Tackle Sellers: Find a Narrow Lane
Posted by Pete Robbins on Jun 29th 2021
I still check out the “New Items” section on Tackle Warehouse just about every day and I recently bought tackle from Amazon for the first time – it was something I needed immediately that wasn’t available at any local store. Last month I even made a purchase at Bass Pro Shops for the first time in several years. Nevertheless, whenever possible I would prefer to support small retailers, both online and brick and mortar. That’s getting harder to do, simply because there are fewer of them, it’s harder for them to remain competitive on price, and post-pandemic inventories are tough to maintain.
Recently, however, through a post from Gary Dobyns I learned about Bait Finesse Empire, a merchant catering exclusively to the relatively new (to American shores, at least) bait finesse category of tackle.
It reminded me of Swimbait City and Japan Import Tackle, two other retailers whose niches may not be quite so slim, but are nevertheless pretty specific. And that led me to the realization that going forward if fishing tackle vendors are not megastores or on the water, they’ll likely need to carve out their own piece of ground. If you can’t compete with the big boys, find a new playground, and endeavor to stay ahead of them as they move in on your territory. Find a specialty and become the biggest and the best at it. Where you can win is through service and expertise. For a newcomer to bait finesse or swimbaits or JDM tackle, it’s a daunting world, and purchasing mistakes are expensive. I want to be able to call someone up, or send an email, and have them objectively tell me which product fits my needs and gives me the most bang for the buck. If you can do that, and carry all of the oddball goodies under your specific umbrella, I promise I’ll buy what I need from you.
