{"id":366,"date":"2010-03-22T10:30:48","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T15:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=366"},"modified":"2010-12-20T11:51:09","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T16:51:09","slug":"staying-active","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/?p=366","title":{"rendered":"Staying active"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Ottawans closing their wallets to luxury expenses during the economic downturn, locally-owned sports stores have avoided being another victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will usually cut elsewhere before they take their kids out of sports,\u201d says Houle Sports Excellence owner Pierre Thibaudeau. \u201cSo recessions don\u2019t really affect us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houle Sports is in Orleans and focuses on hockey and soccer apparel. During the last two recessionary years, Thibaudeau says sales have remained the same.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A rack of sticks a Valiquette’s Source for Sports<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been around for 20 years and are known in the community so we have a big base of customers,\u201d he adds. \u201cThe numbers have remained at least the same, and since August the have been up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results are the same across the city at Valiquette Source for Sports. More than two years into the recession and sales have not suffered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been fairly level. It hasn\u2019t grown but it has not decreased yet,\u201d says owner Ralph MacLean. \u201cIt\u2019s been down some months but we have always bounced back in later months.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing MacLean has noticed in tough times is that customers are being more careful with their money.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people try to be conscious about value. They look for deals like skates that come with a free stick,\u201d says MacLean. \u201cThey also have spread out their buy, meaning [they] only [buy] one thing at a time, not all their equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

One weapon these local stores have to battle box-store competition is a nation-wide buy in group. Houle Sports is part of the Sports Excellence group and Valiquette is part of Source for Sports group, each with over 100 stores in Canada.<\/p>\n

This allows Thibaudeau and MacLean to buy top-of-the-line hockey gear and sell it at competitive prices \u2013 giving them an edge on some box stores according to MacLean.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe specialize more in one sport than bigger stores,\u201d adds Thibaudeau.<\/p>\n

Caring for the customer<\/p>\n

Another benefit of going local is personal service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe offer a higher level of service,\u201d says MacLean.\u201d Especially in the skate business, it\u2019s based on reputation and service. We do proper fitting of the skates and offer quality skate sharpening.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>However small private sports stores aren\u2019t without challenges and downsides, as Rob Goodman, assistant manager at Kunstadt Sports on Bank Street can attest to.<\/p>\n

Kunstadt focuses on skiing, snowboarding, tennis and aerobic winter sports like snowshoeing, but was forced out of the hockey market because its product selection could not compete with the larger stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of a couple of hockey only stores on Bank Street, we kind of bowed out of the hockey market,\u2019 says Goodman.\u201d If you want to focus on something, you want to have it covered. A person should be able to come in and get exactly what they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A specialty store can offers a wider variety of skates.<\/p>\n

Goodman says that Kunstadt now plays more to its customers by specializing on fewer sports. He adds that all of the employees are knowledgeable about skiing and snowboarding because they are all actively involved in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are able to offer a higher quality of service. Everyone in our shop skis and snowboards so we can really help them out, so it\u2019s a lot more honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kunsdtadt also faces the obstacle of a higher sticker price than most box stores because it is not part of group buying, though Goodman maintains that good service can always make up for a few bucks in higher prices.<\/p>\n

Although Houle Sports and Valiquette Sports can compete with prices, Thibaudeau adds that they cannot compete with the advertising budgets of box stores because there is no group buying of advertising.<\/p>\n

During the recession, stores like Kunstadt and Play it Again Sports saw their equipment buy back program \u2013 which deducts the cost of used equipment from new purchases \u2013 increase. Goodman says this kind of program helps his store compete with larger stores in terms of price.<\/p>\n

Despite the recession, local sports have stayed afloat in a time when many stores have foundered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a recession, people take better care of themselves,\u201d says an optimistic Goodman. \u201cIn the summer we had a low point, but our bike sales were up because people were taking care of themselves and riding more, and as Christmas approached we could definitely see that the confidence was back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local sports stores stay afloat in an unhealthy economy by offering service that chains can’t match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":75,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":998,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}