Desire to start a running store and need some ground truth

You won't make any money. Best possible scenario is that you can scrape out a living by working 60 hour weeks (to save on labor costs). But it will be a labor of love and you'll get to be your own boss.

Exactly. If it was viable, someone would have done it. Too much online trade these days to make a living out of running a running store.

negative nabobs will never do anything.

Keys in retail are marketing, inventory control and keeping costs down.

You will have to do virtually everything yourself to hold costs down and establish a great corp culture. Cut costs as much as possible and be as scientific as possible on inventory size.

You need yourself to be the primary contact person with customers because you can't afford to hire high quality people. You don't want gum chewing teens to be your ambassadors of quality.

So the question is how hard do you want to work? Most Americans would rather not work 7 days a week - would you?

Like the poster before me said, working 60 hours a week just to make a tiny profit.........

If you can make it work for you then I admire your work ethic and your budget control etc, but how much profit are you making after all that work?

Check out Fleet Feet Sports and get info on their franchise. The supplier angle is the killer. I know a guy who had a popular running store in a major city who got killed by the suppliers. The major shoe/apparel companies do not want their products in small mom and pop stores. They want their products in the big stores with multiple locations in big cities. They will not give you any product and will make you price at list for what you can get. At least with Fleet Feet, you have the buying power of the franchise and can get some product. Question will be whether you have the resources to buy into the franchise and whether they will be interested in such a small location. Without a franchise, I think you would be in for a very difficult time given all the internet retailers out there.

This is true. What a crazy industry. A buddy of mine has a fantastic store in a mid-sized market (~500,000 people) and he just got murderd by the suppliers. They were just total bitches to him. Basically, after coaching, race directing, volunteering and just being a super-nice guy in the running community - all while holding down a full-time banking gig - he decided to follow his dream and open a store. This was about 15 years ago. Well, city continues to grow, as does race participation and other stores start popping up here and there. He can deal with a little competition, no problems there, but he wasn't ready for the suppliers to screws him over. He got dropped by two main brands, outright, no warning. His other top brand refused to let him sell certain popular shoes. As another guy said, most made him price at list. He lost money on shoes. He eventually had to close his doors because he was losing money. Luckily, he had made a good amount of cash in his banking days and was fine during the time, but it just breaks your heart. He LIVED at that store... almost literally.

How can the suppliers dictate which products a retail store can carry? Any industry I have been involved with, the retail could buy and sell anything we offered. And the supplier can not legally force a retailer to sell at a given price. The supplier can give volume discounts which could influence the price the retailer pays and eventually sells the product for, but they can't force you to sell at list. That's called illegal. A supplier or manufacturer has to give the same discounts for the same volume of product to every retailer in a competitive marketplace, otherwise it is illegal.

I think what they mean is that Nike can say:

thanks for your letters and phone calls but we do not wish to have you sell our product. All the best for your future endeavors!

Location is important.

I worked at a tennis specialty shop that expanded over the years. The shop started out near the city tennis courts--perfect for its target market.

Owner slowly moved into running and then aerobics. Stuck primarily with shoes. Clothing is a pain because it is seasonal and trendy--especially the aerobics clothing.

Getting suppliers to issue credit to give you 60 days is key. Back in the old days, the owner would have to write a check for COD when deliveries came. That is a cash flow nightmare.

Someone above asks about suppliers. I think some companies grant territorial rights. So ASICS (not sure it does it) might say that only Store Z can sell ASICS within a 35 mile radius. I have wonder about the legality of it as well.

I would look at a little diversity. At the store I worked at, our biggest sales area was really sneakers for everyday wear more than specialty running shoes. Back to school shoes and Xmas was probably 2/3 of annual sales.

At the same time the store stayed with what it knew: good pricing, good service.

Good luck if you choose to pursue. I hope you have good capitalization to make it. Too often it seems people get in with little money in reserve and have no cushion.

See, the problem here is that you will quickly become a random "sports" store selling, well, back-to-school shoes and crappy tennis skirts and you're no longer a running store. Good luck with your "sports" store when there is a Dick's down the road. Service is great, but you're no pro when it comes to Tennis skirts, so the specialty aspect is lost. Horrible business plan that went out the door in the late 90s with big box stores coming in and taking over.

Good pricing is no longer an option. You will not beat Dicks in prices; you just cannot.

