Spyderco Forums

cycleguy wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 13, 2019 3:32 pm

SF Native wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:41 am

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

Yeah, I don’t know. I figure this is a hobby for me. I’m not buying for self defense or other reasons. I want to be happy to be there and excited about the possibilities, but it was always more of a buzz kill. Maybe they just feel threatened by legislation and stuff. Guess I want all of you guys there, fans and enablers.

SF Native wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:41 am

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.

This. But I missed touching the merch. Now its a gun shows and Knifecenter. Oh well, I bet old people sit around talking about rotary phones and how they miss them. Saturday morning Tarzan and Three Stooges and cartoons that didn't have any trans characters or climate ****.

cycleguy wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 13, 2019 3:32 pm

SF Native wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:41 am

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

Know maybe gun shops should have customer service training. You want to make a sale maybe make the buyer feel good about what he's interested in. Cant imagine car dealers treating a person like their **** on their shoe from the get go. Make me feel good about the Hi Point I'm looking at. Move the merch make a sale. Or maybe I expect to much.

I got my Amalgam from a b and m in Birmingham, and when I called and talked to them they were great! Price was competitive, didn't give me the run around, straight and to the point. I'd like to go down there and check it out in person, but that's about a 4 hour trip!

Also been meaning to hit up st nicks in Florence, but that's an hour or so as well... Maybe one of these days!

Wow. Didn't know the brick-and-mortar store situation was so dire out there, that kinda sucks. Sure it's great that online stores have made it easy to buy things, but it would be even awesomer to have both at once. Where I live, there's a knife store run by some friendly people, and a sporting goods store, and both of them carry a few different Spyderco models. I always make a point to buy knives from the knife store in person, because they're no more expensive than elsewhere, and even if they were, it would be worth the extra money to me to support a place that actually lets me try out the knives before I buy them. Trying things in person tends to save me a lot of cash in return shipping fees.

I had a fantasy about opening a knife store....but reality set in and realized its a terrible idea...out of business in less than a year I'm sure.

I began my working life in retail. At the time I began, the stores were staffed by professional salespeople, who taught me the trade. When I left retail all together, nearly 20 years later, the slide towards what's left of customer service was in full swing. For the most part, the responsibility falls almost entirely on the brick and mortar companies. Customer service became sell them anything you can, as fast as you can, and don't worry if they never come back. I miss the old days, but the stores brought most of it on themselves. I sold everything from candy bars to clothing to guns and knives over the years and I agree .. it's dang difficult to find anyone that knows anything about their product or doesn't have a poor demeanor.

Hey big problem with mom and pop brick and mortar stores is that they often do not see the point in advertising online. They just don’t do it and unless you just happen to be in the industry or in the loop somehow you don’t know that they even exist. I’ll run it this time and time again. Another thing is is that knife stores actually are lumped in with gun stores and fishing stores and so you have to check both of those as well. Also every now and you’ll find a mom-and-pop hardware store that will carry a lot of knives. I’ve got one near me that the only thing they carry is your Spyderco and the only Spydercos are either old out of print models or salt models.

I'm in Canada and am fortunate to have a great knife shop within an hour drive from me. Tremendous variety and stock levels and customer service has always been great. I only order online if it is an exclusive I really want that this store of course won't get.

The bricks and mortar for us would be far too expensive. I would prefer to purchase this way getting personal service, handling the knives etc.

I went to the last store i know in my country today. And to my horror the amount of spyders dropped to 10 or so and all of them where us msrp + a 100 euro on top. Felt sick walking out of there

One day people will regret the closing of brick and mortar stores and their reliance/dependence on the Internet for purchasing products. They push for the public to buy their groceries online and have them delivered to their home (inside, in some cases). I don't want anyone selecting my fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, etc., for me, and I really prefer looking through and picking out my knives and tools in person. I order online if I can't find it local, which, unfortunately, is happening way too often. I miss our local Sears.

Evil D wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 13, 2019 5:13 pm

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.

This is why Benchmade is a different kind of knife company than Spyderco. They have the diversity and quality of a company like Spyderco (in a general sense) but the retail footprint of something like Gerber or Kershaw. Benchmade is the "Premium" knife brand at most outdoors/sporting goods/gear stores, especially the big-box stores.

