NO! 😞
We prefer to think of ourselves more as an educators than a sales people. Our goal is to use our knowledge and expertise to help and guide customers in buying the correct gear for whatever their needs might be. Even though technically our job is to sell stuff, we would rather not sell something than sell the wrong thing to someone. We don't like pushy sales people, and we never want to be one.
However, over the last 40-some years we have sat in on many sales seminars. One of the things they try to teach is that a sales person is never supposed to say NO or ask the customer a question that can be answered with no, the ultimate goal being to get the customer to say YES to making a purchase. The last year has been brutal. We have said NO to customers more times in the last 12 months than we have in 40-some years.
With factories, suppliers, and shipping facilities across the globe and in the US still closed or operating at limited capacity due to Covid-19, there have been huge delays and inventory shortages in every category of products we sell. Across the board, (no pun intended), we have been a boardshop without, or at least very few boards to sell. Products that we pre-ordered in the early fall of 2020 and that were scheduled to arrive in March of 2021, might be showing up sometime in late May or early June.
While it was brutal have the shop closed for two months last year, it has been equally as painful having customers coming into the store to buy, fill in the blank, skateboards, SUPs, surfboards, longboards, snowboards and have to tell them NO, we didn't have any to sell. Even worse, when they ask when are we getting more boards, we have had to say, "we don't know." Even our suppliers don't know when, and even sometimes what, is coming in from their factories. It is been a crazy way to try to do business.
YES!
Fortunately, it has not been all bad.......
Yes, it was great to allow customers in the shop again last June.
Yes, we have been getting small shipments of SUP's and getting people on the water.
Yes, we have gotten a few of the cool new wings from Naish and Slingshot.(who is ready to fly?)
Yes, we have more boards on the way (sometime).
Yes, we actually have a good selection of longboards and skateboards.
Yes, we had a great turnout for the Tuesday Night Social (Distancing) SUP last summer and we will be resuming them again in a few weeks.
Yes, we have great customers helping us get through this challenging time.
Yes, we love our customers.
Yes, we are still stoked.
