![]() ![]() There is nothing left to pick up and run with. When the Messena’s had it it was a tight ship, especially with Steve, but then it got ran into the ground (or oyster bed). ACK was still primarily an online business, the stores stocked very little of what they sold. I know ACK did get a “retailer of the year” award once but I personally know of several stores that would paddle circles around them in all aspect of retail. “Not able to accept exchanges or returns “ that’s interesting. People like Kelly Galloup seem to make it work with guiding, lodging and a fly shop all rolled into one operation. Internet, big box store competition with lower overhead driving down margins. There are a lot of energetic and creative business people out there to figure it out.įly fishing shops seem to be in a similar predicament. Some added service, guiding or travel expertise or livery or something. Seems like you’d have to add something to make it work well. I’ve gone through a lot more vehicles in that time frame. I’ve bought 3 new kayaks, two from ACK (one from canoesport) and one from FTU in over 30 years of fishing with kayaks. If I am a typical customer they’d never make it. ![]() How good can the margins be to begin with? Big box stores and the internet selling every under the sun to compete with. A million offerings out there and a ton of cheaper models always putting downward pressure on the overall prices. Selling kayaks and related accessories alone seems like a tough business to make it in. There's T&G Canoes in San Marcos.and that's it? Of course there are REI's and other box stores, but all the other major cities in Texas have those as well. The issue now with San Antonio and Austin is there are no shops to support a very large paddling population of Texas. (I know their CS was stellar before the merger/sell a few years back, and I would think most would agree their CS started to decline after that point) ![]() The customer service I have received wasn't the best, where I feel like I had more negative experiences than positive, but I still supported them because it was still important to have their presence locally. Mainly due to where I lived I had local options (Corpus - JerryB's & Wind & Wave DFW - Mountain Sports & Mariner Sails), but when I moved back to SA/Austin Areas in 2018 I would occasionally pop in and pick up or order a few small items here and there as needed for replacement. That is the conundrum.Īdmittedly, I haven't done too much business with ACK since I started kayaking. AND at the same time they need to support our needs. We need to support our local brick and mortar retailers. Unfortunately this is just another sign of the times. I could see it go downhill rapidly there after. They sold (or merged was the story) and Steve “retired” shortly after I did. I used to sell a lot of product to ACK for decades when the Messena’s owned it. I was kind of wondering when this was going to happen. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |