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DarkStar50

Total Hockey Files Bankruptcy

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Howdy,

22 hours ago, JR Boucicaut said:

It's unfortunate what happened to us.  Some are mentioned, some are twisted around and some haven't been mentioned.  We certainly were on the right track, and it ended up not working out.  I'm very optimistic about where this is going, and I will continue to do what I do best, regardless of which company's name is on the shirt, building facing and paycheck.  

 

In the FWIW category, I thought TH was "doing it right" for me as a consumer...  I could look and shop and browse and whatever online, including seeing if my "local" (45 min away) stores had stock for something I was interested in.  I could order something online that might have a fit problem with the ability to return it locally, which made me more likely to order online from TH, vs. another retailer.

 

I'm new to the hockey world, and don't have any particular nostalgia for "the old days".  To me, TH was doing a good job blending "the local shop" with the online shopping experience.  I'm curious if the bankruptcy is due to that model failing or another reason... For as much as that model worked for me, I really hope the bankruptcy was due to other issues.

 

Mark

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It is especially sad for me to see them go as I watched them go from a true Mom and Pop store to a nationwide hockey retailer. I grew up in Florissant (a suburb of St. Louis) and got my wooden hockey sticks and my steel holder skates from Fischer's of Florissant. It was a tiny dark store that had sporting goods crammed into the left side and clothes crammed into the right side. It was supposedly the oldest store in Florissant and I think it opened in the 30s. I got my first pair of skates there (Bauer Supreme 96s). My high school girlfriend got her prom dress on the clothes side. I remember the hockey guy guru was named Ken and he was a real piece of work. He had some sort or New York or Chicago or some other regional accent and attitude and felt it was part of his god given responsibility to the customer's experience to berate you every chance he got. But he was funny as hell and we all liked to trade stories about him. When they expanded and opened a second store, it was called Fischer's Total Hockey and that store carried ONLY hockey equipment (hence the name qualifier "Total(ly) Hockey). It was amazing to watch them grow from that little mom and pop store to what they became. I don't know if or when the Fischer's sold out of it, but I think the original clothing store place is still in Florissant still selling clothes. 

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Just another opinion from someone on the other side of the sales register. It is difficult to maintain a high level of service, as many here have mentioned and received from TH, across 32 retail locations. The loss of TH to many regular shoppers here is hitting home hard for them. It is hard on many levels what happened and how many people up and down the hockey pipeline it will effect.

 

Fiorenzo Arcadi

CEO at Toronto Hockey Store & Goalie Heaven Ltd.

Toronto Hockey Repair Ltd.

First it was Sports Authority that went under, then Graf Canada, and now Total Hockey has fallen victim to their own growth and expansion. Total Hockey may have achieved about 30% of sales from e-commerce alone, but really in the context of how e-commerce operates it wasn’t enough to sustain their 32 brick-and-mortar stores. Even though they had some ideal hockey locations, the US market softened to the point where they couldn’t compete.

Total Hockey blames the bankruptcy on one of the warmest winters on record, the collapse of key vendors, and a failed integration of the recently acquired Players Bench Corp. Another key factor was the adverse Canadian exchange rate which kept Canadian hockey teams from coming to the US to play in tournaments.

The real reason may have to do with terrible customer service reviews, lack of overall online e-commerce market share, and too many brick-and-mortar stores. Total Hockey received a plethora of bad reviews from both Canadian and US customers. It seems like they lacked trained employees in achieving interconnectivity with the consumer which failed to generate repeat traffic in their stores.

In terms of market share dealing with e-commerce, both employees serving the sporting goods industry and hockey customers are well aware that Hockey Monkey is the industry leader. As an industry leader Hockey Monkey is able to exploit economies of scale to a greater extent than its competitors. Their website also offers promotions such as free shipping over $50 USD, 20% summer discount, and more. Due to the volume of sporting goods Hockey Monkey can order due to economies of scale, they can offer prices that are hard to match for most other retailers.

