Yellow breaches fly shop!?!?

franklin- That's a start but if you are over 45 yrs old it will probably fail as you will be labeled as someone who is "trying too hard".

You must look young and you need to cultivate a casual, rumpled look....unshaven and possibly walk around the shop in weird slippers or bare feet...(You also need an appropriate soundtrack. this should be some generic space music or "bluegrassy" type thing or even the Grateful Dead will do). This signifies your authenticity...THEN you can schmooze your way to a multi thousand dollar sale of some fishing gear that is worth a tiny fraction of that.
 
It looks like I may be going to Pine grove Furnace in late April so I'll have to check out the YB TCO shop.
 
joebamboo wrote:
If you ask he owners of the smaller fly shops, you will find that they make their profit on terminal tackle. They may carry and occasionally sell rods, reels, waders. One shop owner says that the majority of regular fly fishers rarely by new rods on a consistent basis, however, they do purchase the necessary terminal tackle items.
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Yeah a lot of folks here on PAFF dismiss the small items like tippet and flies and argue that big sales keep shops in business. Any shop owner that is honest will tell you they pray for good fishing conditions so that they can make steady sales of flies, tippet etc. They can't count on selling a rod every day, but if people are fishing, they can count on selling the small essentials.

A well stocked shop has a huge amount of money tied up in their inventory of flies tippet, leaders, hooks, shot, etc. Even a minimal selection requires a substantial investment for a small time shop.

On a different note...

Online sales may hurt brick and mortar shops, but it is just as much due to web sales of 25 cent flies, inexpensive fly boxes, %50 off discounted fly lines, etc., etc. as it is due to sales of rods and waders. And I'm not just talking about cheapo Chinese made junk. I know that if I watch sierratradingpost.com I can pick up name brand fly lines at a huge discount. Bigger shops like TCO and Madison River Fishing Co. have a strong web presence which not only augments (or even exceeds) their normal sales but also provides an outlet for clearing out inventory. Some little shops refuse to get involved in online sells, even refusing to use ebay to clear out discontinued inventory. Then, they are saddled with that inventory into the following year and have less cash to invest into current gear.
The brick and mortar only model died over a decade ago, web presence is a necessity now.
 
Now what you need to do is commodify whatever stream or region where your shop is located.This can be done with online stream reports and blogs about successful outings. Also every shop needs a resident genius. Some hot shot who knows how to tie a lot of knots and knows the lingo. Hopefully he has fished out west at least a season or two. He can give presentations at TU meetings etc. where he will offer his expertise. Picture a twenty or thirty something guy giving a powerpoint slideshow to a bunch of guys who've been fishing longer than he has been alive.
 
Now what you need to do is commodify whatever stream or region where your shop is located.This can be done with online stream reports and blogs about successful outings. Also every shop needs a resident genius. Some hot shot who knows how to tie a lot of knots and knows the lingo. Hopefully he has fished out west at least a season or two. He can give presentations at TU meetings etc. where he will offer his expertise. Picture a twenty or thirty something guy giving a powerpoint slideshow to a bunch of guys who've been fishing longer than he has been alive.
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And how is this any different than what's been happening in the 'fly fishing industry' for the last 100+ years? Other than the fact that you've got some sort of beef with the new kids traipsing across your lawn? The Catskills, Poconos, Southcentral Limestoners, Rangely Lake region of Maine, the BlueRidge and everywhere else in between here and that other ocean to the west where there is 'destination fishing'....they've all been promoted by the local shops in a business sense, there's really nothing new to the business model that you're griping about. Other than the fact that it's being carried out by a bunch of fresh blooded youngsters you apparently don't approve of for whatever reason...
 
tomitrout wrote:
Other than the fact that it's being carried out by a bunch of fresh blooded youngsters you apparently don't approve of for whatever reason...
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We have a winner!!!!!
 
foxtrapper1972 wrote:
Picture a twenty or thirty something guy giving a powerpoint slideshow to a bunch of guys who've been fishing longer than he has been alive.
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If a guy who is twenty something is giving a presentation to a bunch of old farts... ...there is a reason the old farts are there listening to him. He either knows a lot or has something interesting to talk about.

It seems you are suggesting the above scenario is ridiculous because age/years = expertise. Well, I'm here to tell you, there are lots guys who have been doing it for 40 years and have been doing it wrong for 40 years too. Can't cast a lick, only fish their local crap hole ATW, their flies look like hell, etc. etc.

And no, contrary to folksy wisdom, these guys usually DO NOT catch a pile of fish.
 
I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.

 
Foxtrapper, for how much you seem to eschew a fly shop using online presence, social media, etc., you sure do spend a lot of time on a social media platform bashing them for it. Few businesses, of any type can survive without an online presence. Why should fly shops be any different?

Btw, we get it, you dislike TCO.
 
PaLongbow, good luck man.

The multi-sport approach is probably a good one from a consistency of sales perspective. But also involves more capital to get in the game and do it right, as well as always carrying more inventory. Soon you're not a fly shop but a full fledged sporting good store. Not that this is a bad thing, necessarily. But it's a warning of how far down that path to go. in my experience, the more a shop carries, the less good they are in any one subject.

