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| scuzzo84 |
 Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:26 pm |
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Joined: 10 Nov 2005
Posts: 76
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Intro:
There is a small town where my family lives in the south. Its literally a town, with old stuff, a plaza, a walmart that acts as a mall for everyone and basically nothing for kids to do, except maybe drugs. There is a street, and it has little stores, its called the plaza and it has a middle, high, and college school next to it. There is a skatepark about 5 miles away. The audience is for a skateshop is there. A friend told me there was a skateshop in the past, it was doing well, but the management of the plaza shut them down because kids would not stop skating in front of the store. The place for rent is on a street in the plaza.
Questions:
1. Where do I get skate products from? A distributor? If so, which one?
2. What is the minimum order of products? Like how many decks do I have to order? How many shoes do I have to order for XYZ company or the distributor? I will be a small shop and I dont have lots of funding. I want to carry 10-25 decks in the shop
3. What are the first products I should carry? Shoes? Decks? Trucks? Like what are the must haves for a skateshop to operate properly.
4. How much do skateshops get skate products at cost? From what I have seen, retails prices are, decks $50, trucks $35, wheels $28, these retails prices may be off, but I think they are just about right but how much would wheels, decks, and trucks cost from a distributor?
5. I read some posts on S and B about dealing with getting products for your own shop and they were saying sometimes its hard. They were making it seem that distributors dont care about customers and I guess they get enough business they dont give a crap about sending product out. I read this about shoes too. Is this true? If so whats the deal?
6. What skate products make good profit and whats products dont make much profit?
7. Any tips or advice for a new small shop, please share |
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| PlayGod |
| Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:14 pm |
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ORDER OF THE SKULL
Joined: 05 Nov 2003
Posts: 3882
Location: Dirty South
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| You should talk to the Neyman family at Flamingo Skateshop in Chattanooga, TN. |
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Ain't no way I'm gonna be anything I ought to be. |
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| auragreg |
| Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 2:50 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 2382
Location: Highland, Michigan, USA, Earth
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As a shop owner who has a shop in a "No Skateboarding" parking lot, your customers will ALWAYS skate in your parking lot no matter what you say to them. You can ask nice, you can say that you'll be kicked out ... they will still skate there. And I can't blame them.
But your landlord can blame you. And will.
I get blamed for any skateboard related stuff that happens outside. Even if I dont know about it. Or they arent even customers of mine.
As far as product. Go thru a distributor. Most have a first minimum order (that varies). Credit card terms. Most skate hardware is a 30-50% markup. That, also, you have to decide on what to price your stuff at.
Shoes are a whole other beast. Expect to pay $2,500 minimum for EACH brand. Yes - for EACH brand. Rediculous.
Brands are going to depend on what your customers want. For that, only YOU can figure that out. |
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I was born to love you. I was born to lick your face. I was born to rub you. But you were born to rub me first.
Support skateboard art/artists: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BurbSkateboards |
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| kirksucks |
| Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 2:37 pm |
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ORDER OF THE SKULL
Joined: 11 Oct 2005
Posts: 5446
Location: EUREKA!
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| a shop here built a miniramp in the store so kids never skate outside the store. another shop a long time ago had a street and quarterpipe set up in the back of the shop which kept kids off the streets. |
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| brianzig |
| Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:23 am |
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Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 342
Location: South Carolina
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scuzzo84 wrote: Intro:
There is a small town where my family lives in the south. Its literally a town, with old stuff, a plaza, a walmart that acts as a mall for everyone and basically nothing for kids to do, except maybe drugs. There is a street, and it has little stores, its called the plaza and it has a middle, high, and college school next to it. There is a skatepark about 5 miles away. The audience is for a skateshop is there. A friend told me there was a skateshop in the past, it was doing well, but the management of the plaza shut them down because kids would not stop skating in front of the store. The place for rent is on a street in the plaza.
Questions:
1. Where do I get skate products from? A distributor? If so, which one?
2. What is the minimum order of products? Like how many decks do I have to order? How many shoes do I have to order for XYZ company or the distributor? I will be a small shop and I dont have lots of funding. I want to carry 10-25 decks in the shop
3. What are the first products I should carry? Shoes? Decks? Trucks? Like what are the must haves for a skateshop to operate properly.