Additionally, because Hockey Monkey deals with hockey, goalie equipment, lacrosse, and baseball, they can strike deals with companies such as Warrior Sports which deal with lacrosse and hockey to obtain larger discounts that they can offer to the end consumer while generating more revenue. Total Hockey had to match these prices even though their sales volumes weren’t as large to prevent customers from taking advantage of arbitrage by shopping online through Hockey Monkey, which eventually ate away at Total Hockey’s profit.

In the digital world, Hockey Monkey quickly established its online dominance with technology such as its strong and professional YouTube presence. Hockey Monkey’s YouTube videos compared to Total Hockey’s videos are sharply different. Hockey Monkey was able to convey the technology of its products using professional and endearing individuals to sell the product. Total Hockey’s lack of expertise was evident through its archaic environment that did not transpire in generating sales on a large scale.

When you have too many brick-and-mortar stores it’s hard to recognize whether you specialize in online sales or foot-traffic sales to generate revenue. Total Hockey has about 32 of these locations. The problem is that foot-traffic relies on the special connection with customers that feel important and comfortable when entering a store. The overall experience has to translate from the employees and managers that must execute the sales. The senior management of Total Hockey may have felt they had the right personnel and managers to establish lasting relationships, unfortunately their reviews told a whole different story.

Hockey Monkey is a different animal. They take an enormous amount of pride in their online e-commerce, but are also able to successfully connect with customers at their 6 US brick-and-mortar stores. One of my employees Mike travelled to California a few months ago. His experience was enlightening: the sales representative did not have the product on the shelf but happily crossed the street to retrieve the product he wanted from the warehouse. The employee professionally represented himself and the product and made sure Mike was informed and happy with what he was purchasing. The lesson here is that because of Hockey Monkey’s few locations, they are confident in having efficient personnel on hand to create lasting and repeat relationships with customers.

TSG Enterprises LLC is the parent company of Pure Hockey and Pure Goalie. They are in the process of acquiring Total Hockey’s assets and technology for some odd reason. The major problem here is that they already own over 40 brick-and-mortar stores. They appear to establish the same model of Total Hockey and are already in hot water with similar negative customer service reviews.

Hockey Monkey have a built-in animal instinct that will tear their competitors apart and make it extremely hard for TSG Enterprises to remotely compete and generate revenue for that matter. All TSG Enterprises’ brick-and-mortar stores would be fighting for a piece of the total market share. In the process they will cannibalize themselves and run into the same problems Total Hockey encountered.

Remember one thing: the monkey believes in the survival of the fittest.

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2 minutes ago, DarkStar50 said:

Just another opinion from someone on the other side of the sales register. It is difficult to maintain a high level of service, as many here have mentioned and received from TH, across 32 retail locations. The loss of TH to many regular shoppers here is hitting home hard for them. It is hard on many levels what happened and how many people up and down the hockey pipeline it will effect.

 

Fiorenzo Arcadi

CEO at Toronto Hockey Store & Goalie Heaven Ltd.

Toronto Hockey Repair Ltd.

First it was Sports Authority that went under, then Graf Canada, and now Total Hockey has fallen victim to their own growth and expansion. Total Hockey may have achieved about 30% of sales from e-commerce alone, but really in the context of how e-commerce operates it wasn’t enough to sustain their 32 brick-and-mortar stores. Even though they had some ideal hockey locations, the US market softened to the point where they couldn’t compete.

Total Hockey blames the bankruptcy on one of the warmest winters on record, the collapse of key vendors, and a failed integration of the recently acquired Players Bench Corp. Another key factor was the adverse Canadian exchange rate which kept Canadian hockey teams from coming to the US to play in tournaments.

The real reason may have to do with terrible customer service reviews, lack of overall online e-commerce market share, and too many brick-and-mortar stores. Total Hockey received a plethora of bad reviews from both Canadian and US customers. It seems like they lacked trained employees in achieving interconnectivity with the consumer which failed to generate repeat traffic in their stores.

In terms of market share dealing with e-commerce, both employees serving the sporting goods industry and hockey customers are well aware that Hockey Monkey is the industry leader. As an industry leader Hockey Monkey is able to exploit economies of scale to a greater extent than its competitors. Their website also offers promotions such as free shipping over $50 USD, 20% summer discount, and more. Due to the volume of sporting goods Hockey Monkey can order due to economies of scale, they can offer prices that are hard to match for most other retailers.