Think about it. Cabelas does hunting, archery, fly fishing, camping, spin fishing, etc. And they do it fairly well. But that's with a megastore. And even one of their stores doesn't compare favorably in fly fishing to a good local fly shop. They don't compare in archery to a good local archery shop.

Remember, the draw of the local shop is generally that they carry and service more and better stuff in a specific sport than the broader based sporting good stores can do, with employees who are true experts specializing in that. If instead you go after a broader base of sports, you're really moving closer to the business model of the huge sporting good giants. And it might be tougher to compete with them if you're not offering anything above and beyond what they do.

Just something to keep in mind. If you find yourself scaling back inventory in one sport in order to broaden your base, you may be giving up your hook. I'm sure a fly shop looking at sales figures might decide that 40 varieties of chenille can be pared to 10 or 15 of the best selling ones. But we like local fly shops because they carry 40 varieties of chenille, including that one that only I and 3 other guys find absolutely perfect to tie our local invention of a fly. No other will do.
 
I'm waiting for a "when I was your age" coming any minute now. All this talk about the shop I feel like I need to make a special trip to see what got all this started, somehow I think I will be disappointed either way.
 
pcray1231 wrote:
PaLongbow, good luck man.

The multi-sport approach is probably a good one from a consistency of sales perspective. But also involves more capital to get in the game and do it right, as well as always carrying more inventory. Soon you're not a fly shop but a full fledged sporting good store. Not that this is a bad thing, necessarily. But it's a warning of how far down that path to go. in my experience, the more a shop carries, the less good they are in any one subject.

Think about it. Cabelas does hunting, archery, fly fishing, camping, spin fishing, etc. And they do it fairly well. But that's with a megastore. And even one of their stores doesn't compare favorably in fly fishing to a good local fly shop. They don't compare in archery to a good local archery shop.

Remember, the draw of the local shop is generally that they carry and service more and better stuff in a specific sport than the broader based sporting good stores can do, with employees who are true experts specializing in that. If instead you go after a broader base of sports, you're really moving closer to the business model of the huge sporting good giants. And it might be tougher to compete with them if you're not offering anything above and beyond what they do.

Just something to keep in mind. If you find yourself scaling back inventory in one sport in order to broaden your base, you may be giving up your hook. I'm sure a fly shop looking at sales figures might decide that 40 varieties of chenille can be pared to 10 or 15 of the best selling ones. But we like local fly shops because they carry 40 varieties of chenille, including that one that only I and 3 other guys find absolutely perfect to tie our local invention of a fly. No other will do.
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Longbow is looking to combine two niche sports in one store and not become a general sporting goods store. Fly-fishing and traditional archery would be a winning combination, IMO. And as I stated earlier, the seasonality shifts for both sports mesh perfectly. When fly shops owners are sitting around in August hoping to sell a few poppers to make their day, Longbow's shop will selling long bows (and recurves)... :)
 
The TCO store in Reading does not put the prices on a lot of the merchandise. You have to ask an employee to find out how much something costs. Is this a sales tactic? I wonder if they will do the same thing at the new store?
 
Foxtrap- you musta been pissed when Petticoat Junction got cancelled.
Don't worry it's reruns are on- but ohhp, you gotta pay for cable.

I wonder if people write to the Internet as mush about their fords or lawn boys? In any event , mildly entertaining.
 
I'll be the real old fart - somebody has to do it. Today we have an embarrassment of riches. Back in the 60's I don't remember any fly shops, only dirty old sporting goods stores with some iffy fly stuff. Today fly tackle is generally good, but back then a lot of crap was sold. Reed Tackle mail order was as close to the internet as it got, and deliveries took 6 weeks. No last minute hatch matching materials. One had to plan the season ahead, but funds could preclude that. Not everything was so great in the "good old days."

I've supported Jonas, TCO, and FFP on my trips to central PA. Yes, the stores and staff have different character, but all are good stores that carried what I needed for successful days on the local limestoners.
 
yeah-in Wilmington De. you could buy very good flies in Wilmington sporting goods[owned by a DuPont ] but they cost an outrageous 15 cents EACH...guess they only wanted to pander to the idle rich...
 
kidding above but using the factor of ten they would still be a good buy.
 
afishinado wrote:
Longbow is looking to combine two niche sports in one store and not become a general sporting goods store. Fly-fishing and traditional archery would be a winning combination, IMO. And as I stated earlier, the seasonality shifts for both sports mesh perfectly. When fly shops owners are sitting around in August hoping to sell a few poppers to make their day, Longbow's shop will selling long bows (and recurves)... :)
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I believe that was Joe Ackourey's exact model. His shop was nearby to Benton, in a bigger population hub, and eventually had to close. I know all circumstances are different, but it's a hard market (especially with all the emerging online retailers).
 
This is som great advertising for them. I think TCO-MART should give me a discount;)
 
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