Just bought a running store. What is one thing your local shop is missing?

High School and under is a huge market. Don’t forget to cater to that demographic. They want arm sleeves, they want the latest spikes in different colors, they want the USA Nike spandex shorts, they want the super shoes, and their parents want it all for them and will come in to get it for them so make sure you have it all for them.

I was scrolling quickly and thought I read sales person with a nice rack.

Number one thing missing for most is profitability and return on investment. Unless you're looking for a tax write-off I hope you didn't invest any more than the value of the property and building. Maybe inventory at about 15-20% of current replacement costs depending on the turn rates and aging of all the individual items.

You must be someone that likes to swim "upstream" and enjoys headaches....

Good luck!

Your store will need people who are liked and will bring in people.

I would drive for the best available. Good luck.

Have you considered staffing the store exclusively with hot runner babes?

Work for a brand so I get dirt from my retailers. Brick and mortar running doors can certainly carry Adidas, but from what I’ve been told they suck to work with. Poor sales terms, inconsistent reps that are agency based/ not from adidas but still rep adidas.

I’m from a medium city and one of the running stores here carries adidas but the shoes don’t sell. Casuals don’t care for the good stuff, and the die hards order online anyways. Lots of inventory sitting is no bueno.

I was considering buying one years ago. I was going to start regular runs from it for all ability levels. Remember there are more slower runners than faster runners and they need shoes too. Also not many people buy shoes based on what the best runners are wearing either.

The store I go to where I live does (or did) Wednesday night runs and then Saturday morning runs. They would have an employee open the store early so we could meet inside, use a bathroom, etc. Often that person would run with us and then come back and work (shower) when the stored open. It was also open when most got back.

Good luck. Running a business is a lot of work and can be stressful.

So you want them to sponsor groups for serious runners, but then you are not going to buy product from them to keep them open.

I worked at a small sports shop (tennis, running, basketball shoes). Most of our sales were to people who did not exercise. They just wanted comfortable shoes. "Serious" tennis players, runners, etc were great, but catering to just them would have closed the doors long ago.