Additionally, because Hockey Monkey deals with hockey, goalie equipment, lacrosse, and baseball, they can strike deals with companies such as Warrior Sports which deal with lacrosse and hockey to obtain larger discounts that they can offer to the end consumer while generating more revenue. Total Hockey had to match these prices even though their sales volumes weren’t as large to prevent customers from taking advantage of arbitrage by shopping online through Hockey Monkey, which eventually ate away at Total Hockey’s profit.

In the digital world, Hockey Monkey quickly established its online dominance with technology such as its strong and professional YouTube presence. Hockey Monkey’s YouTube videos compared to Total Hockey’s videos are sharply different. Hockey Monkey was able to convey the technology of its products using professional and endearing individuals to sell the product. Total Hockey’s lack of expertise was evident through its archaic environment that did not transpire in generating sales on a large scale.

When you have too many brick-and-mortar stores it’s hard to recognize whether you specialize in online sales or foot-traffic sales to generate revenue. Total Hockey has about 32 of these locations. The problem is that foot-traffic relies on the special connection with customers that feel important and comfortable when entering a store. The overall experience has to translate from the employees and managers that must execute the sales. The senior management of Total Hockey may have felt they had the right personnel and managers to establish lasting relationships, unfortunately their reviews told a whole different story.

Hockey Monkey is a different animal. They take an enormous amount of pride in their online e-commerce, but are also able to successfully connect with customers at their 6 US brick-and-mortar stores. One of my employees Mike travelled to California a few months ago. His experience was enlightening: the sales representative did not have the product on the shelf but happily crossed the street to retrieve the product he wanted from the warehouse. The employee professionally represented himself and the product and made sure Mike was informed and happy with what he was purchasing. The lesson here is that because of Hockey Monkey’s few locations, they are confident in having efficient personnel on hand to create lasting and repeat relationships with customers.

TSG Enterprises LLC is the parent company of Pure Hockey and Pure Goalie. They are in the process of acquiring Total Hockey’s assets and technology for some odd reason. The major problem here is that they already own over 40 brick-and-mortar stores. They appear to establish the same model of Total Hockey and are already in hot water with similar negative customer service reviews.

Hockey Monkey have a built-in animal instinct that will tear their competitors apart and make it extremely hard for TSG Enterprises to remotely compete and generate revenue for that matter. All TSG Enterprises’ brick-and-mortar stores would be fighting for a piece of the total market share. In the process they will cannibalize themselves and run into the same problems Total Hockey encountered.

Remember one thing: the monkey believes in the survival of the fittest.

 

The Monkey I went to had no idea about a certain product I wanted that was on the website, couldn't answer any of the questions I had.

 

I went next door to the Goalie Monkey and they had a bunch of Pro level gear priced at senior pricing because they were all labelled wrong. The people there also couldn't answer my questions.

 

While the Total I was at was fantastic in terms of employees. Just depends who you get and on what day.

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16 minutes ago, DarkStar50 said:

Just another opinion from someone on the other side of the sales register. It is difficult to maintain a high level of service, as many here have mentioned and received from TH, across 32 retail locations. The loss of TH to many regular shoppers here is hitting home hard for them. It is hard on many levels what happened and how many people up and down the hockey pipeline it will effect.

 

Fiorenzo Arcadi

CEO at Toronto Hockey Store & Goalie Heaven Ltd.

Toronto Hockey Repair Ltd.

First it was Sports Authority that went under, then Graf Canada, and now Total Hockey has fallen victim to their own growth and expansion. Total Hockey may have achieved about 30% of sales from e-commerce alone, but really in the context of how e-commerce operates it wasn’t enough to sustain their 32 brick-and-mortar stores. Even though they had some ideal hockey locations, the US market softened to the point where they couldn’t compete.

Total Hockey blames the bankruptcy on one of the warmest winters on record, the collapse of key vendors, and a failed integration of the recently acquired Players Bench Corp. Another key factor was the adverse Canadian exchange rate which kept Canadian hockey teams from coming to the US to play in tournaments.

