What’s going on with your local snowboard retailers?
Megan Burnett
This week, I decided to find out what is happening in your local snow shops. Hopefully this brings you a little more insight that you can somehow use in the future, even if it’s just by seeming (BUD)wiser when chatting it up with someone on lifts this weekend!
I called and chatted with (or possibly annoyed) five different snowboard retailers in five different areas to get the scoop on what’s been going on in local shops recently. K5 in San Diego, Wave Rave in Mammoth Lakes, Castle Snowboard Shop in Portland, Salty Peaks Snowboard Shop in Salt Lake City, and last but not least Sitzmark Sports in Kansas.
I know, you’re thinking “Kansas?” Honestly, I thought I was contacting a local shop in Montana near Blue Sky… NOPE! Who would have guessed a specialty snowboard shop could survive in Kansas? This one has been around and focused on snow sports for 41 years! Now it makes me wonder if Dorothy was secretly one of the first women to be dreaming up ideas of the snurfer because she wished she lived 600 miles closer to the slopes… well yeah, probably not.
Most of the information I gathered from each manager or owner, tied in with each store on a general basis. So here’s the low down…
In 2007 the shit’th had hit’th the fan! It was the year that everything really started to take a dive. Our economy was not the only problem for local shops. In 2007, online snowboard shops really started to explode all over the internet, including one deal at a time sites like steepandcheap.com. These sites are great for a good deal, but the sales had started to hurt local shops, who could not compete with the cheap deals on the internet.
I’m sure some of you have come across websites that have these deals that seem more like steals for snowboards, outerwear, etc. These sites usually have a maximum amount of product that you can purchase from them, like 2 goggles per household, and they usually only have a certain amount of products available for each category. You can look at these websites as if they are “scabs.” They get their hands on small amounts of product for dirt cheap and then resell to the public. Though they seem like a good deal, they can diminish the integrity of good brands by cheaping them, and also hurt your favorite local shops. I do not support these sites, even though they can be a good deal.
In 2007 many vendors over purchased product and ended up with massive amounts of overstock. In the years since, they all have learned their lesson, and have come to a stable place with most of their sales. This season, a lot of shops I talked to had even showed an increase in sales, benefiting from the great season some regions had thus far. Sometimes our industry has lulls or peaks that are directly related to snowfall and less driven by the economy in general.
In the past few years, one thing local shops have been doing to improve sales is adjusting their inventory to emphasize different brands. Some brands like Burton have even been taken out of a lot of local stores entirely due to their requirements for high minimum purchases from vendors, including crazy board to binding minimum purchase requirements (much higher than most comparable companies, and now a lot of general shops are complaining about Burton being an over distributed company)… but that’s a whole topic in itself.
Well they don’t call me Little Running Mouth for nothing! Hope you all enjoy your weekend in the fluffy white stuff and the conditions treat you well!
Tip of the Week:
Instead of just letting your old gear gather dust in storage, try to find a local snow consignment shop! Not only will you gain some more green for your next purchase when your stuff sells, but it’ll give someone with less money to spend the opportunity to stock up on the gear they need but can’t afford to buy new or at full price!
Posted by Megan Burnett on 01/11
