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li7039

Opening your own LHS

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I don't know where to start! Holy Cow!! (Phil Rizzuto NY Yankee A/S Game reference) That was amusing on a slow summer day. Like the guys said, if TPS can't get in the game with a decent degree of saturation and Rick Nash, how will Joe from Brooklyn get there? This business will just chew you up and spit you out. Cooper, Daoust, Micron, Jofa, Koho, Canadien, Sher-Wood(back again), Titan, Orbit, Martinville, Louisville, and the list goes on and on. Next victim? I think we know who that is.

Hahaha, no I'm not the Joe from Brooklyn guy, I'm a misplaced hockey-loving Michigander living in Manhattan working in, of course, the wonderful world of finance. But to that guy who said that the big firms should buy those sticks for their sponsored teams in the corp leagues at Chelsea Piers to get his company some business / exposure: the firms pay for icetime / league fees / jerseys, and it varies from firm to firm, but I still have yet to see one buy their team equipment, although that would be nice.

Anyway, the store is located at 50 Mill Road in Freeport, Long Island, NY and it is called the One Stop Hockey Shop (although it soon may be renamed). His website is currently http://www.onestophockeyshop.com/ but it is currently down as it is being revamped. I have the owner's cell but I will see what phone number he wants people contacting him at if need be (has his card around here somewhere). Check it out and bring some CASH - it's a hockey player's dream especially if you like the good stuff. Later,

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Yeah add me to the list of people who want to know about this shop on LI. I love hockey shops and when I find a new one, I'll buy some tape or laces, just as a thank you for letting me look around.

Your a great customer and to bad your kind are few and far between. Your also the guy that most dealers will do something special for just because of that.

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And yes he is open for business and has been for a while...

And if you want a pricing "example" shoot me a PM and I can give you an "example". Later,

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Li,

I'm was in the same boat as you but fast forward five years. I'm going to be a senior in college majoring in business. I've been working at my towns hockey and lacrosse store store since I was 13, right around that time I stoped playing hockey(gasp). Because of this I sorta set myself apart from the other kids working there because I could work all winter because I didn't have hockey. Being there all the time, I became extremely close with the co-owners(a father and son). The son who is still 25 years older than me is one of my closest friends and his father who is almost 80 is one of the wisest people I know. Basically what I'm saying is if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would work for minimum wage for these guys for the rest of my life, I love it that much. My responsibilities are about as various as you get at a LHS. Sizing, fitting, stocking, pricing, equipment repair, customer service, cash register duty, ordering fill-in product, and just about anything else imaginable come across my plate at least once a week. The last two years I've even been in charge of placing all booking orders for just about every hard goods company. I've been to a couple "product summits" where companies outline at the begining of the booking season which direction their company is going in, what will be the same, what will change, ect... It's alot of fun. Being first to see equipment that isn't out yet, being able to get demo equipment, plus(the ultimate benefit) getting equipment at cost, sometimes less through employee discount programs.

That being said, barring a miracle(I don't play the lottery), I do not want to make a job on the retail side of hockey my livelihood. I am positive of this. Darkstar summed up the life of just about any small business owner very well. Refer back to his post even if you've read it once already. It isn't thankless but it is very hard. You are selling disposable product in a stagnant market. Mix that in with a bad economy where people are trying to stretch their dollar as far as possible and your outlook is bleak. Being in the hockey market violates the number one rule of retail. Sell something where your target market is as close to 100% of the population.

Sorry about the ramble. I'll leave you with this statement which sums up the job perfectly. "It's a fun way to earn a hard living."

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I had to open a mock business in my intro to business class last school year and I naturally opened a mock hockey store, I knew that it would be hard but like everyone else in my class I barely passed, because it required so much work and money research, and findng an ideal location with a fair lease price Ect, though I think your business would be much better then mine.