The real reason may have to do with terrible customer service reviews, lack of overall online e-commerce market share, and too many brick-and-mortar stores. Total Hockey received a plethora of bad reviews from both Canadian and US customers. It seems like they lacked trained employees in achieving interconnectivity with the consumer which failed to generate repeat traffic in their stores.

In terms of market share dealing with e-commerce, both employees serving the sporting goods industry and hockey customers are well aware that Hockey Monkey is the industry leader. As an industry leader Hockey Monkey is able to exploit economies of scale to a greater extent than its competitors. Their website also offers promotions such as free shipping over $50 USD, 20% summer discount, and more. Due to the volume of sporting goods Hockey Monkey can order due to economies of scale, they can offer prices that are hard to match for most other retailers.

Additionally, because Hockey Monkey deals with hockey, goalie equipment, lacrosse, and baseball, they can strike deals with companies such as Warrior Sports which deal with lacrosse and hockey to obtain larger discounts that they can offer to the end consumer while generating more revenue. Total Hockey had to match these prices even though their sales volumes weren’t as large to prevent customers from taking advantage of arbitrage by shopping online through Hockey Monkey, which eventually ate away at Total Hockey’s profit.

In the digital world, Hockey Monkey quickly established its online dominance with technology such as its strong and professional YouTube presence. Hockey Monkey’s YouTube videos compared to Total Hockey’s videos are sharply different. Hockey Monkey was able to convey the technology of its products using professional and endearing individuals to sell the product. Total Hockey’s lack of expertise was evident through its archaic environment that did not transpire in generating sales on a large scale.

When you have too many brick-and-mortar stores it’s hard to recognize whether you specialize in online sales or foot-traffic sales to generate revenue. Total Hockey has about 32 of these locations. The problem is that foot-traffic relies on the special connection with customers that feel important and comfortable when entering a store. The overall experience has to translate from the employees and managers that must execute the sales. The senior management of Total Hockey may have felt they had the right personnel and managers to establish lasting relationships, unfortunately their reviews told a whole different story.

Hockey Monkey is a different animal. They take an enormous amount of pride in their online e-commerce, but are also able to successfully connect with customers at their 6 US brick-and-mortar stores. One of my employees Mike travelled to California a few months ago. His experience was enlightening: the sales representative did not have the product on the shelf but happily crossed the street to retrieve the product he wanted from the warehouse. The employee professionally represented himself and the product and made sure Mike was informed and happy with what he was purchasing. The lesson here is that because of Hockey Monkey’s few locations, they are confident in having efficient personnel on hand to create lasting and repeat relationships with customers.

TSG Enterprises LLC is the parent company of Pure Hockey and Pure Goalie. They are in the process of acquiring Total Hockey’s assets and technology for some odd reason. The major problem here is that they already own over 40 brick-and-mortar stores. They appear to establish the same model of Total Hockey and are already in hot water with similar negative customer service reviews.

Hockey Monkey have a built-in animal instinct that will tear their competitors apart and make it extremely hard for TSG Enterprises to remotely compete and generate revenue for that matter. All TSG Enterprises’ brick-and-mortar stores would be fighting for a piece of the total market share. In the process they will cannibalize themselves and run into the same problems Total Hockey encountered.

Remember one thing: the monkey believes in the survival of the fittest.

strong and professional youtube presence? im pretty sure monkey consistently ranks 3rd when it comes to IW, total, and HM on product video views on Youtube, take for instance the 1x videos where the view numbers are 120K, 25K, and 18K respectively.

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Monkey has well trained employees?  What a joke.  The one near me went thru dozens of employees in their first year, they get a new "expert" every 2 weeks.  Mostly rotating between teens.  The ONLY reason Monkey was able to grow as a business over the years was that it's customers were able to sneak down to their local LHS to touch, feel, ask questions and get sizing information.

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I disagree with the Monkey Article.  Monkey has done a few things though that IMO make them more attractive today to order from than say just a few years back. 

1. They have reloacted their shipping to come from Texas (I think this is correct) so shipping gets to us away from Cali...just a few day quicker....ANd trust me that is big.  BUT TH was Midwest and could get items shipped alot sooner as well.

