Saying it’s getting tougher and tougher for a small store to work with the big sporting goods companies, the owner of a long-time downtown Hays business decided it’s time to close the doors for good.
Terry Bright, owner of Goodwin Sporting Goods, 109 W. 11th, and his employees began preparing Friday for the store’s liquidation sale, announced in a flyer that arrived in many Hays mailboxes the day before.
“I was kind of on the QT for quite some time. My phone started ringing yesterday,” Bright said of the announcement.
The sale will begin Jan. 3 and run through Jan. 9, with further sales to be announced in advertising the following week.
The closing is not for a lack of business, but rather a large part is the growing complexities of working with suppliers over the last decade or so, Bright said.
“It’s becoming more and more difficult,” he said. “When I first started, you could have an account with a major company and you could purchase your needs to fulfill your customers.
“In this day and age, it’s not that way. Things have totally changed,” he said.
Now, companies like Nike have minimum order requirements and require orders six to nine months in advance.
“Then I wasn’t able to get access. They chose what I was able to buy style-wise. So I didn’t get the latest, the greatest, the early release stuff that the kids wanted,” he said.
(Read more: News – The Hays Daily News)