Congratulations Rick,
I'll look forward to bumping into you in the coming months.
RE: Wholesale Sports coming to town.
I for one couldn't be more pleased. It will save me the drive down to Bellingham.
At the same time, I definitely feel for the guys at Galilee & Army/Navy. Over the years both stores have been good to me and I fear that this is likely to impact their business significantly.
Truth be told however, this could hardly be considered unexpected. Fishing/Hunting/Camping gear is a commodity based business. And whenever we talk about commodity based businesses its the low cost producers that survive long term. I've thought about owning a fishing store in the past but a quick glance at the industry risks turned me off rather quickly. At least for the scale of store I would be able to consider. In business, its common to think about 5 forces that shape the competitiveness within an industry. They are; The threat of new entrants; Threat of substitute products; Bargaining Power of the Buyer; Bargaining Power of the Suppliers; Rivalry's with competitors. Anyone can walk through these points and compare a small shop like Galilee to Wholesale Sports and won't take them long to conclude who the winner will be.
I hate to say it, but I doubt that a small shop like Galilee (however much we like the people) can compete with Wholesale Sports in any of these areas. Their products will be supplied at a cheaper cost, translating to a cheaper price.
Perhaps the only potential advantage a small shop has is it's customer service. But my experience, shopping at Wholesale Sports in Bellingham has been excellent. I suspect that over time if Rick and his team concentrate their efforts on building relationships and providing excellent customer service habits the game will be over for the small fly & tackle businesses in Langley.
RIP Galilee, imo
WIMF