 

2. They now accept returns on that discounted closeout stuff.  Not that I have sent anything back...But avoided them on this...Buying $300 skates and if they dont fit...Talk about suck city...ehh!

 

How about the great looking monkey apperel...wow that stuff is horrible IMO and it looks like they cant even give the stuff away.

 

I oversaw our associations equipment for a few years and it killed ya, when you needed something and you have to wait a week to get it shipped from California.
 

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1 hour ago, DarkStar50 said:

Just another opinion from someone on the other side of the sales register. It is difficult to maintain a high level of service, as many here have mentioned and received from TH, across 32 retail locations. The loss of TH to many regular shoppers here is hitting home hard for them. It is hard on many levels what happened and how many people up and down the hockey pipeline it will effect.

 

Fiorenzo Arcadi

CEO at Toronto Hockey Store & Goalie Heaven Ltd.

Toronto Hockey Repair Ltd.

First it was Sports Authority that went under, then Graf Canada, and now Total Hockey has fallen victim to their own growth and expansion. Total Hockey may have achieved about 30% of sales from e-commerce alone, but really in the context of how e-commerce operates it wasn’t enough to sustain their 32 brick-and-mortar stores. Even though they had some ideal hockey locations, the US market softened to the point where they couldn’t compete.

Total Hockey blames the bankruptcy on one of the warmest winters on record, the collapse of key vendors, and a failed integration of the recently acquired Players Bench Corp. Another key factor was the adverse Canadian exchange rate which kept Canadian hockey teams from coming to the US to play in tournaments.

The real reason may have to do with terrible customer service reviews, lack of overall online e-commerce market share, and too many brick-and-mortar stores. Total Hockey received a plethora of bad reviews from both Canadian and US customers. It seems like they lacked trained employees in achieving interconnectivity with the consumer which failed to generate repeat traffic in their stores.

In terms of market share dealing with e-commerce, both employees serving the sporting goods industry and hockey customers are well aware that Hockey Monkey is the industry leader. As an industry leader Hockey Monkey is able to exploit economies of scale to a greater extent than its competitors. Their website also offers promotions such as free shipping over $50 USD, 20% summer discount, and more. Due to the volume of sporting goods Hockey Monkey can order due to economies of scale, they can offer prices that are hard to match for most other retailers.

Additionally, because Hockey Monkey deals with hockey, goalie equipment, lacrosse, and baseball, they can strike deals with companies such as Warrior Sports which deal with lacrosse and hockey to obtain larger discounts that they can offer to the end consumer while generating more revenue. Total Hockey had to match these prices even though their sales volumes weren’t as large to prevent customers from taking advantage of arbitrage by shopping online through Hockey Monkey, which eventually ate away at Total Hockey’s profit.

In the digital world, Hockey Monkey quickly established its online dominance with technology such as its strong and professional YouTube presence. Hockey Monkey’s YouTube videos compared to Total Hockey’s videos are sharply different. Hockey Monkey was able to convey the technology of its products using professional and endearing individuals to sell the product. Total Hockey’s lack of expertise was evident through its archaic environment that did not transpire in generating sales on a large scale.

When you have too many brick-and-mortar stores it’s hard to recognize whether you specialize in online sales or foot-traffic sales to generate revenue. Total Hockey has about 32 of these locations. The problem is that foot-traffic relies on the special connection with customers that feel important and comfortable when entering a store. The overall experience has to translate from the employees and managers that must execute the sales. The senior management of Total Hockey may have felt they had the right personnel and managers to establish lasting relationships, unfortunately their reviews told a whole different story.

Hockey Monkey is a different animal. They take an enormous amount of pride in their online e-commerce, but are also able to successfully connect with customers at their 6 US brick-and-mortar stores. One of my employees Mike travelled to California a few months ago. His experience was enlightening: the sales representative did not have the product on the shelf but happily crossed the street to retrieve the product he wanted from the warehouse. The employee professionally represented himself and the product and made sure Mike was informed and happy with what he was purchasing. The lesson here is that because of Hockey Monkey’s few locations, they are confident in having efficient personnel on hand to create lasting and repeat relationships with customers.

