All is hopefull not lost

[lilpinkie]

Was in my local shop today as it's due to close its doors for the last time shortly...
Bitter sweet experience as everything was going @ half price so some serious bargains to be had........ full to the brim with people filling they're boots ........huge line @ checkout all morning - big smiles on people's faces, pockets & baskets bulgingfor most of the customer's/ people in there. ..........all except the staff!! Picked a couple of things up myself but couldn't really get into frenzy mode that was very apparent just felt a bit dejected by it all. ...... anyway talking to a one or two people heard very strong whispers of certainly 1 or possibly 2 new ventures hopefully starting in the near future ....... so came away quite a bit happier than when I went in ...........1 door closes another opens

[lambrettasx200]

You have the right attitude mate, will they have big smiles when they need a pint of maggots?

[BARBELMAN]

some people do not realize how important the tackle dealer is until it is not there anymore. We had four in BOSTON some time ago there is only one left, hopefully this will keep going.

[lilpinkie]

Aye think its a symptom of the times we live in .
..younger generations reared on the Internet as the source of all things! ! As time progresses its only gonna get worse in my opinion ....in a few years o can see a situation where there'll be handful of tackle shops remaining countrywide ...
Good for them .. possibly not so good for the angling public! Whilst I appreciate businesses need to adapt to survive I also think they need a bit more support at local level cos if that support is not forthcoming its gonna cost us all dear on the Longterm!!!!

[BIG COL]

You have only got to look @ the Major cities
Birmingham in th 60s/70s/80s there were Tackle shops every couple of miles !
There are Hardly any shops left
I can only think of a Handful

[lambrettasx200]

You have only got to look @ the Major cities
Birmingham in th 60s/70s/80s there were Tackle shops every couple of miles !
There are Hardly any shops left
I can only think of a Handful

Your right Col & the ones that survive like Fosters & Tony Troth @ Fishermans Friend are very active on the internet. Also Fosters have gone from the normal inner city shop to a lock up on an industrial estate & have specialised on the insurance side of the business.

London & the Home Counties have lost 100's of shops in the last 10/15 years including my favourite Hounslow A.C.

Where I live we have 2 tackle shops in the area & they seem to survive but its a struggle. If for example you want to buy a decent pole so need to compare different models we need to travel to Birmingham as Paul K & myself did when we bought new poles in 2012.

Fosters made more profit on the bungs/ptfe bushes/elastics & connectors than they did on a couple of flagship poles that we bought.

If you had 500k you wouldnt invest in a tackle shop unless you were mad but there are still anglers out there who would love to own a tackle shop