My Golf Retail Guru

One of the great things about having a blog is getting to get something off your chest. Today, I want to write about queues.

In the last weeks, I have found myself out driving around San Diego county a lot more and I have a question about drivers on multi-lane highways. Why do so many drivers camp in the left lane? My closest access road to civilization is a 4-lane expressway. This is defined as a highway with traffic lights, but limited retail access. So, when I get up to the first major traffic light, there will be 10-20 cars lined up at the light–all sitting in the left lane. In the right 2 lanes (the expressway expands at that point), there will be 1 or 2 cars in each of those lanes. Read the rest of this entry »

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Don’t get me wrong. I love Wal-Mart. They are convenient for me, have a lot of products that I need and good prices. But it bugs me to hear people, both inside and outside of retail, talk about how well Wal-Mart manages its inventory. I think their inventory control is horrible. Read the rest of this entry »

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I live in north San Diego county and, for the most part, I was able to “watch” what was happening with Firestorm 2007. All 5 of my golfing buddies were evacuated from their homes either Monday or Tuesday. One of them lives down in Rancho Bernardo where the most damage was done and he and his family left with 5 minutes warning. It was stressful for him and his wife as we watched television reports trying to find out if the fires had reached their street. Fortunately, their home was unscathed as were the homes of my other buddies who all live around our golf club.

I felt very safe in my relatively flat neighborhood until Tuesday night, when my daughter called from San Diego. She heard that my area was being evacuated and with the Fallbrook fire northeast of here, it caused me concern. I found that the little town of Bonsall (actually, it’s more of an AM-PM, tattoo shop, donut shop and a post office) had been evacuated. It is about 4 miles from here and the winds continued to come directly from Fallbrook through Bonsall towards my home.

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According to Wikipedia, a great source of information, “the newly and modern view on entrepreneurial talent is a person who takes the risks involved to undertake a business venture”. According to My Golf Retail Guru, this entrepreneurial talent is a dying breed.

I cannot tell you how many times I am contacted by companies looking for assistance with some level of expertise, whether it is my own or someone else’s. Then these entrepreneurs want the expert to take the risks. For many of these ventures, the business plan is extremely weak and not likely to become successful. But rather than offer cash for assistance, these underfunded businesspeople want to offer either stock or performance pay. Unfortunately, most of us need cash to sustain, not to mention that we believe the stock will be worthless in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

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It is interesting to me that some of the retailers with whom I have worked are those that you would think do not need or want any help. Other retailers view these stars as the best retailers in their markets, whether that means a geographic region or a line of business. But as I talk to these successful retailers, they let me know that what they want is an independent third party to keep financial controls on their buyer(s). They also want someone who will look at numbers and question decisions.

Statistics do not always tell the whole story, though. Sometimes, I have a buyer who goes over budget and can justify additional purchases due to specific inventory shortages. That’s okay, but my next question is “So what are you going to do to get rid of the excess that isn’t selling?”

I get two types of retail customers, those who are in good shape, but want to be better and those who are in bad shape. I have to admit that I love the challenge of the latter client. Read the rest of this entry »

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I talk a lot of people OUT of doing business with me. The most common situation involves two friends who want to open a retail store together. Me-“Do you want to be friends or business partners, because you can’t be both.” Them-“But we’ve been friends since high school…” To let you in on the big secret, what happens is that one of the two friends will be much better at sales than the other. Finding an equal role for that second person becomes a challenge and the better salesperson starts resenting the other person. Then they start talking to me about how to dissolve the partnership.

The second situation I find is that someone wants to open a retail store when the numbers don’t justify it. But by the time they call me, they have already made up their mind on the matter and are hoping that I will concur. When I don’t, they usually get frustrated and they certainly don’t want to do further business with me. Oh, well. (However, I recently had some initial discussions with a potential retailer who decided AGAINST opening a store. He kindly sent me a very nice bottle of wine.)

The third one is the one who wants me to review retail ePoS (electronic point-of-sale) systems for them. I have seen a lot of them and there is a lot of crap out there in systems. It is very easy for me to look at a system and tell immediately if it has any value in retail decision-making. However, every year, I have some retailer who wants me to review some specific systems and their yardstick, by which they measure the quality of these systems, is price. Me-“It doesn’t calculate turns or have a retail stock ledger or an open-to-buy. It has two basic reports and neither one has much value for making a decision”. Them- “Yeah, but it’s affordable!”

So this is a little insight into what I do with new prospects. In a few days, I’ll share a little about my favorite customers.

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The Top Ten Reasons I Procrastinate

1.

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I have written several blogs about OTB and the value it brings to a golf retail operation. I also know that many professional organizations, such as the PGA, believe in OTB as well. But have you ever wondered why it works?

First, an OTB involves the establishment, at the class level, of a monthly sales plan and a monthly inventory plan. Anyone with some historical information can calculate a reasonable sales plan. The monthly inventory level, which should not be calculated from history, is the hard part. Several companies, including my own, have created mathematical formulas to determine the optimum inventory levels. After determining these levels, the actual monthly OTB is calculated by subtracting the current month’s planned inventory from the next month’s and then adding the planned reduction of inventory from sales. Read the rest of this entry »

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So, the summer golf season is almost over! Are you sad or happy? Sad because it’s almost over or because you did not get the business you expected? Or both?

As we all know, there are lots of marketing firms whose mission is to help you build a customer base and to be able to reach out to them. Judging from the The Wire from the Golf Press Association, many of you are signing up for their services.

While I recognize that getting golfers to the course is the single most important problem facing the industry today, I also know that many courses are doing an inadequate job of retailing.

The reason that most courses fail is that the inventory levels are not right to do the job. Most shops are overbought and the primary reason is a lack of planning. I heard long ago that “failing to plan is planning to fail.” Read the rest of this entry »

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My Golf Retail Guru and Pellucid Corp. are joining together to provide retail analysis to the Pellucid suite of products and services. Pellucid provides independent, unbiased, fact-based consumer information and insight against key issues in golf. Adding retail is a natural step forward for Pellucid and I am pleased that we are jointly providing the best in analysis to the golf industry.

Pellucid has issued a press release announcing an agreement with the California Golf Course Owners Association (CGCOA) to provide their full suite of products, including retail, to CGCOA members. Members will receive group pricing on Pellucid reports and services; augmented by a percentage donated to the CGCOA by Pellucid to help fund CGCOA programs and initiatives.

Pellucid services include the Customer Franchise Analysis (CFA), Weather Impact Analysis (WIA), Golf Local Market Analyzer (GLMA), Sharper Edge Marketing services (SEM), and retail inventory and open-to-buy analysis from My Golf Retail Guru. At the most basic level, members can start with a subscription to the bi-weekly Outside the Ropes (OTR) newsletter. More information on Pellucid’s services can be found at www.pellucidcorp.com.

Alan Fisher is the leading expert on inventory management in the golf industry. He has conducted numerous seminars across the US and Europe for the golf industry and has authored numerous articles on maximizing retail inventory. If you would like to know more about how you can make your retail a profitable part of your business, please contact him at any of the following:

alan.fisher@mygolfretailguru.com
+1 619.723.4653 mobile

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