TSG Enterprises LLC is the parent company of Pure Hockey and Pure Goalie. They are in the process of acquiring Total Hockey’s assets and technology for some odd reason. The major problem here is that they already own over 40 brick-and-mortar stores. They appear to establish the same model of Total Hockey and are already in hot water with similar negative customer service reviews.

Hockey Monkey have a built-in animal instinct that will tear their competitors apart and make it extremely hard for TSG Enterprises to remotely compete and generate revenue for that matter. All TSG Enterprises’ brick-and-mortar stores would be fighting for a piece of the total market share. In the process they will cannibalize themselves and run into the same problems Total Hockey encountered.

Remember one thing: the monkey believes in the survival of the fittest.

 

No offense but this is a load of poop.

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Monkey Sports is very smart in the way the diversified into other sports. Being on the same page as their vendors is smart. Vendors did that to be able to sell product all year round, so did Monkey. I am not a fan of HockeyMonkey.com return conditions and policies, and always look at Dick's first (even though it is not really a hockey stop), TotalHockey after that, the PureHockey, only then HockeyMonkey.com. Even though they have the best prices and the best warehouse stock, if I make a mistake, it can become a pain in the ass and not much of a deal. Hockey Sports can definitely be a number one, if they adapt Total Hockey return and exchange policies.

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Hockey Monkey isn't the only chain to have spread into other sports. Almost every other chain has, at the very least, a lacrosse tie-in. For example, Pure Hockey has ComLax within their locations.

 

As for that "inside look", it read like part sour grapes and part "please buy me out".

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32 minutes ago, hawkeyfan said:

I disagree with the Monkey Article.  Monkey has done a few things though that IMO make them more attractive today to order from than say just a few years back. 

1. They have reloacted their shipping to come from Texas (I think this is correct) so shipping gets to us away from Cali...just a few day quicker....ANd trust me that is big.  BUT TH was Midwest and could get items shipped alot sooner as well.

 

2. They now accept returns on that discounted closeout stuff.  Not that I have sent anything back...But avoided them on this...Buying $300 skates and if they dont fit...Talk about suck city...ehh!

 

How about the great looking monkey apperel...wow that stuff is horrible IMO and it looks like they cant even give the stuff away.

 

I oversaw our associations equipment for a few years and it killed ya, when you needed something and you have to wait a week to get it shipped from California.
 

Monkey moving their shipping warehouse to Texas is the #1 reason I stopped ordering from them. Made shipping times SO MUCH slower. It's also why I didn't buy from TH unless they were the only ones that carried what I was looking for. I wanted to because of JR, but I was waiting a week vs free overnight shipping from IW really kept me away. That's not Monkey or TH's fault, though. Just simple geography. 

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IW and Total do a much better job with both their videos and product descriptions than monkey. I also like the q and a section on the Total site. Monkey does seem to offer deep closeout deals with their additional percent off codes on clearance products (up to 40%).

 

The Troy Total was very impressive in it product variety and the employees there were friendly and helpful, but not pushy. They carried products that are not readily available in stores in a huge hockey market like Toronto - high end roller products from a variety of brands is one example. 

 

As others have mentioned, Total Hockey's inventory tool on their site is very convenient and well done. Sport Chek has a similar tool in Canada, however; their system obviously doesn't show all inventory as it showed the Mako II skates as completely sold out in all stores on their site, but a rep was able to find stock at several stores on the computer in the store. It was good in store service, but I would rather be able to find the information myself online. 

 

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Anytime I have ordered from HockeyMonkey, it's taken at least a week and a half to receive. I live on the East Coast.

 

True Hockey gets me my stuff within 3-4 days. Became loyal to TH as a result of. 

 

 

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"Hockey Monkey have a built-in animal instinct that will tear their competitors apart"

Is this a sporting goods store or a WWE wrestler?

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On 7/28/2016 at 10:30 AM, jimmy said:

Monkey has well trained employees?  What a joke.  The one near me went thru dozens of employees in their first year, they get a new "expert" every 2 weeks.  Mostly rotating between teens.  The ONLY reason Monkey was able to grow as a business over the years was that it's customers were able to sneak down to their local LHS to touch, feel, ask questions and get sizing information.

