Who said all of the fuss was about plastic balls? Although, plastic and low end usually makes up for the majority of a pro shop's sales. Not all of our customers are ballreviews.com tech geniuses that know what they want, how they want it drilled and preped, and what specs they want before they come to the shop to have a ball drilled.
Between plastic and low end reactives, that's where about 70% of our business and profit comes from. We sold a ton of Powergrooves because we felt that for the dollar and ROI(Return on Investment), that it was the best value in the business for both the customer and the pro shop. When these were harder and harder to get, we had to go to other companies for more expensive low end products just to keep in supply with the demand.
Now when a customer comes in for their first ball and gets something like a powergroove, it's alot easier to move them up to a BVP for their second ball when they are ready. Then when they are ready to step into the high performance, they already have two Brunswick balls in the bag and they want to get that new Brunswick high end ball and the three ball Brunswick Roller, the Brunswick polish to clean those balls and the Brunswick shoes to match the entire package. If you cut off that first initial step(with the starter ball for the company), you've lost a potential diehard customer(I'm sure the other pro shops will understand my logic).
Once the Powergroove and Target Zone supply went slim, more of our customers were pushed into the Tropical Storm(New bowlers love having a ball that has a scent to it for the novelty factor), Tornado, and Planet series from Roto-Grip. Then when they move up, they're more likely to go with the brand they have already. Now instead of Brunswick being our #2 seller in shop, there's not a single Brunswick ball on the shelf in here. A couple of other shops I've known have gone the same route. Not because the product wasn't good, but because alot of it wasn't readily availible and other equipment was. So when you have to go to something else, and it does successful, guess what we're going to keep selling? We were really excited about the Avalanche series because that type of low end/big reaction sells a ton in our area. Now it looks like we'll just keep pushing the Planets, Clashes, and Bashes.
I'm not looking for a promise from Brunswick or anything that things will get better, but it is starting to look like these production backups are becoming an ongoing trend. I just wanted to know when they were going to kick things into second gear and become the reliable Brunswick of old with high quality products and no problems.
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-DJ Marshall
...The Twelve In a Row Pro Shop
