Recently I had to the opportunity to run a specialty retail store, working with a partner to turn around a local aquarium store in the bay area that focused on tropical freshwater aquariums prominently featuring live plants. The experience gave me an interesting perspective on the challenges of independent brick and mortar retail stores in the age of convenient online shopping.
We were able to run the store and make it successful by focusing on a service offering that attracted beginners who were looking for a combination of high quality equipment paired with knowledgeable advice to maximize their success.
I started to fish about 6 months ago and have been to a fair amount of tackle shops thus far and I can see how each one focuses and how their focus produces success or lack thereof.
What are you looking for in a local tackle shop? Are you willing to pay more to support a good one? If you were to open one, how would you run it?
As for me, I like when the shops carry live bait. A shop near me that consistently invests in carrying live bait gets my business even though their tackle prices are higher. They also are generous with their advice and target their advice pretty well to shore fishermen. Sometimes when I speak to knowledgeable people at other shops it seems that their personal experience is heavily focused on offshore fishing and they only have rudimentary advice for shore fishing. This place opens early on the weekend (5AM). This combined with the live bait stocking gets them some easy sales where guys are on their way to go fish which typically means they are less price sensitive than other times. Other than these two strengths the store is pretty average so when I am about to fish, I frequent other places that have better stocking levels, more tackle choices, and better prices.
I have been to 4 different local tackle shops multiple times and even though they all have their strengths none of them have given me an experience that would cause me to be loyal to them or go out of my way to support them over the others.
We were able to run the store and make it successful by focusing on a service offering that attracted beginners who were looking for a combination of high quality equipment paired with knowledgeable advice to maximize their success.
I started to fish about 6 months ago and have been to a fair amount of tackle shops thus far and I can see how each one focuses and how their focus produces success or lack thereof.
What are you looking for in a local tackle shop? Are you willing to pay more to support a good one? If you were to open one, how would you run it?
As for me, I like when the shops carry live bait. A shop near me that consistently invests in carrying live bait gets my business even though their tackle prices are higher. They also are generous with their advice and target their advice pretty well to shore fishermen. Sometimes when I speak to knowledgeable people at other shops it seems that their personal experience is heavily focused on offshore fishing and they only have rudimentary advice for shore fishing. This place opens early on the weekend (5AM). This combined with the live bait stocking gets them some easy sales where guys are on their way to go fish which typically means they are less price sensitive than other times. Other than these two strengths the store is pretty average so when I am about to fish, I frequent other places that have better stocking levels, more tackle choices, and better prices.
I have been to 4 different local tackle shops multiple times and even though they all have their strengths none of them have given me an experience that would cause me to be loyal to them or go out of my way to support them over the others.
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