Ha... I ran into this very issue yesterday when I was there.  I was baking my Super Tacks and the kid "helping" me was literally contradicting every single thing I was reading him off the box in regards to baking the skates properly.

Me: "Ok, it says to preheat and bake them for 2 minutes only"

Him: "Ok, so I'll bake them at 5 minutes"

Me: "Ok, it says to do one skate at a time"

Him: "Ok, I will put them both in there together"

It literally felt like I was on Impractical Jokers but this kid didn't look like Murr, Sal, Joe or Q so I knew it wasn't a joke.  This little exchange went on for a bit longer as I ran down the list, I shit you not.  I am not crazy peculiar about my gear (ok, maybe a little bit) but they are the priciest piece of gear I have ever bought and I want to make sure the fitting is done correctly.  This kid was probably 25 or so and could have cared less... Most of the guys and girls at their shop are good people and listen but this kid didn't seem to give a shit.

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19 hours ago, Fletch said:

Ha... I ran into this very issue yesterday when I was there.  I was baking my Super Tacks and the kid "helping" me was literally contradicting every single thing I was reading him off the box in regards to baking the skates properly.

Me: "Ok, it says to preheat and bake them for 2 minutes only"

Him: "Ok, so I'll bake them at 5 minutes"

Me: "Ok, it says to do one skate at a time"

Him: "Ok, I will put them both in there together"

It literally felt like I was on Impractical Jokers but this kid didn't look like Murr, Sal, Joe or Q so I knew it wasn't a joke.  This little exchange went on for a bit longer as I ran down the list, I shit you not.  I am not crazy peculiar about my gear (ok, maybe a little bit) but they are the priciest piece of gear I have ever bought and I want to make sure the fitting is done correctly.  This kid was probably 25 or so and could have cared less... Most of the guys and girls at their shop are good people and listen but this kid didn't seem to give a shit.

I was told of this great skate fitter who worked for a LHS. He knew everything.  He was lured away by Monkey and after a couple of months he was called to the front office and chewed out for spending so much time fitting customers.  In so many words he was told, "Put them F'rs in a pair of skates and do it quick" or your fired.

 

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1 hour ago, Davideo said:

"Hockey Monkey have a built-in animal instinct that will tear their competitors apart"

Is this a sporting goods store or a WWE wrestler?

I think that the statement is more about how Monkey is structured.  They have very deep pockets where many others are relying on the dating terms offered with the booking program.  If you overbook to hit a discount level ( to achieve a margin you need to survive ),  but it does not sell through in the time allotted by the booking terms it makes for trouble.  Now if you have every major retailer overbooking to hit discounts and subsequent terms they need to survive you can see a storm brewing.  Where disaster strikes is when MFG's set the table with programs,  rules and restrictions-  And then do not abide by their own rules and restrictions.  Which is what we have today. 

Monkeys' deep pockets come in handy when mfg's have product they need to closeout as well.  Alot of retailers are upset when Monkey has all the crazy closeouts,  but at the end of the day they are the only ones that step up to the plate.  Monkey also buys across every market segment that PSG sells-  All those things combined gives Monkey alot of strength that others do not have,  so in a way yes... Monkey is a WWE wrestler.  

As a side note-  There are alot of problems in our industry right now and nearly all them go deeper than what the consumer sees.  It's part of the reason I would like to see a section here for Industry Insiders.  The latest greatest whizbang spec doesn't have much to do with the troubles our industry is seeing.  I don't care how great Unobtainium is versus Farbon Cibre.  Bickering over these things as if customers really know why one is better than the other is pointless-  Price matters more to consumers than any amazeballs flux capacitor spec.  TH didn't fail because,  of customer service ( good or bad ) or product videos.