4. How much do skateshops get skate products at cost? From what I have seen, retails prices are, decks $50, trucks $35, wheels $28, these retails prices may be off, but I think they are just about right but how much would wheels, decks, and trucks cost from a distributor?
5. I read some posts on S and B about dealing with getting products for your own shop and they were saying sometimes its hard. They were making it seem that distributors dont care about customers and I guess they get enough business they dont give a crap about sending product out. I read this about shoes too. Is this true? If so whats the deal?
6. What skate products make good profit and whats products dont make much profit?
7. Any tips or advice for a new small shop, please share
First off, where are you located? We've been looking for a place to expand to. LOL Seriously, find another place to rent. You don't have to be in the plaza. As the only skateshop in town, they will find you wherever you are. A good skateshop is a "destination" store. You aren't relying on the casual passerby to enter the store and purchase something. The people that come to the shop will have a purchase already in mind ie. deck, wheels, grip ect. and will find you if you have what they want.
Get a distributor. Simple. Call Eastern Skate Supply, Smoothill, South Shore, ect. and ask for a dealer application. But you can't do that until you are a legal business. Gotta have the retail license and some retail space before they will deal with you. Minimum order is usually around $1000-1500 for the first order and $100 minimum after that. Trust me, to properly setup the shop you will need more than the minimum. You could probably get away with the minimum, but you won't make a living off of it. It would be more of a hobby and you surely won't want to quit your day job. And have a credit card as they will require payment via it or COD.
Must haves? First off, unless you are really serious and have the capital (which it appears you don't have) you can forget about shoes from the bigger companies. $2K and up minimums from EACH company will eat up a budget real quick. South Shore Distribution carries Duffs, Eastern carries Dekline. At a minimum you will need decks, trucks, wheels, bearings, hardware, risers, grip, misc hardware (bolts, kingpins, wheel washers, ect). Then some accessories such as wax, wallets, stickers, magazines, ect. You can pick up some hats, tshirts, hoodies and probably forget about the denim to start. All of this can be purchased from a distributor. Best advice I can give....get at least two if you can. It means two minimum orders, but will round out your product selection since some will carry items the other doesn't.
Price? These are loose estimates based on the average price you will pay. Some prices will be higher/lower depending on the item or brands. Also you can always just buy the sale items to save some.
Decks - $36-38
Wheels - Blanks $10, rest $20ish
Trucks - $13-30ish most leaning toward the $25 range per set
Bearings - 5$ and up per set
Hardware $1-3
Grip - $40-80 for a roll or carton
Tshirts $10
Hoodies $20-30
Hats $10-15
As far as the attitude off the distributors, mine are great. I love 'em! We have a great relationship and they always take care of us. Everything hinges on your sales reps whether you have big accounts or distributors. You should be fine though. Most reps are great. Now, becoming a retailer for the big brands is a bigger problem and can be summed up as this. Unless you are a shop that they feel they "need" to be placed in, you won't get anywhere. It took me making phone calls to all the big dogs everyday, and I mean everyday, until I finally landed our first account. I think I just got on the reps nerves. LOL Actually I lucked out and he was really cool and saw that we were serious, had no competition in the area that he already sold to (important) and we could meet the minimum $3k order. After that we were golden and we were able to get more accounts because we carried that one big line. But, some still won't return our calls or sell to us because of the skateshop in the next town (they carry the line from that particular vendor). It's hit or miss and I would concentrate more on just getting started with the basics.
As far as profit? Profit? LOL. Remember what I said about your day job? Basically, hardgoods are less of a profit margin than shoes and clothing, but you will be selling more hardgoods than clothes to start (probably). We sell more hardgoods than clothes, but we sell a ton of it so volume helps.
Thats it in a basic, very basic package. You need a business plan. Especially for starting up. Everyone hates to do them, but it will help. It doesn't have to be an elaborate 20 page plan, but set up your startup costs, retail renovations, racks, displays ect. It will help. Find your retail space, get legal paperwork in order, get insurance (get a quote now) and then work on distributors. |
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