Golf Galaxy...

[trentyoung33]

Anyone have any insight on how Golf Galaxy is doing financially? Obviously they took a large hit through COVID but they were at an all-time low today...

I went in to buy Pro-V1s and they did not have a SINGLE box of them... in their aisle of Titleist golf balls, they had 4 dozen ProV1xs. I have noticed recently that they are not receiving any shipments and wondering if that is part of a larger financial issue.

[null]

They are doing EXTREMELY well.

I am friends with the GM of my local store and they have already made up all of their losses from when they were closed earlier in the year.  They are swamped every day and they cannot keep anything in stock.

They aren't receiving shipments because the OEMs don't have product to ship.  Covid really hurt manufacturer supplies of clubs, balls and everything inbetween.

[trentyoung33]

8 minutes ago, jlukes said:

They are doing EXTREMELY well.

I am friends with the GM of my local store and they have already made up all of their losses from when they were closed earlier in the year.  They are swamped every day and they cannot keep anything in stock.

They aren't receiving shipments because the OEMs don't have product to ship.  Covid really hurt manufacturer supplies of clubs, balls and everything inbetween.

Good to know. I was just shocked to not see a single ProV1 golf ball in the store. You'd think they would do everything possible to keep balls in stock right now.

[russtopherb]

Joe hit the nail on the head. A lot of golf shops have minimal stock because A) everyone's out golfing since a lot of other activities aren't able to happen, and B) manufacturers can barely keep up. Between supply chain issues, backlogged orders and trying to do the best they can with smaller staffing, you're not going to see golf stores flush with stock.

It's the same with biking - the three bike stores near me are pretty much only open for repairs at this point, as their stock has been sold out for months and they're not expecting to get anything for a while. I lucked out and grabbed a bike as soon as they were able to open for sales a few months ago, and they got wiped out pretty quickly.

ETA: I have friends and extended family members that work for Titleist in Ball Plants 2 & 3. Titleist was big on making sure that everyone was able to come back to work safely, and part of that is fewer employees per shift for the time being. So they aren't able to turn around the same volume of balls that they might have been able to under "normal" conditions. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

1 hour ago, trentyoung33 said:

Good to know. I was just shocked to not see a single ProV1 golf ball in the store. You'd think they would do everything possible to keep balls in stock right now.

Titleist had a 12 week backorder on balls about 1-1.5 months ago. Haven’t heard if they are still running at that or have made some progress

[null]

2 hours ago, trentyoung33 said:

Good to know. I was just shocked to not see a single ProV1 golf ball in the store. You'd think they would do everything possible to keep balls in stock right now.

The store I go to has one Ping driver left.  No fairways.  No hybrids. 

They had about 1/4 of there normal odyssey putter stock.  

It indeed looks like a place that is liquidating product, when in reality they are doing great and the OEMs just cannot keep up

[dlow206]

Golf and fitness equipment are hot right now during Covid. Fitness equipment in my opinion is probably even harder to come by, its taken a lot of luck patience for me to get a barbell and bumper plates (still waiting for them).

[tehuti]

Some time within the last month or two our local Golf Galaxy disappeared without a trace! My wife wanted to go to the Sprouts next door to them over the weekend and when we rolled into the parking lot the store was gone, no signage, or other evidence that it had ever been there. They didn't have a ton of stuff I was interested in, but I did like to go in there and occasionally kick tires. 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

During Dick's Sporting goods second quarter earnings statement. It was announced that they might close a substantial portion of its 80 Golf Galaxy stores over the next three years as the leases end.  Dicks had a 4.1% gain but GG dropped 9.3% Dicks also laid off 500PGA Pros from their stores. (Don't count on a good fitting)

[DiscipleofPenick]

During Dick's Sporting goods second quarter earnings statement. It was announced that they might close a substantial portion of its 80 Golf Galaxy stores over the next three years as the leases end.  Dicks had a 4.1% gain but GG dropped 9.3% Dicks also laid off 500PGA Pros from their stores. (Don't count on a good fitting)

I thought Dicks got rid of their PGA staff years ago?

Take Dead Aim

[storm319]

39 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

During Dick's Sporting goods second quarter earnings statement. It was announced that they might close a substantial portion of its 80 Golf Galaxy stores over the next three years as the leases end.  Dicks had a 4.1% gain but GG dropped 9.3% Dicks also laid off 500PGA Pros from their stores. (Don't count on a good fitting)

What you are referring to was from 2014:

http://www.golfwrx.com/239847/dicks-sporting-goods-may-close-many-of-its-golf-galaxy-stores/

[HardcoreLooper]

Supply chain, supply chain, supply chain.  One of my customers is an extremely large grocery retailer.  My local store looks like it's going out of business.  Their suppliers can't keep them stocked.  I was at Ikea the other day, and they had no desk legs.  Desktops, but no desk legs.  Supply chain issues.  

Same thing with golf equipment.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

11 hours ago, storm319 said:

What you are referring to was from 2014:

http://www.golfwrx.com/239847/dicks-sporting-goods-may-close-many-of-its-golf-galaxy-stores/

That was from 2014. Since then they have been doing what they said they would do regarding closing stores as leases ran out or rent increased. They closed Albany NY near my Dad, Brentwood MO near one of my usual business trips, Milwaukee, Madison, Memphis, Townson MD, and closed the corporate office and combined with Dick's. I'm sure there are others that I haven't heard about. I always look for golf stores on my business trips to kill some time in the evening. Sometimes a Top Golf. 

[storm319]

16 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

That was from 2014. Since then they have been doing what they said they would do regarding closing stores as leases ran out or rent increased. They closed Albany NY near my Dad, Brentwood MO near one of my usual business trips, Milwaukee, Madison, Memphis, Townson MD, and closed the corporate office and combined with Dick's. I'm sure there are others that I haven't heard about. I always look for golf stores on my business trips to kill some time in the evening. Sometimes a Top Golf. 

Yes some stores have closed but they’ve actually had a net increase in total number of stores in the 6 years since that article was published.

Edited August 21, 2020 by storm319

[Tom the Golf Nut]

I thought the increase was due to the rebranding of the Golfsmith stores. Thirty something if i remember right.

[pulledabill]

My local pro shop hasn't had a Titleist ball in stock for over almost 2 months. 

[storm319]

6 hours ago, pulledabill said:

My local pro shop hasn't had a Titleist ball in stock for over almost 2 months. 

That is likely more of an Achushnet capacity issue than a reflection of shop trouble.

[russtopherb]

9 hours ago, storm319 said:

That is likely more of an Achushnet capacity issue than a reflection of shop trouble.

Yep. Ball Plants 2 & 3 are ramping up as much as they can however they aren't running with the same amount of staff as they normally would in order to help promote physical distancing. They spent a lot of time trying to fill what they missed from March - May/June and are playing catch-up still at this point. 

[ZenGolfer]

Id say its probably more of a Titleist issue than a GG issue.  The one here in Columbus has been out of Pro Vs lately but they have everything else.

Like someone else said, the global supply chain has taken a huge hit during COVID as companies that manufacture have had to implement lots of social distancing policies that have hurt their production.  I work for Honda here in Ohio on the factory floor and its a whole new world out there.

Another thing to remember with Titleist is that a signifigant portion of their Pro V1 production in Thailand and that their US ball plants were shut down for a while and as of June I don't think they had reopened yet, so Im sure theyre waaaaay behind on their yearly production.

Perhaps now is a great time if youre a Titleist ball loyalist to learn that theres just as many other balls out there that are just as good and maybe you don't really need to spend $50+ for a dozen golf balls.   Just sayin'.

Edited August 23, 2020 by ZenGolfer