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9 hours ago, Zac911 said:

I think that the statement is more about how Monkey is structured.  They have very deep pockets where many others are relying on the dating terms offered with the booking program.  If you overbook to hit a discount level ( to achieve a margin you need to survive ),  but it does not sell through in the time allotted by the booking terms it makes for trouble.  Now if you have every major retailer overbooking to hit discounts and subsequent terms they need to survive you can see a storm brewing.  Where disaster strikes is when MFG's set the table with programs,  rules and restrictions-  And then do not abide by their own rules and restrictions.  Which is what we have today. 

Monkeys' deep pockets come in handy when mfg's have product they need to closeout as well.  Alot of retailers are upset when Monkey has all the crazy closeouts,  but at the end of the day they are the only ones that step up to the plate.  Monkey also buys across every market segment that PSG sells-  All those things combined gives Monkey alot of strength that others do not have,  so in a way yes... Monkey is a WWE wrestler.  

As a side note-  There are alot of problems in our industry right now and nearly all them go deeper than what the consumer sees.  It's part of the reason I would like to see a section here for Industry Insiders.  The latest greatest whizbang spec doesn't have much to do with the troubles our industry is seeing.  I don't care how great Unobtainium is versus Farbon Cibre.  Bickering over these things as if customers really know why one is better than the other is pointless-  Price matters more to consumers than any amazeballs flux capacitor spec.  TH didn't fail because,  of customer service ( good or bad ) or product videos.

This has been a industry problem forever that those working in the industry know. The consumer has no idea about what is really happening in the management offices of retail buyers when it comes to making your shop survive. The retailer(all sizes, too) chases those discounts until it is the end of the selling season and he has a stockroom full of inventory that is soon to be outdated and offered by the big box at deeper discounts at retail. Now adding to the toxic mix, as Zac mentioned, is when the vendors just keep shipping product to a dealer like TH which is drowning in debt. Promises were made and promises were not kept by both parties. My question for anyone who understands bankruptcy purchasing is will Pure Hockey be on the hook to Bauer for the $8.5mil in product to accounts payable ?? I understand Bauer is seeking their money before the sale to PH is completed. PH wants the purchase quickly to set up for fall 2016 in these new for them TH locations. How this plays out is another problem for PH and Bauer.  "Show me the money Jerry !! Show me the money !!!! "

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4 hours ago, DarkStar50 said:

...will Pure Hockey be on the hook to Bauer for the $8.5mil in product to accounts payable ?? I understand Bauer is seeking their money before the sale to PH is completed. PH wants the purchase quickly to set up for fall 2016 in these new for them TH locations. How this plays out is another problem for PH and Bauer.  "Show me the money Jerry !! Show me the money !!!! "

Without knowing ins and outs of the case, it is hard to say who will get what. Bauer is most likely is an unsecured creditor. This means that in case of Chapter 11, they will get an amount they will have to agree to. Most likely, not the full amount. Depending on conditions if the sale, PureHockey will be on the hook for whatever it will be. If the "restructuring" under Chapter 11 is not successful, this will be converted to Chapter 7 in which case, there is a good chance that Bauer gets nothing, unless they sue the TH owners personally, if they find a legal standing to do so (probably not). It looks however, that the chapter 11 will be the end of it and Bauer along with the rest of unsecured creditors on the list will get something. Creditors that are not on the list, will get nothing, regardless where this goes.

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Based on the pre- and post-bankruptcy numbers I've heard for the Pure Hockey purchase of TH assets, it sounds like they were getting a nice discount pre-bankrupty filing that was most likely the result of taking such a poor balance sheet including heavy debts and that a good portion of those debts would not be included in the post-bankruptcy option.

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The Robinson Township, PA (Pittsburgh Area) location's last day of business was today. It really sucks that I have a MUCH longer drive for a simple sharpening. However, I feel much worse for the employees that lost their jobs.

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Howdy,

 

21 minutes ago, JoeyJ0506 said:

The Robinson Township, PA (Pittsburgh Area) location's last day of business was today. It really sucks that I have a MUCH longer drive for a simple sharpening. However, I feel much worse for the employees that lost their jobs.

 

I was wondering what would happen with the two stores in the pgh area, particularly with an existing Pure Hockey almost in the middle of them.  Is there a list somewhere of what stores are closing?  The Cranberry location didn't have as much product on the shelves when I was in there a week or so ago.

Mark

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