Mourning for the brick and mortar stores

[Marulaghost]

Woah is me!

Yesterday was my day off work. After taking care of all my usual tasks i found myself suffering from a case of boredom.

Then it came to me! Why not do a little window/actual shopping? So I start searching online for some stores to visit that might carry the one brand of knife i've got my eye on.

Literally all i found for Tampa were walmarts and Ace hardware. All that Walmart had were the budget line.
The only other ones i found were flea markets that were closed (plus they had no spyders)

What happened!?

[Joey]

Internet/Amazon/eBay happened. At this point, we are lucky to have the online knife stores that we do have.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I agree 100 percent and I am glad you posted this. I remember reading various knife magazines and periodicals years ago (1990s and before) and there were numerous brick and mortar knife stores, and even a knife kiosk opportunity for people to get as a franchise and open in malls. What happened? A combination of the internet shopping and strict knife laws and lack of demand?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Internet/Amazon/eBay happened. At this point, we are lucky to have the online knife stores that we do have.

Good point. And if you will allow some speculation, perhaps advanced 3d printers will allow each of us to download the blueprints to a new Spyderco knife from Spyderco headquarters and print it out on demand.

[cycleguy]

Times have changed ... not only is product (generally speaking and not just specific to Spyderco) selection not so abundant, neither is staff. Throw in knowledgeable staff an the picture gets even slimmer. Seems one's best bet is to google information, read-read-read and youtube, then buy on-line.

Even here in the Denver metro area, home of Spyderco, the product isn't well represented outside the SFO. I see WAY more butterfly brand knives stocked and showcased locally.

CG

[SG89]

Plus people use brick and mortar stores to see the product in person then go online and buy it cheaper somewhere else

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Plus people use brick and mortar stores to see the product in person then go online and buy it cheaper somewhere else

I notice that, too. Is this because the brick and mortar stores often have to take the costs of overhead such as location and utilities into account, whereas the online retailers do not have the same costs, so they can sell the knives at lower prices?

I still remember seeing the Spyderco Stainless Handled Clip Its for sale in stores, behind the display cases. It was a sight to behold.

[mugwump867]

Some of my favorite online Spyderco retailers also maintain B&Ms -- DLT Trading, GPKnives, River's Edge, St. Nick's -- so it's not like they're all gone. The ones that have survived are great shops with competitive prices but of course you have to be lucky enough to live near one. Knife retailing is one of those things like guns that hasn't been completely obsoleted by the internet due to the nature of the product. Even the bigger players in the online space are little guys in the grand scheme of things. I hope it stays that way.

[Joey]

Internet/Amazon/eBay happened. At this point, we are lucky to have the online knife stores that we do have.

Good point. And if you will allow some speculation, perhaps advanced 3d printers will allow each of us to download the blueprints to a new Spyderco knife from Spyderco headquarters and print it out on demand.

As true as this possibly is, I don’t see it happening for a while. 3D printing has come a long way, but it definitely has its limits. I don’t see us printing in carbon fiber/G10 any time soon :)

As for St. Nicks, REC, BHQ, ETC I think those places are nice to have, but for me personally I can only realistically visit Blade HQ. They’re an hour from me, so even that is hard to do.

[zhyla]

Local shops were never great. No shop has ever stocked every Spyderco model available and I’ve never seen one at a competitive price in 15 years. The internet has done wonderful things for the knife industry.

[SF Native]

My experience at brick and mortar was always pretty negative. This was mostly at gun shops. Poor attitudes. Unhelpful, confrontational. Talk down to you. Lack of understanding or care that you want something other than their favorite or suggestion. I’m sure there are some good ones out there, but screw em. Glad they are gone.

[ZrowsN1s]

Just found out there is one decent knife shop here... and it's only open m-f 9 to 5. Guess they don't have many customers with jobs?

[Wartstein]

Folks, be glad you don´t live here in Salzburg / Austria...(JUST in terms of knife stores of course, other than that it´s a great place to live...)

I am aware of only one single store in the hole state / county of Salzburg (which has like 530 000 inhabitants, the capital, also called Salzburg, has about 150 000 inhabitants and is the fourth largest city of the Republic of Austria) that carries at least one Spyderco model. It´s a hunting store, and the model I saw there was a SERRATED Military (I am not a hunter myself, but I guess a serrated edge is probably not the first choice here??)...

There was a second store that had some REALLY overpriced Spydies till like two years ago, but not anymore...

I would not know what to do without online stores. Maybe in the big German city Munich (about a 150 km / 95 miles drive from the city of Salzburg) could be some knife stores carrying Spydercos, don´t know...