As for B&Ms in general, I'm super fortunate that I work about 5 minutes from an outdoors store that has a knife selection that they believe in, with dedicated employees who are knife people, and a counter that is as large as their gun counter. This store carries Chris Reeve and Hinderer knives in stock, as well as your Kershaws and ZTs and CRKTs and Case and, especially, Spyderco. They used to get 2 of every new model of Spyderco by default, but they couldn't sell some of the weirder (ex. Introvert) or more expensive (high-end sprints especially) down here in Alabama. But, the reason why they can still sell so many knives is that the knife business is inside a thriving larger outdoors business. A stand-alone knife shop probably has almost no chance of succeeding without being just a storefront for a warehouse for online sales. It does also help that here in Alabama you have to be carrying something like a short sword to start bumping into any legal knife limits, as well as a general tolerance for people carrying around a "weapon" like a knife since lots are also carrying something more potent anyways.

I guess overhead is too high for brick and mortar stores? I live a couple of hours from the town where Sooner State Knives ships and they don't have an actual store that you can visit. It's really a shame but all things evolve. I am not sure that it is always for the better.

Water Bug wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 15, 2019 2:55 pm

One day people will regret the closing of brick and mortar stores and their reliance/dependence on the Internet for purchasing products. They push for the public to buy their groceries online and have them delivered to their home (inside, in some cases). I don't want anyone selecting my fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, etc., for me, and I really prefer looking through and picking out my knives and tools in person. I order online if I can't find it local, which, unfortunately, is happening way too often. I miss our local Sears.

Yep.

I never buy knives from Amazon, walmart, etc. I only buy them from stores that have a physical presence.

Every person that buys knives off websites like Amazon has contributed to the inablity of B&M style shops to stay in business.

I have multiple shops that carry Spyderco in my city, and I have made a point to patronize all of those shops.

When I lived up North, there was a fantastic "outfitter" type store with a very good knife department. Lot's of selection, including Spyderco. Sadly, the owner sold to his son-in-law who proceeded to ruin every single aspect of the store, ran it into the ground and it closed a few years later. Prior to the sale, the knife counter always seemed busy when I went. With internet sales the way they are today, I don't think it could happen again except in rare instances like we see with the big names who have strong internet sales and a storefront.

Mourn the absence of B&Ms as needs be.

Imagine the lamentations, not to mention the utter shock to our various addictions, if and when 2-day shipping disappears, or, more likely, becomes outrageously expensive, which will amount to a disappearance for many consumers.

The irony is that fast-shipping has done as much to kill mom-and-pops as Walmarts and Dollar Generals, and maybe more.

We do like our Faustian bargains, until we don’t.

wrdwrght wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:19 am

We do like our Faustian bargains, until we don’t.

This is so true, on so many levels.

Vivi wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:01 am

Water Bug wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 15, 2019 2:55 pm

One day people will regret the closing of brick and mortar stores and their reliance/dependence on the Internet for purchasing products. They push for the public to buy their groceries online and have them delivered to their home (inside, in some cases). I don't want anyone selecting my fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, etc., for me, and I really prefer looking through and picking out my knives and tools in person. I order online if I can't find it local, which, unfortunately, is happening way too often. I miss our local Sears.

Yep.

I never buy knives from Amazon, walmart, etc. I only buy them from stores that have a physical presence.

Every person that buys knives off websites like Amazon has contributed to the inablity of B&M style shops to stay in business.

I have multiple shops that carry Spyderco in my city, and I have made a point to patronize all of those shops.

When I can't find a knife that I want in the local area and have to order online, I order that knife (especially :spyder:s ) through those stores that are reliable, brick and motar establishments... trying to do my part to help them keep the doors open.

Spydergirl88 wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 13, 2019 10:43 am

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

This is why I can't even go into a brick n' mortar, because I just don't think that's right to do at all, and I also can't afford their prices, so I feel like I just shouldn't take advantage of their existence just to handle products. It would be one thing if I were buying, but not just to comparison shop.