Running Store Owners/Employees - Question

I agree it sends a great message to keep the local running store in business since they probably give back to the community. I would say that 7-10 days nowadays is unrealistic in any business to receive items. POS would automatically be ordering these items as soon as it sells. You would be constantly receiving your orders daily(at least when I worked). We were hardly ever completely out of stock of a shoe and had to "special" order one, unless it was size 15 or so. I would say this store doesn't have a POS or she was padding the answer. I originally worked at an Athlete's Foot that we filled out a sales receipt and counted at the end of the day, and ordered at the end of the week. I progressed to Footlocker that we ordered over the phone nightly through our POS register. Even then, it only took a couple of days usually to get replacement shoes and this was 1981!!!! I'm all for saving money whenever and however you can. Usually most local shoe stores would give some sort of discount to the local running club.

I used to own a running store. Most brands offer some type of shipping program. For example, Asics had 5 for 20, 5 pairs of shoes shipped 2-day for 20 bucks. I utilized this all the time and would tell a customer that I would place the order that day, or the following morning, with 2 day shipping.

This gave me a chance to get the one or two special orders fast, and top off any low spots in my stock. From the customer's perspective, I was doing a nice thing

to two day it, helped rebuild credibility when we missed out on a core shoe.

The only way I would quote 10 days is if I already knew the shoe was back ordered.

This is an interesting thread for a number of reasons. First, I have had this happen. I typically turn down the order offer simply because I have a number of stores in town. Most of the employees understand; they'd do the same.

I am really more curious about the claims that stores are "a part of the community." If that is the business model, I am not sure it is sustainable. I hope it is. I think the majority of running stores make money off of the general non-runners who take up the sport for a specific race, etc. Most real runners don't do things like "fun runs" and the like, at least not in my experience.

I have worked in 3 different running stores over the past 8 years during and after college and because I have moved around quite a bit.

Please keep in mind that small locally owned stores generally do their best to keep things in stock but don't always have a ton of room to be storing extra shoes in the back. Maybe the store you went to had two pairs of Vomeros in a size 10, but an hour before you got there someone else came in and bought both pair. Also, like other people mentioned, most stores only place special orders once or twice a week, hence the 7-10 days.

My questions to you is, why did you wait so long to replace your shoes? Really, they're so bad that you can't get another week out of them? The constant need for instant gratification and entitlement is half of what's wrong with this country.

"Entitlement"? Seriously? It's my discretionary income and my health. Running on my shoes a couple of days longer than when I know they're done will trigger some serious over-use injuries for me at my volume and pace.

If I have the money to spend, I should be able to get what I want, when I want. There is nothing wrong with that.

I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to bring up this point. It's not like all of the sudden your shoes are worn out. If you keep track of mileage and have a general idea of how much you run each week, then it shouldn't be too hard to figure out when you're going to need a new pair. If your local running store is important to you, then planning ahead a few days and being in a position to wait is not such a big deal. Our local running store does so much for the running community, I think it's worth a few dollars on each pair of shoes to shop there. They've put literally 10s of thousands of dollars worth of sponsorship money, gift certificates, and prizes into races over the years. They host group runs and other events. They are knowledgeable about where to run for new people in town. They know about races and who the best doctors and massage therapists are. I can try on clothes and shoes there. If you want to save a buck, fine. But I think you're being short sighted and you will probably miss your local running store when they are gone.

Your Next Bold Move wrote:

My questions to you is, why did you wait so long to replace your shoes? Really, they're so bad that you can't get another week out of them? The constant need for instant gratification and entitlement is half of what's wrong with this country.

I think in the long run, I come out ahead supporting my local running store more often than online. First - they offer free in-store registration for a TON of local races. I just dropped off the forms for a local turkey trot last week -saved probably $10 in Active.com BS fees between me and my husband, plus I got to pick up our bibs at the same time.

Also, this same store offers 10% discount for track club members, so to be honest, the prices come out about the same on a lot of things when you use that.

There are some times where my fav shoes are cheap online, or I just want another pair of shorts or such, and I'll buy em and save a buck, I admit it. But I do try to go to the running store for most shoes, sports beans, salt caps, etc.

The bigger is is just the options we have today...There are times I've waited on shoes to come in from my local store, and times that I've figured, heck, I'll go online... but that's not running store specific. I've had the same back and forth for a variety of stores/products that might not happen to be in stock (yep, even Macy's/Target types sometimes don't have my target item in my size from time to time in their bricks and mortar).

In general, I like having local running stores in the community, and to keep them there I'm willing to spend an extra buck to try and buy more of my stuff there than elsewhere.

Screw that. I am not buying anything from my local running store ever again. I bought three pairs of Pegasus they had on clearance for really cheap and each pair mysteriously started falling apart after 4 weeks. Something was really fishy.

And they have a facebook group for weekly group runs, but they just use it to spam everyone's Newsfeed with products they want you to buy, and then once you are there for the group run, it is really uncomfortable because you feel so much like they want you to buy something and make all these recommendations, etc.

Hingle McCringleberry wrote:

Screw that. I am not buying anything from my local running store ever again. I bought three pairs of Pegasus they had on clearance for really cheap and each pair mysteriously started falling apart after 4 weeks. Something was really fishy

Just to clarify, are you in some way implying that the running store did something to the shoes to make them fall apart? Or that they knew somehow that the shoes were going to do that? I'm not really sure what you're implying here. Older shoes break down faster, EVA degrades just like any other plastic. Ask the women in your life if nylons from a package are still good five years later, even if unopened. An older shoe won't get as much mileage as the new one. Were they literally coming apart? I'm really not sure what you're implying here.

