Except... it’s not a bar. And it’s three economists, not one.

Three economists on a road trip to Maine after an academic conference in Boston wandered into a local shoe store looking to kill some time. Little did they know it would spark a nationwide trek in search of Main Street business lessons from which big and small business alike might learn.

Michael Mazzeo, Paul Oyer, and Scott Schaefer were so intrigued by the unusually pushy sales staff that they engaged the owner and staff in a long conversation about the merits of the store’s secret shopper program. The conversation inspired the trio to hop in a car, escape the ivory towers of b-school, and head out on a road trip through America’s heartland on a quest to answer a single question: What can big businesses on Wall Street learn from small businesses on Main Street?

Instead of teaching the tried-and-true case studies from the likes of GE and Microsoft, what if they could instead uncover from back-road businesses a more tangible way to learn about everything from pricing to brand management to team building?

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