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| brianzig |
 Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:04 pm |
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Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 342
Location: South Carolina
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OK, my accountant told me it's time to get creative. LOL. I was wondering what some other shops are doing besides skate. I hate the thoughts of giving up my so called "core" status by selling stuff other than skate brands, but times are tight. I've been an avid bicyclist for almost as long as I've been skating and have thought about turning some of the shop over to bikes or at least repairs. We don't have an bike shop in our area so it might work out in our favor. I'm not sure where I'm heading with this so I thought I would see what some of you might be doing or if you had any suggestions of combinations you've seen work elsewhere.
We already have two skateparks in our town. A free modular city park and a private warehouse park so opening a park isn't really an option. I have thought about giving up part of our back for a mini, but I don't think that will contribute much to helping the bottom line. I've seen paintball in a bunch of shops, but I'm just not interested in that route. Anyway....thoughts? |
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| auragreg |
| Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:45 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 2382
Location: Highland, Michigan, USA, Earth
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you will definately lose your "core" status. Especially if you go with something not skate oriented. But it's all up to you. You'd have to gauge your customers. The big question ... will you actually LOSE customers because you now will have less $$ to put into skate stuff?
Personally, I'd try to bring in more stuff that your customers need. Shoes are huge and go fast, and still are skate related. Maybe you should throw more $$ into marketing and advertising. Throw some events. How about makeing a "hang out" type deal with bands and such at night?
I found that reputation is huge in skate shops. Parents don't care, but kids do. I guess it depends if you have competition.
When I first opened, I was sharing a space with a computer gaming company. I got tons of shit for it, and it impacted my reputation and first impression. Many "core" kids never came back. Even after the computer guys left and I had the whole space to myself.
I even found a weird line between snowboarding and skateboarding. The kids that snowboard tend to be much more "jock" like. There are kids that snowboard that are on the football team. That doesnt really exist in the skate crowd. I know it's a generalization, and there are people that do both. But in my expereience, the 2 crowds didn't mix and made for some awkward situations. |
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| boss |
| Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:31 pm |
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Joined: 19 Nov 2007
Posts: 227
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| If you live in a water sports community, you could offer some wake boards / wake skates / accys. Alot of skaters around here do the water sports thing, including me and my 2 sons. If our local skate shop carried that stuff we'd def give him the buisness. 2 cents. |
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| notus |
| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 5:34 pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2007
Posts: 90
Location: North Augusta South Carolina
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Zig I feel your pain! It's slow as crap around here and the way gas went up I doubt many parents are going to come off the extra cash for pro model decks right now. I've got some really nice "price points" in and some new product from skateseason "goodwood,blackout,two tone etc." those are working out because they are between a blank and a pro.
If gas goes up at this rate .80 cent today; I will be selling more longboards! The rush is insane the pumps are empty and people are panicking.
I've got a great viral rumor to start:
The BASF plant in Texas has been shut down because of the Hurricane. This is the plant that makes the resin used to laminate all skateboards and the urethane additives in wheels.
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/12/texas-chemical-companies-ready-for-ike/
Skateboard prices are expected to triple by this time next week and even more in the following weeks.
Tell your family, tell your friends hit your local skateshop this weekend and beat the price increase!
Oh yeah did I mention Ocean Ave got damaged in the last storm and Southshore is in Houston waiting on IKE and the power outages and who knows what.
UPS will be running skeleton crews with only full trucks on the road so delivery will be slow at the best.
I'm standing by the phone ready to take orders if anyone need any thing! 
We will be open all weekend...........
Back to the topic it's slow and the Hot Topic has most of the swag I see coming in the door lately. |
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