Question on what do you buy

A good friend is opening a bait-spin-fly shop in SouthCentral Pa. My question is what do you buy from such a shop? He wants me to advise him on the spinning and bait to be purchased for his potential customers. I would assume most on the site would be happy to see a new store open in there area. It will be in a small town and be for the working man to purchase his fishing needs.
Any one interested in a adventure should check out my post on the Va site. We fished out of Williamsburg and did very well a few days ago. You can PM me for additional info if needed.

Have your friend visit the local fishing holes and see what the anglers are using. What may be good in one area isn't going to sell another. He needs to tailor his merchandise to the anglers and fish species prevalent in the area. In my area it's walleye, crappie, trout, and small selections of musky gear.

Find a local wholesale supplier and pick their brain. If there are none local, check with the UPS and Fedex delivery guy as to names of some shippers of sporting goods they deliver from in the area. It's even worth a long ride to get information. One thing for sure is live bait will be the biggest and most profitable seller. Best of luck to your friend. Pop

Will assume that there are trout streams too near by. So he may need stuff for that as well.

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Originally Posted by addictedangler

A good friend is opening a bait-spin-fly shop in SouthCentral Pa. It will be in a small town and be for the working man to purchase his fishing needs.

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Who is his competition? If you have a local Walmart, he won't be able to beat them on price for bait/spinning gear.

If it were me, I'd focus on the "fly".

Yes he can and is beating the wallmart prices. Walmart has a large mark up. Some of there prices are good but some are not. One example is they mark up many of there plastic boxes 5 or 6 hundred % He does not want to compete with other box stores but have items for sale that they do not have. I have found 3 or 4 local tackle manufacturer guys that supply a few stores with custom tackle. These are designed for local fishing and are not in those big box stores. He as well as myself work as fishing guides so we basically know what many anglers want however there are many specialty items out there that a smaller shop can stock and have a advantage over the big box stores. He is the 4 th largest fly supplier in the USA so wallyworld and Bass pro can not compete with the quality and prices of his flys. Many buy from him then mark them up! He also has his own line of fly lines,leaders and so on. His quality hooks are $2.95 for 25. This is as cheap as I can buy as a dealer buying them 1000 at a time. I just had a inquiry for 500 red worms.He is willing to sell them for less then the large bait provider sells them to regular customers. Not sure I can give the shop a plug but will. It is Precision fly an tackle in Mount Holly Springs Pa. He also has a on line store.

You don't need to compete with price for live bait as long as you are within reason. Make sure you have the highest quality and you will do fine. Buy your worms by the tray which come 500 for adult night crawlers and 1,000 for baby night crawlers and red worms. You can buy containers from wholesalers and organic soil at Walmart, Lowes and Home Depot. Don't know what stores are around you, but; many times it pays to carry crickets because not only do fisherman buy them but pet owners will find out you have them and if you are a shorter trip than the pet store, they will buy them from you also. This will create traffic and you could sell some impulse items also and possibly establish a regular customer for fishing items. Be sure you carry some items for kids. Grandparents, especially grandmothers like buy their grandchildren fishing items and make sure you spend a little time explaining to the children and their grandparent how to use what they buy which will probably be what you recommend. Grandmothers will love you. Tackle shop is a lot of work but you'll love it. Pop

Thanks Pop. I never thought about the grandparent thing! I am only a helper so the final decisions are up to the owner. It sounds like you are experienced in the business!

Addictedangler, he can advertise on the Member Sponsor page, by contacting Ed Mose (slab). He will have to pay a fee.

THanks,S10. We are mainly in a trout area but I will mention it to him. Is there anywhere he can go online to check out pricing and so on?

You can PM slab here, and get the info for him to contact him.