What are daily sales at an average running store?

During summer breaks in college I worked at a local (non major) running store and thought there was no way this place was making money.

I think people would be surprised what a loyal customer base can do for a company. Most of our sales were Goodr sunglasses, socks, nutrition and gels etc. Most days I was selling 5-10 pairs of shoes but a ton of marginal items. Word of mouth was our main advertising source; I did one radio ad on our country station.

These marginal items have the best profit margin and are easier to push than a $150 pair of Altras

Fast forward three years and the store just expanded into the storefront next door.

Yes, if you want to make money open a bike shop and forget about trying to sell shoes.

I work at one of the larger LRS shops in the midwest. I'm proud of all we do to support our local running community. It seems we do 'well' compared to some of the stats thrown about in this thread. Our bread and butter is traditional models (Ghost's, Adrenaline's, Clifton's, 880's, Peg's, etc..) Our owner is transparent in that after paying the staff (who mostly work there simply because they love running) there isn't much left over - but then again, they recognize that the shop doesn't exist to pad their pockets. I love our store.

I have often wondered the same thing. Some stores stay in business by hosting races, although if there aren't enough registrations that can be a loss rather than a profit. Definitely some risk involved there. I would much prefer to shop at my local store vs. the Internet but my local store almost never carries my size (narrow width). I have shopped there for the carbon fiber plated shoes, because those don't come in narrow anyway. I also never considered the money they get from being the official supplier for local high schools.

I wouldn't do that right now. A lot of bike shops have low sales right now (for bikes and parts) because they can't get inventory.

Yes, but they absolutely killed it during Covid. It's been two years of gravy train, then support for all the bikes they sold, now supply chains are coming back up. Bikes, in general, are the new golf, and there WAS never a better time to be in it.

Running Warehouse does sponsor some local races around San Luis Obispo where they're located. In fact, they may even be the title sponsor for a race.

These days is tough to keep a business rolling with the myriad of competitors on the market. The prices for retail store monthly expenses have grown up in the last months as well. All these challenges and struggles have led to a drastic shutdown of nearby businesses. However, some stores are getting through with the same monthly income as before. I did some research and noticed that stores with high profits invest permanently in marketing. In addition, store owners use the chrome linkedin extension to convert potential customers into leads. Thus, the sales keep growing even in the roughest times.

There are so many variables to this question that it is really impossible to
say specifically. I worked for Kroger for over 20 years. I worked in a
store and ran two different departments at different times and one would
have sales of 25,000 to 40,000 a week. The other bigger department ran
120,000 to 175,000 a week. This can all vary on time of year, weather,
location, sales ad, and other variables. I know the previous figures are
for just individual departments. One store I worked at would do
anywhere from 750,000 to a million a week. So it is hard to give you a
direct answer. The sizes and selections of the stores also matter. As
Kroger has built more “marketplace” stores those stores tend to do more
in sales because they offer the clothing, shoes, expanded selection of
kitchen gadgets like the instant post and air fryers, towels and
sometimes furniture.

Worked in one of the medium-volume locations of a regional running store chain the past two summers. I think the lowest day I saw was 4k, maybe a little less. Worked winter breaks at a smaller location and there were definitely some days only 3-4 people came in, but we'd also have online orders to fulfill. On summer weekends, the medium store could do 10k+ easily. Some days there'd be 5 or 6 people working and we'd all be helping multiple customers at once and still have others waiting. Those days would usually be when it was nice out in the summer, or a holiday weekend, and those days we could do 14-16k or even more - I had one day where I did roughly 6k as an individual. This store was in a fairly wealthy suburban area, but we could look at the sales for the other stores and some in the cities near us would always be higher, and could usually hit 20k on a weekend day, while some in smaller towns would be lucky to break 5 on the same day. And all of the stores were doing less than the sales coming in from the website, some of which we'd help fulfill while others were done from a warehouse. My guess would be the sales for any reasonably well-run and well-known LRS come from online sales, but the main takeaway I got from it is that location is incredibly important. Decent to high population density + people with money to spend and who think they need the latest everything for their 5-20 mile weeks = a thriving LRS

If we're talking about selling shoes on Amazon, it's worth a try. I have been selling on Amazon for more than four years, and in that time I have been able to understand how this system works. I was helped in this by amazon profit analytics, which breaks down everything that happens in this business in detail. For beginners this will be super useful as it is a good base of theory

hahahaha!!! Going to guy buy some NB shoes at the outlet mall. With a coupon code I can get a great pair of road and trail shoes both for under $110. Suckers.

I run a business, not sporting goods store, but an entirely different trade.

It's a rough world out there compared to even a decade ago.

I stumbled upon a running store about 45 minutes away from me, that is run out of their basement. They prefer word of mouth communications -- no fancy website or store, no promo races, etc, etc. He has himself and two workers (well-versed in podiatry and running shoe design) that work at the shop Monday thru Saturday. He sells running shoes, spikes, etc. As well as real running clothes, like split shorts, running full/tights, singlets, running jackets, mittens/gloves, etc. One side is ladies and other side is mens. Prefers to deal in cash, but also takes CC's with a small fee.

Some of his stuff he marks up a tad, but I've found things like singlets/shorts/tights and shoes less than Amazon by a few bucks. Usually a lot less than Running Warehouse. I also like the fact that I can try the stuff on to see how it feels and looks without playing that return game.

I've also found some stuff that I have never seen before online. For example, he had a selection of nice nylon Hind unlined wind jackets. I looked and looked, could never find them again online. I was lucky to get one, because he only had a handful and they went quick. It's one of my favorite jackets during crappy weather.

He also sells used gear too. Like used jackets, tights, shorts, or once or twice used (sometimes never used) shoes. He will even get unused high school or college shorts, singlets, tights, wind pants, etc that they were going to throw away.

Overall that is MY kind of running store... I feel awesome being in there and it's a small business that is a well oiled machine.

While I can't say what an average store makes, I can say what the two I worked for made.

The first that I worked for was independent and cleared $1.1-1.2 million for two of the years that I was there. This was in a relatively wealthy, active community. They're doing well enough now to have more than one location.

The second was part of the Fleet Feet chain in another part of the country that didn't have anywhere near the same customer base. That was making around $450,000. I think it was mainly the franchise owners retirement/passion project.

I managed a running store in the 80's. There is NO long term money in running-only. There are a small handful of exceptions in the very few running hotspots in the world, but the only viable way to prosper is to do the Runners World thing, call your self a running store, but really be a 'lifestyle' store for the galaxy of overpriced faddish knick-knacks loosely related to running. Runners (like myself) are by nature cheap and need very little. That's not the customer you want to chase.

So some posters have said how much the store makes, but none/few have said how much it clears after expenses. You also have to factor in the margin cost of the product- just because you sell the shoe for $140 you also pay Nike something to sell that shoe. Then you have to pay your employees, unless you want to work 90 hours a week.

Rent, utilities, labor, loan (if financed), cost of goods, etc. I don't know how much running goods cost a store, but I owned a restaurant and I didn't do it just to 'have something to do'.

^^ Exactly.

That is why the example I gave, he's still running it out of his business, because he's a savvy entrepreneur that knows his limits. Does what he can do with what he has without taking too much risk (loans).

I never asked, but whenever I'm in his store, there is usually two or three other customers in there at all times. So ROI... it's probably paying him $20-30k for cash in his pocket after all is said and done. Basically a part time job.