There is a lot than can be said about partnerships, relationships, coupling, etc. You name it. A pairing of like minds. Heck, even marriage can be considered such a burden of two like minds to coalesce into one unified mind with those like mindsets in love. Such a unification in humanity melds those styles together and they can work together as one. Sharing thoughts and ideas to make better outcomes. Humanity goes day – to – day in this lifestyle with little thought to this concept of partnerships at a deep level. We as humans share roadways bound by accountability in laws. We are accountable for our actions on roadways as other drivers are. Bound by those laws or otherwise punitive measures can be made to an offending party. Intrinsically, we all want to get to our destinations and home safely and in one piece. This also goes for retail as well. We as humans strive on retail shops, especially locally funded shops. We buy products at these stores to fund their existence and continue to bring in product we all wish to purchase for our needs. Also, those shops rely on their customer base to be open and communicative. This I feel is not being done enough with local shops, especially in archery and firearm sales.
I live in a small town West of Syracuse NY. My local Archery Pro shop is about 20 some miles away from me in Weedsport NY. Distance is not far from travel from my home or place of work. It is mostly a straight drive through a few towns and turns. This is a quaint little shop that deals in mainly Archery Products including crossbows. (I will update this post with his contact information if he allows me to do so). Ever since I purchased my very first bow from this pro shop back in late 2024, I have since called this my go-to Pro Shop for all of my archery needs. Being knowledgeable and informative with all of those items of updated technology is a necessary factor in innovation from manufactures and a insatiable desire for our end user community. Now, readers, you must understand that most archery shops in Central New York are run as a hobby and not as a full time job. There “Simply is no money in full time work,” as my pro shop owner has told me as fellow shop owners around this area have attempted this and failed. Some owners run separate buildings, others run them right out of their own homes or basements. When it is all said and done, we are all archers but our Professional shops we confide in to bring us goods and those services are key to existence, especially archery.
It is much more than utilizing a shop for purchases or services though. Many consumers think this is how a shop should be run. It is simple right? We could be wrong in this answer. We need to understand why these shops exist and why they service our community. A shop owner is not simply doing this to make endless amounts of money or profit greatly from just customers shopping at their shops. They do make money, but it is not a whole lot. Products they sell are not for their own pleasure either, they are for their customers pleasure and sale. I have learned that shop owners are a customer to their own shop as well. They may test things from manufactures, but only at their own expense or expense of an agreed mutual decision from manufacturer to retailer. Understand that shop owners are just like consumers. They also have an extra added burden to keep their shop open. Shop ownership is also a desire of an individual or group of individuals to fill a need in a community. A mission statement of sorts. They see a need in an area or a cardinal desire to help their community and they attempt to fill that void, not because they have to or forced to do so, shop owners want to do this for others. In that of itself and these many words. We need to give back to our local pro shops in many different facets of community. Part of that giving back is feedback and communication.
What do I mean by feedback and communication. For starters, a local shop has power of internet if used correctly and has an ability to leverage ratings from major online platforms as well as interpersonal feedback if a more intimate and private discussion is needed. Without this feedback, circular satisfaction cannot be ascertained and a “Pulse,” of community cannot be achieved to understand if either key points are being missed or overall desires are being met. Not only that, product feedback is key as well. Whether or not a local pro shop is selling a product of their own creation or a mass manufacturer, it comes down to that feedback is critical for that shop to understand how a particular item was purchased and its Survivability in real life. For archery shops, this is paramount. Archery has come along way from yesteryear and technology has gone from a simple stick and sinew to synthetic strings and alloys of human creation. It is key for a community to give a local shop servicing that community feedback on products and services offered. If a product is crap and has issues, even though customers purchased it, there is a duty of customers to work with their pro shop to some how seek guidance and work though these issues to a compromise that makes both pro shop owner and customer happy. Customers have trust in their local pro shops as much as pro shops have trust in their manufacturers. In some cases, it is not a total win-win and more times than not, customers are upset and disgruntled at a shop owner, when customers simply don’t understand why and how a conclusion is made. Some times it is out of a shop owner’s purview that a manufacturer rejected a warranty repair because a customer did something to a product on a side of destruction.
When it matters most, a pro shop in any facet is there for its community and niche it serves. Customers should understand that and build relationships based upon that understanding and provide respect to shops in return.
Return business is good business all around!
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