but it's not rocket science.”
Adriane had mainly been a stay-at-home mom since they were married. She is Canadian and had come to the States on a softball scholarship. After school, she had worked in Kansas City for the Royals, then came to Arizona to study sports psychology.
Shane was rehabbing from injury in Arizona after a professional basketball career in Italy and had a job out here. They met while living in the same apartment complex and got married at Freestone Park. They live in south Gilbert with their two girls.
“I quit my job and retired, we like to call it, which sounded really great at the time,” she said. “But yeah, I stayed home for almost 10 years with our kids.”
With the children a little older, it was a good time for Adriane to return to work.
“I was always open to it,” she said. "I also didn't want anyone, especially Shane, to think that I'm not willing to go and do what it takes if duty calls.”
They opened Mobility City last August. They have three employees and business has been going well. Expansion even is possible as they have exclusive rights to Maricopa County.
“It's big,” she said of the area. “It's like extra big, and we're kind of at the edge of it over here. We go out to Peoria and Glendale and Buckeye and all the places, North Phoenix. So if we could get another location somewhere between Phoenix and the West Valley, that would be awesome. I think we would probably add another vehicle first, and then that would be next.”
Another vehicle would be helpful as much of their business is repairs. They even do wheelchair maintenance programs for facilities that have a fleet of wheelchairs.
One key point for Mobility City is customer service. The Powers see it as lacking many places.
“People think I'm too young to care about that, but it's pretty abysmal,” Adriane said. “People aren't as much into just helping people and being nice and neighborly. He's a Midwest guy, so he's totally used to that.”
Then she adds, while breaking out into laughter, “And I'm Canadian, and we're all nice, so. …"
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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