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| brianzig |
 Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:36 am |
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Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 342
Location: South Carolina
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grim reaper wrote: well boys and girls I called it quits! Spirit Skate Shop is closed down and it feels darn good.no more worries about product,crappy reps,lame companies,asr,whats the new hot,bums,discounts,bills,taxes and a whole lot more bullshat that comes with owning a legit skate shop.
The average person has no idea, do they? It's been a long 2008 so far with every month so far being a struggle. I've just been glad to be able to make the bills each month. Nothing left over, but everything has been covered. July down, now to start August which shouldn't be a problem since it's back to school time. My goal has been to make it here then gear up for Christmas. Mission accomplished.
I totally understand where you are coming from though with all the headaches, and I really hate being poor, but closing isn't even an option since I have so much tied up into it. Luckily, I was able to get our online store up and running before the bottom dropped out and the extra sales here and there helped carry us through. We are by no means doing the biz that some of the guys out there are doing with it...yet. LOL.
We also really cut down our inventory this year. With some creative merchandising and use of POP we've been able to conceal it pretty well. I just couldn't sit on the stuff that wasn't moving fast like before. Denim is out. We've gone back to basics. T's, hats, hoodies, shoes. "We Special Order" and "We are faster and cheaper than CCS" signs are strategically placed and we are doing a bunch of special ordering. We also had a crap load of skate DVD's that were just sitting there. The only ones that really sell are the newest ones. The old ones, not so much. We opened them all up and now offer skate DVD rentals. $3 for two nights. After 3-4 rentals most are paid for some. Some after two. Its a great selling point that they can actually watch a skate DVD on the TV instead of at the computer screen (where most say they watch skate videos now).
Also, the shop/park in the town north of me just closed this week. |
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| auragreg |
| Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 2:09 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 2382
Location: Highland, Michigan, USA, Earth
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grim reaper wrote: well boys and girls I called it quits! Spirit Skate Shop is closed down and it feels darn good.no more worries about product,crappy reps,lame companies,asr,whats the new hot,bums,discounts,bills,taxes and a whole lot more bullshat that comes with owning a legit skate shop.
Hopefully you can get out clean ....
I still owe about $50,000 after closing up. I close out of fear that I was only going to dig a bigger and bigger hole.
Man the economy sucks so bad right now. I'm in Michigan and it's HORRIBLE here. Everything is closing or Chapter 11. |
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| flash |
| Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:44 pm |
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Joined: 14 Mar 2007
Posts: 152
Location: east siiide!
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its been a long time since i've been by here but i'm sorry to hear about all these shops closing. 
i've been looking into opening a shop but the rents are so high and i haven't found any locations that i can actually buy. i prefer not to rent a place since it means i'll be busting my hump day in and day out so i can make the landlord rich, you know what i mean.
while i've been on the hunt for some retail space to own, i've been running it out of my place. its not big by any means but its at least providing a real spot for the kids to go to for the time being. i'm only carrying hardgoods with minimal softgoods(just tees) so its not a big money maker. i don't have a high mark up because i'm not paying commercial rent but so far its paying for a couple of bills(electric/phone), hopefully more in the months to come.
if any of you guys own your own homes, you could run a shop out of your garage or something? i know that seems kind of ghetto but when times are tough, you gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet. i didn't want to do it out of my place but it was either that or rent some place with an astronomical rent and fail within a year.
anyway dudes, keep you head up. when things seem they're at their worst, they can only get better. |
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| flash |
| Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:45 pm |
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Joined: 14 Mar 2007
Posts: 152
Location: east siiide!
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| brianzig |
| Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:15 am |
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Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 342
Location: South Carolina
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Just thought I would bump to see how things are going now with some of you. Just in the last few months in my area we have had two skateparks close, two shops that I know of, and a third park on it's deathbed(hasn't been able to pay rent and is waiting for the landlord to kick them out).
As for us, we're still scraping along but we took a bold move and moved into a new place. A little more expensive each month, but the building is only 3 years old (as compared to almost 80 years for our old place), has the same square footage, and is on the corner of a busy intersection right across from a middle school. Since this is a free standing property as compared to our old off main street building, we have plenty of parking now and we are in a better neighborhood. Now we won't have to tell people, "Yeah, we are located right between the Soup Kitchen and the bar". Parents just loved that. LOL. A one year lease with the option to continue month to month after that was also a plus. We are 2 1/2 years in. I'm putting a lot of sacrifice of money, time, and effort into getting us through this next year. 2008 has been rough. The economy is not helping and everyone is clamping down on their spending.  What is helping is all my brothers out there placing orders online. Thanks, I really appreciate it! And hey, Christmas is coming. I think. I hope. |
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| notus |
| Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:18 pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2007
Posts: 90
Location: North Augusta South Carolina
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Zig I started to give you a call and see how it's going up there. I drove by the big peach in August and would have looked you up but I was on a deadline for work. Anyway we're pretty dead here the gas situation hit us so bad the last couple of weeks nobody has any money to lay down on anything else if they can find any gas that is.
So I'm putting together some completes with the dead/slow items. Then I'm going to stock some price points and unblank things. Goodwoods new two tone line is moving and blank wheels are always easy to blow out at 10-15 bucks a set when you buy them right.
I'm also headed to the bay tommorow to see if any of my stock will sell there.
Other than hijacking this thread and wandering into another beer, it's slow here, again........
Anybody need some deals on popsicle decks and trucks? I've got some grind kings and krux's I'll get right on hit me pm. |
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| brianzig |
| Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 10:25 pm |
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Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 342
Location: South Carolina
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notus wrote: Zig I started to give you a call and see how it's going up there. I drove by the big peach in August and would have looked you up but I was on a deadline for work. Anyway we're pretty dead here the gas situation hit us so bad the last couple of weeks nobody has any money to lay down on anything else if they can find any gas that is.
So I'm putting together some completes with the dead/slow items. Then I'm going to stock some price points and unblank things. Goodwoods new two tone line is moving and blank wheels are always easy to blow out at 10-15 bucks a set when you buy them right.
I'm also headed to the bay tommorow to see if any of my stock will sell there.
Other than hijacking this thread and wandering into another beer, it's slow here, again........
Anybody need some deals on popsicle decks and trucks? I've got some grind kings and krux's I'll get right on hit me pm.
Yeah, the whole gas thing has been a pain here as well. Max $20 cash for gas at the pump barely gets you anything. That's if you can find it or don't mind waiting. The effects have trickled down to all the businesses in the area. I was at the local roller skating rink tonight picking up a few free passes for our kids school fall festival and the place was nearly empty on a Friday night. They are usually slam packed and said they were hurting and worried. Freightliner is one of our larger companies here and they just laid off 350 people.
At this point in the game, every decision is a critical one. No room for mistakes or bad calls. It also means shifting what we've normally stocked into only the "sure things" and scaling back on things that normally sit for awhile for us. Back to basics. Decks are moving OK, trucks and wheels are just so-so, but granted they last a lot longer. Denim is gone, no one is even thinking of $50-60 jeans. Tees, hats, and some hoodies are it. Accessories are moving well since most of them are under $20. We've seen a lot less complete purchases. It seems most guys are piecing it out getting what they can afford and getting the rest later. Things are tight for sure.
On a side note, I never did ask...did that grip I sent to you arrive in time for that order pickup? |
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