What are daily sales at an average running store?

I have wondered the same thing. I know that they partly get by with working with local schools and being their supplier. Besides that, I have no idea how they make money. Things like run clubs for stores are usually a small niche group of the same people.

When I was in run specialty retail about 10 years ago, we would do about $3-4k M-F, $8-12k on Saturday and $3-8k on Sunday. If rent is reasonable, payroll is super cheap because you only need 2-4 people on at a time mostly during the week. If average margins are 40%, that’s like $50k+ in profit each month before lease, utilities, payroll. Plenty left over to restock and either pay yourself or the business.

It’s probably worth remembering that there is no such thing as an “average” day in running retail. There can be super dead times— weekdays in the winter, for sure. But compare that to a weekend day when high school CC season is ramping up, or a December weekend when people are shopping for watches and apparel as Xmas gifts. If I ever accidentally walk into a running store on those days I just turn around because it takes forever to get help.

It also helps that stuff is super expensive. I’m not the most hardcore runner and I’m not a gear junkie or anything, but I easily spend $750-$1000 at a running store in a given year. 3-4 pairs of shoes at $130 each, two pairs of shorts at $50 each, maybe a singlet and a couple gifts for other people. It adds up super fast and that doesn’t account for the really expensive stuff like GPS watches.

You don't know what an average is.

Odds are you are not finding the same shoe for $50-$75 dollars cheaper online. Keep telling yourself that you are though!

Having worked at a store, if you are going to the same store to "get the best fit" odds are they've scoped you out and are giving you the wrong names of shoes. We would do this all the time to Karens like you.

Neat thought. Let’s assume the following hours: 10 am-6 pm M-Sat and 10-4 Sunday. If it’s a good store they should be very busy on Saturday and Sunday. On a weekend you’ve got 8 hours, let’s say you have 3 employees; you could service 4 customers per hour and that’s being conservative. Average transaction let’s say is $150 (idk). That’s $8400 on the weekends. During the week I’d guess they do 1/3 of the business on a weekend day. That’s 1600 a day for 5 days; so that’s a weekly total of $16400.
$65k a month

$787k a year

They cannot mark up prices. They literally sign a contract to not do that. So “overpriced” isn’t possible. It is sold at the suppliers price.
I was at a Nike factory store that was selling Pegasus 36s for $50. That blows my mind. That is less than what they sell the shoe to specialty stores.

did your ex boyfriend work at a running store or something? Someone has obviously hurt you and I am deeply sorry for that. The store I used to work at never offered services like that, but please continue to share your story.

i will continue to shop at my running specialty store, even though I haven’t B worked there in ~10 years. Amazon, Zappos and Running warehouse have never put on a local 5k nor have they supported any local kids clubs. Sometimes paying market price for a shoe is worth it to keep the money in the community. But hey, I’m just a nerd. What do I know? 🤷‍♂️

You can't go entirely by foot traffic because most running shoe stores also offer online shopping. I/we usually order shoes, watches, and goo's from the local store's website.

I live in a town with 3 LRS’s (down from 4 since last year) and basically no local 5K’s anymore, though there is a huge, overpriced annual 10K and a crappy, overpriced marathon and half. The vast majority of weekends April-October there are no road races. The existing LRS’s here do precious little to ensure a vibrant local competitive scene.

I have worked in handful of local run specialty shops in more than one state. The ones that have done very well I'd say we averaged 5-6k/day on weekdays, and anywhere from 12-20k on weekend days. Those shops had employees who had been in the industry for years, had ample inventory, and also a prolific online business. Other shops I've been into that don't have those things, have only young kids working on minimum wage, and have only a small cult following of people/customers...well, the only way I can assume they get by is by having a store owner who is independently wealthy and pours money into the shop as their hobby.

I support my local running store but whenever I am there it is dead. It seems like a brutal business to be honest. Most people find the shoes they like and order them online if for nothing else having them delivered to you seems easier.

I don’t know how they do it. With payroll taxes labor is never cheap.

Most of you are wrong. I’ve worked at a few -of the same retailer- in different cities. $1k on a slower weekday. Maybe $2-$5k on a busier weekend. $5k being a local event pushing people in the store. Up to $10k for a big local running event. Say, a popular marathon. But that’s ONE day of 10k. For the year. Sales might be near that on a weekend day between thanksgiving and Christmas.

I worked at a very busy store and we’d pop consecutive $20k days. $30k on weekends. I’ve also done big expos where sales will eclipse $100k PER DAY. The slower stores struggled to pass $1k every day unless sales associates were aggressive and pushing insoles, two pairs of shoes, nutrition, stickers and all the other BS incrementals.

It really is about demographic. People would walk in and buy the $250 shoes just because they’re the $250 shoes. Sometimes even buying every color. Oh. And I’ll take the gopro black also even though I don’t know how to take pictures. This happened at least once a day. AT LEAST. Not all stores are like that, obviously. Oh wait. My wife just showed up. She needs those shoes in every color also. Geez. Now we have too much stuff. Do you sell bags so we can carry this on the plane?

Since I stopped really caring about running competitively 14 years ago I have not entered a running store.

Dick's, Kohl's, Shoe Carnival, Factory Outlets....etc.

There are a TON of cheap running shoes that don't have a lot of bells and whistles if you are only running 3-4 x a week. Nike Flex Run or Flex Experience Run have been my go to the last several years.

Alan

That's a good question. I live near a Fleet Feet Store, and I am still trying to figure out how they survive. Not only does the owner have to pay for all his business expenses (monthly lease, insurance, payments to suppliers, salaries, electric bill...) but also all of their personal expenses (mortgage, health insurance, car insurance, car payments, groceries, cell phone bill...). I know they have supply a few of their local high schools with running gear but with all the discount running stores nearby and on online, I am still trying to figure why someone would pay $120 for a pair of shoes when they can go online and pay like $80 for the same shoe.

I'd blame your city/store's views/fears of COVID.

Lots of good comments on this thread!

I agree people buy LOADS of stuff inexplicably. I was in Verizon the other day, and guy walks out with seven new iPhone 13 phones, cases, and a mess of cables/dongles. No phone trade-ins, etc., just put $15K on the card right there. Then drove away in a Rivian pickup.

Also, I have zero idea how specialty running shoes stores make it now, not ten years ago, with Zappos, etc., out there.

That said, I do think that in some parts of the country a store with only the high-priced stuff would do well. I can think of a dozen 'boutique' trail shoes that are $225-300 that I might buy in a store, if I could get my hands on them and have now. Sort of like the guy with all the phones.