[cycleguy]

My experience at brick and mortar was always pretty negative. This was mostly at gun shops. Poor attitudes. Unhelpful, confrontational. Talk down to you. Lack of understanding or care that you want something other than their favorite or suggestion. I’m sure there are some good ones out there, but screw em. Glad they are gone.

Don't know why it is, but nowadays, gun sales seems to bring out the A**Hole in most everybody - both sides of the counter.

CG

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Folks, be glad you don´t live here in Salzburg / Austria...(JUST in terms of knife stores of course, other than that it´s a great place to live...)

I am aware of only one single store in the hole state / county of Salzburg (which has like 530 000 inhabitants, the capital, also called Salzburg, has about 150 000 inhabitants and is the fourth largest city of the Republic of Austria) that carries at least one Spyderco model. It´s a hunting store, and the model I saw there was a SERRATED Military (I am not a hunter myself, but I guess a serrated edge is probably not the first choice here??)...

There was a second store that had some REALLY overpriced Spydies till like two years ago, but not anymore...

I would not know what to do without online stores. Maybe in the big German city Munich (about a 150 km / 95 miles drive from the city of Salzburg) could be some knife stores carrying Spydercos, don´t know...

Wartstein my friend, wow that is very sad and thank you for sharing that news. This is so different from what I heard in the past: A person of German descent many years ago told me that in the middle 1980s and before, back into the 1970s, and the 1950s, after the Second World War, and then before the World Wars, Germany and Austria had literally thousands of large and small knife and cutlery shops, not including all of the hand/custom making knife artisans to be found in every town and larger village. The pride and gladness of the quality of Austrian and Solingen German steel, he said, was incredible, and it was some of the best steel in the world, if not THE BEST. He said back in those days you could find what we would call brick and mortar knife stores selling folding pocket, pen, hunting, and fishing knives, and fixed blades from small traditional Bavarian sheath knives, on up to full-sized daggers, swords, and HUNTING SPEARS, for reasonable prices, all made in Germany and Austria, and even some with the newer materials (more like in the 1970s to 1980s) such as composition plastic and stainless steel. Then according to what you posted, this situation has changed since the 1990s and on?

He told me that in old Austria and Germany, there were hand knife making artisans who within a week or two could produce any knife design you wanted, as long as it used old style materials such as fine carbon steel, stag, wood, leather for the sheath, and other materials, and these people were to be found in nearly every large town and village.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Here is a related question for you all about this: How difficult would it be in this day and age for a serious Spyderco fan to open a brick and mortar knife store of their own, and sell almost exclusive Spyderco knives, at competitive prices? If they opened in an area that had many outdoorspeople who were into hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and related activities, and the area was known for things such as white water rafting, and other outdoor activities, would they have a good liklihood of large sales of said knives, or would it be a tremendous risk of failure in this day and age?

[anycal]

There is a military surplus store on the way to my parents, that has a pretty good selection. Including S35V PM2, ZDP Endura, SE Pacif Salt, Shaman, G10 Stretch, and bunch others. Other brands as well. Surprising but nice to have. Picked up couple of blades there.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

There is a military surplus store on the way to my parents, that has a pretty good selection. Including S35V PM2, ZDP Endura, SE Pacif Salt, Shaman, G10 Stretch, and bunch others. Other brands as well. Surprising but nice to have. Picked up couple of blades there.

That is very good. Also that way you get to see and feel how the particular model you are interested in feels in the hand and you can look it over at all angles.

[Evil D]

There's still one close to me but he doesn't carry a big selection of Spyderco's anymore, just the safer bet type models. He does however carry dozens of BM models.

[Joey]

My experience at brick and mortar was always pretty negative. This was mostly at gun shops. Poor attitudes. Unhelpful, confrontational. Talk down to you. Lack of understanding or care that you want something other than their favorite or suggestion. I’m sure there are some good ones out there, but screw em. Glad they are gone.

Don't know why it is, but nowadays, gun sales seems to bring out the A**Hole in most everybody - both sides of the counter.

CG

You know, it’s been so long since I’ve been to a “gun store” because of this very reason. I forgot how horrible the customer service is, and you pretty much nailed it on the head. I tried so many ways to get service without a sigh, or a grunt, but there’s no chance with them.

Local shops were never great. No shop has ever stocked every Spyderco model available and I’ve never seen one at a competitive price in 15 years. The internet has done wonderful things for the knife industry.

This is also a valid post. I prefer it the way it is today, all things considered.