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I don't know where to start! Holy Cow!! (Phil Rizzuto NY Yankee A/S Game reference) That was amusing on a slow summer day. Like the guys said, if TPS can't get in the game with a decent degree of saturation and Rick Nash, how will Joe from Brooklyn get there? This business will just chew you up and spit you out. Cooper, Daoust, Micron, Jofa, Koho, Canadien, Sher-Wood(back again), Titan, Orbit, Martinville, Louisville, and the list goes on and on. Next victim? I think we know who that is.

Hahaha, no I'm not the Joe from Brooklyn guy, I'm a misplaced hockey-loving Michigander living in Manhattan working in, of course, the wonderful world of finance. But to that guy who said that the big firms should buy those sticks for their sponsored teams in the corp leagues at Chelsea Piers to get his company some business / exposure: the firms pay for icetime / league fees / jerseys, and it varies from firm to firm, but I still have yet to see one buy their team equipment, although that would be nice.

Anyway, the store is located at 50 Mill Road in Freeport, Long Island, NY and it is called the One Stop Hockey Shop (although it soon may be renamed). His website is currently http://www.onestophockeyshop.com/ but it is currently down as it is being revamped. I have the owner's cell but I will see what phone number he wants people contacting him at if need be (has his card around here somewhere). Check it out and bring some CASH - it's a hockey player's dream especially if you like the good stuff. Later,

Wow, a shop in Freeport. Never would've thunk it. Interesting choice of location - I mean, I guess it's close enough to Long Beach.

As far as your other comment, actually, the big firms do that.

http://www.onegoal.com

It's a grassroots operative that was set up by the manufacturers. Not everywhere yet, but my old rink in Novi had LTP programs sponsored by ONEGoal and they donated and lent equipment to kids.

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I'm supposed to be visiting Yankee stadium soon. I'm very, very eager to check out that store. Currently, I'm in N Fla and there's very little hockey. A shop selling just or mostly hockey stuff would get killed. However, Tampa is a much stronger market where niche stores can be successful, even in hockey.

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You're better off going to CT or NJ if you're going to be at the Stadium. Freeport would involve the LIRR and the N buses if you don't have a car. DarkStar50's shop in Hackensack (about 10 mi from 161th and River) would be closer than Freeport (32 mi)

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So far BEYOND wrong.
Next comes the dreaded internet. Not only are you competeing with price but also free shipping, less overhead, fewer employees and NO SALES TAX. How fair is that?

How am I wrong?

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Yeah add me to the list of people who want to know about this shop on LI. I love hockey shops and when I find a new one, I'll buy some tape or laces, just as a thank you for letting me look around.

Your a great customer and to bad your kind are few and far between. Your also the guy that most dealers will do something special for just because of that.

lol, thanx I guess. It's really nothing, I just hate walking into a small shop, looking around for like 20 min, bothering sales people asking questions and then walk out with nothing. It's just good manners, plus I can never have enough tape. With me taping my stick for every skate and my dog loving to chew on hockey tape, I go through tape like an NHL team.

What rink is Darkstar's store in jersey. Is that the one where the Avalanche play? I always thought his was in Bayonne and I avoid some guys from the Bayonne Rangers that hang out there.

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Ice House Pro Shop in Hackensack. During July and August, the shop is open Monday to Friday. We catch a break with no week-ends for 2 months. The rest of the year we are open all week. If you can't get here from NYC by car, you can take a bus from Port Authority at 42nd St or 178th St. VakarLajos did it to come over during USA Hockey National Championships in April!

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I don't know where to start! Holy Cow!! (Phil Rizzuto NY Yankee A/S Game reference) That was amusing on a slow summer day. Like the guys said, if TPS can't get in the game with a decent degree of saturation and Rick Nash, how will Joe from Brooklyn get there? This business will just chew you up and spit you out. Cooper, Daoust, Micron, Jofa, Koho, Canadien, Sher-Wood(back again), Titan, Orbit, Martinville, Louisville, and the list goes on and on. Next victim? I think we know who that is.

