How do they do it? TCO/Orvis

[Bamboozle]

It's also worth noting that there is a difference between Orvis dealers and Orvis owned stores.

Obviously it doesn't invalidate what you said, but in southeast PA for a LONG time until relatively recently, there was no such thing as a Orvis Company store. I know they have shops there now, but I've never set foot in any of them.

FWIW - The first Orvis owned store I experienced was the first NYC Orvis store that opened in the early 1980's. I'm really not sure if there was such a thing as an Orvis Company store before that decade anywhere except Vermont.

Even the now defunct Orvis stores in Bethlehem or Allentown that were advertised as "Orvis Stores" were actually franchises because they were run by owners, not managers like the NYC store.

I don't know if that is still an option to peddle their wares today...

 

[Bamboozle]

I miss the original Eyler's on Lancaster Ave in Ardmore. It was the first fly shop I ever visited as a kid, back in the 70's. I remember Mr. Eyler well. Ahh, the good old days!

I bought my first fly rod (a 5'0" 4wt 1pc Tommy Forwood Special built on a Lamaglass spinning rod blank) and first reel (a CFO II ) from that shop. I still have the receipt too!!

This photo is from bit earlier than 1970 but...

I wish I had pictures of the inside of the Ardmore store like I do of Bryn Mawr:

 

[wildtrout2]

I bought my first fly rod (a 5'0" 4wt 1pc Tommy Forwood Special built on a Lamaglass spinning rod blank) and first reel (a CFO II ) from that shop. I still have the receipt too!!

This photo is from bit earlier than 1970 but...

View attachment 1641225749

I wish I had pictures of the inside of the Ardmore store like I do of Bryn Mawr:

View attachment 1641225750

Very cool pics! I do remember those two fish mounts being in the Ardmore store. The one is a tarpon and the other a trout of some sort, I believe.

 

[Bamboozle]

Very cool pics! I do remember those two fish mounts being in the Ardmore store. The one is a tarpon and the other a trout of some sort, I believe.

The funny thing about Eyler's for me is, I became acquainted with the store before I was a fly fisherman when I went there to buy plastic worms.

A few years later when I decided to get started with fly fishing, I went back and bought my first rod & reel there because it was the only "fly shop" I knew of.

To say I was heavily influenced by Tom would be an understatement.