With regard to other questions about legality, I am not an expert by any means. I am just recounting what my buddy went through. I know they flat out refused to sell to him. With regard to pricing and certain models, no idea how it worked. I do know that he got screwed around a lot by them. Big brands, too. I am talking about the major brands.

Anyone here a sales rep? Can you tell us how it works?

Question time wrote:

How can the suppliers dictate which products a retail store can carry? Any industry I have been involved with, the retail could buy and sell anything we offered. And the supplier can not legally force a retailer to sell at a given price. The supplier can give volume discounts which could influence the price the retailer pays and eventually sells the product for, but they can't force you to sell at list. That's called illegal. A supplier or manufacturer has to give the same discounts for the same volume of product to every retailer in a competitive marketplace, otherwise it is illegal.

After 700 calls and emails:

Hey there Mr. RunningHaus, we would love to help you get some of the new Nike Flyknits, but they are on limited release and we are not offering them to all retailers for another 3 months.

3 Months Later:

Hey there Mr. Runninghaus, we would love to help you get some of the Nike Flyknits, but we are backordered for the next 6 months. After that, we have deals with our preferred vendor list and do not see availability for at least another 12 months. If you'd like to place an order for the 2012 Nike Flyknit to be received late August of 2013, please let us know. Thank you.

I have owned a running store for 22 years and Nike has always been a pain to work with. When I first opened my store Nike told me to take a walk NO WAY. After about 3 years they came on board and things were great. Nike was responsible for 60% of my business. Their arrogance has allowed them to diminish to the point that I dropped Nike from my store in 2009. At that time they were responsible for 3% in sales but still acted like they were a big player. My store currently did $2,750,000 in sales for 2012. I still have an open account with Nike and occasionally order a special order on spikes but other than that they are not important in opening a store today.

As long as you open with Brooks, Asics, Saucony and Mizuno you will be just fine. You are handling 90% of sales. For some areas New Balance is more important than it is for us. We have a New Balance concept store around the corner so we just give up on that business.

Good luck and you can make it.

My local running store refuses to sell Nike. I'm not sure what his sales are but be does pretty good. He has had the store for like 20 years and doesn't spend as much time in it anymore. He treats his employees pretty well with bonuses, some paid vacation etc...

I'm sure it was rough going when he first opened but it is now a nice business.

I'm a potential customer. Tell me why I should come to your store and pay $100 for the Pegasus when I can buy it online for $70. Am I paying the extra $30 for your knowledge? Are you going to be able to match the selection of Running Warehouse when it comes to specialty shoes like flats and spikes? Will you provide me with bend over backawards service like Road Runner Sports (i.e., can I bring back my shoes after a month of wearing them?)?

I always wanted to open a run shop too, but I just don't see how a brick and mortar store (especially in a small town) can compete on price or selection.

I've noticed that at my local run shop, the shoe trade seems like a secondary activity. Training groups for big races are where the money is at nowadays. However, my town is big enough where there's always a steady stream of new runners ready to plunk down hundreds of dollars for training groups. Your town might be too small.

I'm suprised no one has tried a combination fitness center/athletics retailer all in one location. One of the fallbacks of trying new shoes for the customer is places within the store to run full stride to get an idea of what is comfortable and what isn't. Since most stores won't let you take stuff outside to test, having access to a treadmill or indoor track within the premises would be of major assistance for the customer.

The most successful gun stores are those that have a shooting range. Same philosophy could work for running apparel.

Agree wholeheartedly. I occasionally go to running stores to try on the shoes but end up buying them online UNLESS the difference is like $10 or less. Anything more I am waiting for that gift in the mail!

damn thats pretty cheap.

buying online is cool, but if you go to the store to try you should buy from them rather than save the 20. for the next pair of the same shoes, its up to you.

The truth....ALL sales reps do not care about the little guy, the independent stores. Very rare they will ever visit, but will encourage ordering futures sight unseen. If you don't do futures it will be tough to get inventory with preferred colors. You will not be getting help with races, help with special event nights or free swag for your staff and store. It will be VERY tough to open with all vendors and availability with SKU's will be very slim. Example is Asics, the big box store and mega chain running stores (fleet feet) will have access to styles 90 days before you, which means they will be advertising deep discount inventory while you are still trying to sell at MAP. You will be going for $110 for a 2170 while they advertise them at $79.

What will really burn you is these folks (95% of LR posters) who want your experience on the correct shoes, want to get sized and test drive them and will leave and order online. Been in the business 12 years and telling the truth.