Hahaha, no I'm not the Joe from Brooklyn guy, I'm a misplaced hockey-loving Michigander living in Manhattan working in, of course, the wonderful world of finance. But to that guy who said that the big firms should buy those sticks for their sponsored teams in the corp leagues at Chelsea Piers to get his company some business / exposure: the firms pay for icetime / league fees / jerseys, and it varies from firm to firm, but I still have yet to see one buy their team equipment, although that would be nice.

Anyway, the store is located at 50 Mill Road in Freeport, Long Island, NY and it is called the One Stop Hockey Shop (although it soon may be renamed). His website is currently http://www.onestophockeyshop.com/ but it is currently down as it is being revamped. I have the owner's cell but I will see what phone number he wants people contacting him at if need be (has his card around here somewhere). Check it out and bring some CASH - it's a hockey player's dream especially if you like the good stuff. Later,

Wow, a shop in Freeport. Never would've thunk it. Interesting choice of location - I mean, I guess it's close enough to Long Beach.

As far as your other comment, actually, the big firms do that.

http://www.onegoal.com

It's a grassroots operative that was set up by the manufacturers. Not everywhere yet, but my old rink in Novi had LTP programs sponsored by ONEGoal and they donated and lent equipment to kids.

Yeah, no, I know about that. I was referring to the user in the Brooklynite post who was referring to the hockey article on Bloomberg.com where it says that the big firms out in NYC sponsor their own teams (which play in leagues at Chelsea Piers) - these firms do not buy their employees equipment as he thought - i.e. my firm I work for would not and does not buy sticks from a manufacturer and then give them to me to have and use during firm league games (although that would be excellent) - or any equipment for that matter. None of the firms I have seen do that. In regards to philanthropy, that's a different story. Think we're talking about two different things here. Later,

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After 30 years in the hockey business, I would do it again but I would do it for more money! You can love the game, love the people you know in it(it's a small circle), love buying gear for your shop, but you better love long hours, love worrying about selling your inventory especially the stuff that you thought would sell but isn't, love the customers who give you a hard time over bs, love opening early and staying late, love working on your day off when the part-timer called in sick, love opening orders to see where the vendor shipped the wrong items, love the customer's messed up custom order that you are stuck with, love listening to people ask you for a discount, and love people complaining about a $6 skate sharpening. Like I said, I love it after 30 years! No kidding, you just never know what you are getting in to. That is life.

I forgot to say you also better love when salesmen come into your shop without an appointment, since you are doing everything and pretty damn busy, to show you their latest, greatest, newest, and best ever hockey stick or glove or stick wax and you know it's a dog and won't sell in a million years because if it's not in the NHL and NHL player validated, then it's just not in the game, and you have to break the news to him. You better love that part. It still happens. Why it only happened yesterday. In cyberspace................. I wasn't the one who told him, though...........

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Yeah, no, I know about that. I was referring to the user in the Brooklynite post who was referring to the hockey article on Bloomberg.com where it says that the big firms out in NYC sponsor their own teams (which play in leagues at Chelsea Piers) - these firms do not buy their employees equipment as he thought - i.e. my firm I work for would not and does not buy sticks from a manufacturer and then give them to me to have and use during firm league games (although that would be excellent) - or any equipment for that matter. None of the firms I have seen do that. In regards to philanthropy, that's a different story. Think we're talking about two different things here. Later,

I was suggesting he throw some gear to the players themselves. Not for the firms to buy for the players. As an entrepreneur, having friends with deep pockets, or access to them, could come in handy.

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Yeah, no, I know about that. I was referring to the user in the Brooklynite post who was referring to the hockey article on Bloomberg.com where it says that the big firms out in NYC sponsor their own teams (which play in leagues at Chelsea Piers) - these firms do not buy their employees equipment as he thought - i.e. my firm I work for would not and does not buy sticks from a manufacturer and then give them to me to have and use during firm league games (although that would be excellent) - or any equipment for that matter. None of the firms I have seen do that. In regards to philanthropy, that's a different story. Think we're talking about two different things here. Later,

I was suggesting he throw some gear to the players themselves. Not for the firms to buy for the players. As an entrepreneur, having friends with deep pockets, or access to them, could come in handy.

