Thursday, July 28, 2011

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Western Sport Shop Seeks New Owners

Hopefully, that headline didn't startle you.



The thing is, we've been looking to find a new owner for the shop for a bit now. But, when the economy dipped down a couple years back, we kind of pulled our horns in, hunkered down, and did the things we needed to do to keep Western Sport Shop running well. We've concentrated on reducing excess inventory, getting rid of slower moving items, trying to gain efficiencies where we could and in general tidy up the operation. As you know, we closed our Santa Rosa location - a victim of logistics and economy, and moved everything down to the original store in downtown San Rafael.

Somewhere along the line, we kind of forgot to keep letting people know that we were looking for a special person, or group of people, who understand what makes this store special. Someone who might be interested in taking the store forward for the next 20 or 30 years (or more...!) We think that person has probably been a customer of ours, or is a good friend or relative of one of our customers.

Obviously, that person probably loves to hunt, fish, fly fish.

Well, yeah, that is kind of stating the obvious... Retail knowledge is certainly helpful, but good business sense and a bit of energy go an awful long way, in our opinion. And we don't plan to go anywhere in a big hurry, so we can hang around and help if need be (or get out of the way and watch you go to town!)

I'm mentioning this here because over the past couple weeks, I've had regular customers ask me if I like working for the new owners, or how things are now that we bought it back. Both those were absolutely wrong, but made me (and ultimately our family and staff) realize that we needed to remind people of what the facts actually were.

So, if that piques your interest, perks up your ears, gets you a bit excited or interested, please feel free to email us - the best one to use for this is westsprt @ aol .com - or you could also email customerservice @ westernsportshop .com




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Friday, July 15, 2011

Blue Water Fishing Seminar / Reel Repair Clinic - Saturday!



Just a quick reminder - we know a bunch of people have been awaiting Saturday, July 16 - it's time for our annual "Blue Water" Long-Range Fishing Clinic and we are also hosting the Alan Tani "Hands-On" Reel Repair Clinic.

It will be a great day for learning about the electrifying fishing down in San Diego (and more about our 5 day trip this September), as well as an opportunity for you to get down and dirty - digging into your conventional fishing reels and learning how to clean and maintain them under the tutelage of reel repair icon Alan Tani.

The "Hands-On" Reel Repair Clinic begins at 10 am. You will need to bring in a conventional or spinning reel to work on. Alan will supply basic maintenance items and tools for working on the reel. The goal is to get you familiar with your equipment, teaching you to take it apart, clean out the innards, and get it ready to catch some fish.

*Please note - to make sure everyone who shows up gets a chance to work with Alan, we may limit the time at the work table or the number of reels which can be worked on at any one time.

At 1 pm, Shogun Trip Chartermaster Richard Birnbaum will lead a seminar on the ins and outs of long-range fishing - what types of fish you can expect, basic and advanced techniques on how to hook up and land them and how a multi-day trip operates.

There is no charge for either of these seminars - so get your chores done early and come down to the Shop - 902 Third Street in San Rafael.