Topic: Fishing Shop

[Shizzy]

A new carp fishing specialist shop open in Maristow Street next to Bowyer's undertakers.

[baldy]

I went in yesterday and spoke to the chap there.

He explained that he currently stocks stuff for course fishing especially carp fishing though I saw no rods - just bits of tackle and bait.

He is going to gradually stock game and sea fishing stuff as and when demand becomes apparent.

[Debs]

N8ce to see a new business in town.  As i dont fish i wont be using it. Such a shame it wasnt here when both 9f my sons were very keen fishermen. They had me driving all over the place so they could buy their bits and pieces and bait etc

[baldy]

I think the business will struggle to break even, let alone make any profit. I imagine that everything can be bought on Amazon cheaper and delivered by the next day.

I hope the proprietor has another source of income.

Maybe it might work by being open for 1 or 2 hours just 2 or 3 days a week so that he can earn money elsewhere ... ?
The customers who actually buy the bait for immediate use would learn the opening hours.

There was a fishmongers nearby some years ago which used to be open for only a half of one day a week (Friday or Saturday), which eventually never opened up at all and was simply a place for his deep freezer to store the goods that went into his mobile fishmonger van.  The biggest problem is that Maristow Street is just a shockingly bad location for any retail business with its next to zero footfall ... though correspondingly it does have rock bottom (very cheap) rents.

[Shizzy]

Often a specialist shop doesn't rely on a shop in a high footfall area, the fact it is specialist it attracts people to it rather than people popping in when passing.  The other feature of specialist shops is that they are a source of information, so whilst you may get an item cheaper online, people are often happy to pay extra because of the benefit of knowledge that the shop owner or its customers have.

[Al]

The other feature of specialist shops is that they are a source of information, so whilst you may get an item cheaper online, people are often happy to pay extra because of the benefit of knowledge that the shop owner or its customers have.

Ah you see, that wouldnt apply to Baldy since he knows everything about everything already! 

[baldy]

That's not true, but I do try to have a book on any subject that I want to know all about - though actually finding time to read them all is another matter ...

I used to buy a book from Waterstones every time I went anywhere near a Waterstones shop, then Amazon tempted me to buy a used one, perhaps one or two every week very cheaply indeed (many at 1p plus £2.80 postage), then I ran out of space.

These days I check into one or two charity shops that have good selections of used books and probably find a useful one every week or so. I recently found a brand new book on photography for £3.

I've just counted up my fishing books and realised that I have too many to admit to including 2 copies of the same book ...

I also need to throw out books that I will never read ...