Yeah, or at least that's how it worked with all the distributors we ordered from. Anchorman in Kansas City (has to be the worst one in the country though, never have anything and constantly ship the wrong items), and Classic Products in Texas. Now, shipping back to Texas was expensive so we never did that, and I suppose it helps being in close proximity to Anchorman (especially given how often we had to return all the wrong items we got shipped) to return things, but this is why depending on the circumstances I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for shop owners who cry about stuff sitting on the wall forever. Number one, you should have a good idea of what sells. I rarely had a dead ball sitting on the wall, and even if I had a ball that was popular, I wouldn't stock it after it had been out a couple months. If I didn't think it would sell, even if it was from a popular brand in the area, I wouldn't stock it, OR if it was a great looking ball from a company that didn't typically sell, I'd give it a shot. And if it's sitting there forever and gets discontinued before you can return it, mark it way down and just get it off the wall, that's an easy way to satisfy your bargain hunters who never pay full price for anything anyway. They can't turn down a deal and they're doing me a favor getting something off the inventory, because despite how many people complain about how fast the balls come out, it's amazing how many would still complain about seeing the same balls on the wall for just a month or two. "Same stuff you had last time I was here." Yeah, only been a month since this ball came out, give it another 2 or 3.
Pro shops don't do enough to limit their risk in my opinion, and limited risk is more about knowing what sells and what doesn't rather than running yourself short in inventory. Takes more legwork and a good understanding of your numbers and keeping them in perspective. Lol sorry for the rant, but my belief is that pro shops fail primarily because they're poorly run businesses rather than because the business isn't there. When I took over the shop I did in late 2014, I set the location record in 2015 that had previously been established in 2006 with half the league bowlers the city had back then, and set it again in 2016, and before I quit a month or so ago, was on pace to up it again this year. I increased prices, profit margin, and total business all at the same time, but it's because I really humped it and paid a lot of attention. See too many people in the bowling business crying because business is down or slow, but that's just because they suck at doing business. Nobody wants to walk into a boring bowling alley with employees getting paid minimum wage who weren't trained well and don't care, to rent 5 year old torn up house shoes to go bowl on lanes dodging popcorn on the approach to go up to order overpriced frozen fried food from the snack bar that's run by someone who isn't a cook, to also go over to the bar to find a tiny selection that's also overpriced served to you by someone who isn't a bartender. "Well we're just a bowling alley, what sense would it make to pay a real cook/chef and bartender, especially with how down business is?" Well maybe business would go up if you actually ran a decent business . . .
Not sure if you're being sarcastic or serious lol. As long as it's undrilled with original packaging and hasn't been discontinued, they should all take returns . .
Manufacturers wouldn't do it if it wasn't making money . . and pro shops really have zero reason to complain. If something doesn't sell within 3 months, take it off the wall and back to the distributor, and order the latest and greatest. I do find it funny that bowlers cry about something while continuing to feed the machine at the same time . .
I thought it was interesting. Bowlers and proshops have complained before of there being too many releases and manufactures haven't seemed to listen. Be interesting to see if anyone really notices or if it will be short lived and go by the way side.
Since when can you send undrilled balls back?? That's new!
I don't remember being able to do that, but last shop I worked in was 02... I wish the first shop I worked in did that. Do you know how long it took to sell 40 blue Omegas??