And btw, how you can you even call yourself a real runner if you don't have at least two shoes in your rotation at all times? ;)

Usetoworkatashoestore wrote:

4/10

How the hell can you expect a shoe store to offer next day delivery if the shoe companies do not even offer that to the shoe store?

You're never used zappos.com? Or runningwarehouse.com? They make it work. One- or two-day shipping is the norm.

If I can next-day order a pair of new running shoes on my smartphone while standing in line at Carls Jr, why can't my "specialty" running store get a pair in less than 7-10 days? I know, I know, the suppliers are slow. Well then get new suppliers or create a storage facility from which you can dispatch shoes quickly. If a running store thinks that 7-10 days is acceptable, they are sealing their own demise.

Sunday afternoon, Nieman Marcus, found a pair of Sorel boots I wanted but they didn't have my size. I went into the changing room to try on a shirt, went to my Zappos app, ordered them for cheaper because of no tax (then anyway) and they were delivered before noon the next day.

father time wrote:

If I can next-day order a pair of new running shoes on my smartphone while standing in line at Carls Jr, why can't my "specialty" running store get a pair in less than 7-10 days? I know, I know, the suppliers are slow. Well then get new suppliers or create a storage facility from which you can dispatch shoes quickly. If a running store thinks that 7-10 days is acceptable, they are sealing their own demise.

I've worked in a running store for several years, and I don't really see inability to get shoes into the store quickly as a major factor in the sustainability of a store. With brick and mortars you're getting more than just the product; conscientious shoppers understand that. A shoe not being in stock is unusual, and if it happens it is my experience that most people have no problem waiting for the shoe to arrive at the store; the people who are impatient and can't find what they're looking for in-house in the extreme minority.

father time wrote:

Usetoworkatashoestore wrote:

4/10

How the hell can you expect a shoe store to offer next day delivery if the shoe companies do not even offer that to the shoe store?

You're never used zappos.com? Or runningwarehouse.com? They make it work. One- or two-day shipping is the norm.

If I can next-day order a pair of new running shoes on my smartphone while standing in line at Carls Jr, why can't my "specialty" running store get a pair in less than 7-10 days? I know, I know, the suppliers are slow. Well then get new suppliers or create a storage facility from which you can dispatch shoes quickly. If a running store thinks that 7-10 days is acceptable, they are sealing their own demise.

7-10 is probably too long but the reason zappos/amazon can fulfill your order in 1-2 days is because of the 100's of millions (if not billions) of dollars they have spent building out the most robust distribution system in the world.

Your local store has no chance unless they have multiple locations or a relatively advanced and dedicated shipping/receive warehouse (99% do not and rightfully so because the cost is too great).

My company has multiple locations and can fulfill orders in 1-2 days, but only because each store is like a small warehouse unto itself.

Single stores face a much more difficult task for all the reason others have posted, give them a break.

You can't really compare the online store shipping with that by the local store. The right comparison is while it takes 2-3 days for an on-line store to ship your a shoe, you could get it right away at the local store.In the case of a shoe that is out of stock, at the local store they order it for you and the shipping may take quite a few days, while the online store would just tell you it's out of stock, look somewhere else.Yesh, the big on-line stores are a much more competitive business model because they're big and able to maintain a big inventory. And they can start clearance sale muhc earlier than local stores. And they don't have this extra cost of ordering some shoes that are not in the stock (already sold out or not in the inventory). Thank about it now I feel guilty that I haven't done much in supporting our local running stores.

father time wrote:

Usetoworkatashoestore wrote:

4/10

How the hell can you expect a shoe store to offer next day delivery if the shoe companies do not even offer that to the shoe store?

You're never used zappos.com? Or runningwarehouse.com? They make it work. One- or two-day shipping is the norm.

If I can next-day order a pair of new running shoes on my smartphone while standing in line at Carls Jr, why can't my "specialty" running store get a pair in less than 7-10 days? I know, I know, the suppliers are slow. Well then get new suppliers or create a storage facility from which you can dispatch shoes quickly. If a running store thinks that 7-10 days is acceptable, they are sealing their own demise.

Josh Hamilton's Addiction wrote:

Hingle McCringleberry wrote:

Hmm, to be honest, I didn't know runners purchased that much stuff from online retailers. How do these running stores stay in business?

The running store I worked at stays in business by being part of the community. If you have a welcoming store with helpful employees, there are plenty of people who will pay a little extra for their gear.

The running store I shop stays in business by non-runners. I never realized how many people buy running shoes for work, casual wear or whatever.

That is one reason the stores don't carry a lot of cool performance specific items like spikes and split shorts shorts. Non runners don't buy em and there aren't enough serious runners to support em

But I do like my local store and always go there for shoes.

It has been years since I worked in a store and it was before online. We also had little competition in our town. Even with that we did our best to keep popular shoes in stock but sometimes it would just happen that we would have a gap. Sometimes we could put them in a similar shoe.

But if we were out, we would do a quick check and order the missing sizes along with other models from that company. (We carried running, tennis, basketball, aerobic and other shoes). We we're close the Memphis so we got Nike shoes pretty fast.

I am biased but we rocked the customer service. I would put our staff against any store in the country for service and price.