It seemed you were implying otherwise but no matter - having friends with deep pockets is only good if you're selling a product they want - which in regards to that stick, even if he gave me a free one, while I would try it out, I would probably go back to Sher-wood; LONG LIVE SHER-WOOD. It's all good. Later,

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I forgot to say you also better love when salesmen come into your shop without an appointment, since you are doing everything and pretty damn busy, to show you their latest, greatest, newest, and best ever hockey stick or glove or stick wax and you know it's a dog and won't sell in a million years because if it's not in the NHL and NHL player validated, then it's just not in the game, and you have to break the news to him. You better love that part. It still happens. Why it only happened yesterday. In cyberspace................. I wasn't the one who told him, though...........

I turn every rep away that doesn't have an appoinment. As you said we are busy doing many other things and I'm not about to drop what I'm doing to meet with someone who just showed up unexpectedly. If they don't have the time to make a phone call to set up an appointment, at my convenience since I am the customer, then I don't have the time to see their products. If they want my business then they'll go about it the right way.

As far as the state of the economy - my shop is having record sales this year. In the last 10 years our sales have remained constant, other than during the NHL lockout in 2005, but this year our sales are up about 20%. I am an all hockey/figure skating store in SC so it definitely is possible to have a niche store in a smaller southern market and excel.

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Ice House Pro Shop in Hackensack. During July and August, the shop is open Monday to Friday. We catch a break with no week-ends for 2 months. The rest of the year we are open all week. If you can't get here from NYC by car, you can take a bus from Port Authority at 42nd St or 178th St. VakarLajos did it to come over during USA Hockey National Championships in April!

How about that, you run the Ice House shop?

I'm in there often.

Are you, for lack of a better way of putting it, the fellow who is always fitting people for custom figure skates?

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Ice House Pro Shop in Hackensack. During July and August, the shop is open Monday to Friday. We catch a break with no week-ends for 2 months. The rest of the year we are open all week. If you can't get here from NYC by car, you can take a bus from Port Authority at 42nd St or 178th St. VakarLajos did it to come over during USA Hockey National Championships in April!

How about that, you run the Ice House shop?

I'm in there often.

Are you, for lack of a better way of putting it, the fellow who is always fitting people for custom figure skates?

No, that is Jim. I'm the other old guy!

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Ice House Pro Shop in Hackensack. During July and August, the shop is open Monday to Friday. We catch a break with no week-ends for 2 months. The rest of the year we are open all week. If you can't get here from NYC by car, you can take a bus from Port Authority at 42nd St or 178th St. VakarLajos did it to come over during USA Hockey National Championships in April!

How about that, you run the Ice House shop?

I'm in there often.

Are you, for lack of a better way of putting it, the fellow who is always fitting people for custom figure skates?

No, that is Jim. I'm the other old guy!

:D

Check your PM!

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Anyway, the store is located at 50 Mill Road in Freeport, Long Island, NY and it is called the One Stop Hockey Shop (although it soon may be renamed). His website is currently http://www.onestophockeyshop.com/ but it is currently down as it is being revamped. I have the owner's cell but I will see what phone number he wants people contacting him at if need be (has his card around here somewhere). Check it out and bring some CASH - it's a hockey player's dream especially if you like the good stuff. Later,

I stumbled upon this site a few months ago and was lucky enough to get the last pair of TPS R8 gloves they had in stock. Man I love those gloves and the price could not be beat on any website I found. Shipping was very quick too. Most likely because I'm close by in PA.

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Yeah, his prices are great. If you ever go to the store, they are even better in person. Shipping is also very cheap compared to the bigger etailers and his is also fast. I'm telling you guys give him a call or stop in and check him out. You'll be doing yourself a favor if you are going to buy something hockey related. Later,

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This is a pretty interesting topic. I think we have all dreamed of hanging around the shop all day sharpening a few skates and shooting the shit about gear but few have actually thought about what actually goes into building a sucessful shop and the actual amount of capital needed.

I am not famaliar with the industry but am curious so maybe one of the shop guys could enlighten me. With high cost to stock new product and keep inventory in stock how do shops afford this? I don't see many shops having tons of readily avail cash, so is it bought on credit from the manufacturer or is it all financed from a bank or investors?

Also, for web vendors do they actually carry a lot of inventory or do they take an order and then immediatley place the order with say Bauer?

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I don't know where to start! Holy Cow!! (Phil Rizzuto NY Yankee A/S Game reference) That was amusing on a slow summer day. Like the guys said, if TPS can't get in the game with a decent degree of saturation and Rick Nash, how will Joe from Brooklyn get there? This business will just chew you up and spit you out. Cooper, Daoust, Micron, Jofa, Koho, Canadien, Sher-Wood(back again), Titan, Orbit, Martinville, Louisville, and the list goes on and on. Next victim? I think we know who that is.

Hahaha, no I'm not the Joe from Brooklyn guy, I'm a misplaced hockey-loving Michigander living in Manhattan working in, of course, the wonderful world of finance. But to that guy who said that the big firms should buy those sticks for their sponsored teams in the corp leagues at Chelsea Piers to get his company some business / exposure: the firms pay for icetime / league fees / jerseys, and it varies from firm to firm, but I still have yet to see one buy their team equipment, although that would be nice.

Anyway, the store is located at 50 Mill Road in Freeport, Long Island, NY and it is called the One Stop Hockey Shop (although it soon may be renamed). His website is currently http://www.onestophockeyshop.com/ but it is currently down as it is being revamped. I have the owner's cell but I will see what phone number he wants people contacting him at if need be (has his card around here somewhere). Check it out and bring some CASH - it's a hockey player's dream especially if you like the good stuff. Later,

Wow, a shop in Freeport. Never would've thunk it. Interesting choice of location - I mean, I guess it's close enough to Long Beach.

As far as your other comment, actually, the big firms do that.

http://www.onegoal.com

It's a grassroots operative that was set up by the manufacturers. Not everywhere yet, but my old rink in Novi had LTP programs sponsored by ONEGoal and they donated and lent equipment to kids.

Yeah, no, I know about that. I was referring to the user in the Brooklynite post who was referring to the hockey article on Bloomberg.com where it says that the big firms out in NYC sponsor their own teams (which play in leagues at Chelsea Piers) - these firms do not buy their employees equipment as he thought - i.e. my firm I work for would not and does not buy sticks from a manufacturer and then give them to me to have and use during firm league games (although that would be excellent) - or any equipment for that matter. None of the firms I have seen do that. In regards to philanthropy, that's a different story. Think we're talking about two different things here. Later,

No sponsored team has ever been outfitted by us at Chelsea Piers in the time I have been here nor do I know of any that has by another company.

We have done quite a few jersey orders, but never a full equipment order or even sticks.

Bloomberg does sponsor a team, so does Skadden, and a bunch of large companies in the NY area, but none of them outfit the team. Some of them don't even get new jerseys for the newer players each season. You also have to take into consideration that they are probably also sponsoring a softball, basketball, soccer, bocce....etc teams. While their pockets are deep, asking for 15 grand for equipment is a bit of a pipe dream.

They may at other rinks, but not here.

DarkStar's shop is definitely worth a visit. They do a real good job managing the space they have from what I saw. I'm going to try and head out sometime this summer to shoot the shyt. If you're in NYC you can hop on the PATH or take the bus from the GW Bridge. Just pay attention to the schedules heading back, hehe.

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