| |
| SkullandBonesSkateboards.com Forum Index » HOT DISCUSSIONS » Why? |
|
Page 1 of 1 |
|
| Author |
Message |
| TCBSK8 |
 Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2003 4:00 pm |
 |
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2003
Posts: 1211
Location: Tupelo, Mississippi
|
This is a copy of something I posted in the lagging "Business - shops - retailers etc." forum (where only about 2% of us seem to ever go)
I'd love to hear something out of more of yall if you have any input. If you don't have a skateshop, you might have some input anyway. Maybe we can start a "hot discussion" even...
________________________________________
This is a serious question (relax, guys...) for all the shop owners in here -
Why the hell do you do it?
The usual answers like "For the Chicks" and "I love it" aside, be for real with me. Why do you do it?
I've been in the skateshop "game" since 1996. I've struggled month-to-month the whole time, I've sacrificed more money, more time with my wife and son, more time off, and more straight up blood sweat and tears than I can even measure in those 7 years, man.
Yall know what it takes...totaldedication.
And why?
Some of yall may say the money's nice, but you must be living somewhere where the scene is HUGE and you're selling softgoods out the ass, because we all know the profit margin is shit on boards. OUTLOOK and you "bigger" shops/companies, sure - you probably are making some corn, and hell yeah for yall! Feed those families, guys, and buy an old skateboard from time to time too, if the fancy strikes you.
I guess I'm preaching to the little guys in Nowhere, USA that have a small crew of friends and the usual assorted groms and kooks that buy just enough to keep you in business... Guys like me.
I'm in the 700th financial bind of the last 7 years right now, (due to the guy we sublet from moving out unexpectedly) and it's gonna take every dollar from mine and my wife's tax return to keep the doors open.
Why?
I could have gotten a PHD in anything I wanted in the time I've spent slangin' stuntwoods. Why not just get a JOB like the rest of the world and have some financial security for Christ's sake?
Why?
From what I can gather mentally, the reason I pump every dollar I have into this joint, even if it's LOSING money, is somewhere along thes lines:
It holds the scene together in Tupelo, Mississippi - Population 34,211.
People are going to skate with or without me, I know that, but every time I close for a few months to re-structure and re-open, the scene just sorta dissapates. There's nowhere to meet up and watch the new video or shoot the shit or buy a deck even for a hundred mile radius. The local skateshop is supposed to be the glue of the scene...
I have met more killer people that I will call bros til death through this shop than I can count.
I've organized contests, demos, and kick-ass sessions that people will lie on their deathbeds and remember and think, "Man, I had a good time that day. Damn. Life was good.", then shit themselves and die. That's kinda cool.
And dammit, it's what I know how to do. It's the one thing I'm good at. You could argue that if I'm so friggin' good at it then why am I so piss poor, and hey, you could have a point. Still, I see people working at TacoBell and Banks and Exec-jobs every day with just enough "life-force" in them to get home and not kill themselves before they have to do it all over again. I would not have that strength. (Plus, I have two armsleeves of tattoos, and that kinda bars you from certain jobs. In my case, on purpose...)
I'm writing this mini-book mainly to remind myself why I'm gonna give that check away to the landlord, the power company, the phone company and the homeless dude that washes my windows tomorrow.
If nobody reads this all, much less replies, whatever - Still, I'm curious...
why do yall do it?
|
|
|
| Back to top |
  
|
|
|
| Shitbird |
| Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2003 4:05 pm |
|
|
Joined: 16 Dec 2002
Posts: 6512
Location: Nor Cal
|
I used to be a large, mid-point distributor of marijuana in the Bay Area.
The growers...I called "chickens on handgrenades"....because they had to tend to these crazy illegal babies.
The lower level distros who supplied the retailers, I called my "bees".
The retailers....well, those fuckers were crazy.
I was the dude who made the lion's share, and took almost zero risk.
You retail skateshops are the heart and soul...and get NO LOVE.
God bless y'all. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| TCBSK8 |
| Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2003 4:14 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2003
Posts: 1211
Location: Tupelo, Mississippi
|
Thank you for the last two lines of the post, holmes - and the rest of it for totally freaking me out.
illegal babies and chickens on handgrenades -
Ha! There's gotta be a metaphor in there somewhere... |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
| Upland_Yo |
| Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 11:00 am |
|
|
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 2025
Location: 3600 Feet
|
@shitbird - dude you are the rollins, I dig the nothing to hide, call it like you see person you are.
Chickens on handgrenades that is some funny sh!t. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| hanger18 |
| Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 11:11 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 13 Apr 2002
Posts: 342
Location: SD
|
@tcbsk8
I'll tell you why i have had my shop this long, all-the-while being broke...
Its because there are no more real shops. There are surfshops with a couple of skateboards, there are internet money makers, fashion depots, mall nightmares etc...
When you were a kid, what was better than getting out of school and jamming down to your local skateshop to see what was going on? That was the center of everything for me. We planned our days from there, we learned about life from there. I guess i wanted to try and bring back some soul to San Diego, but not many kids care. Its funny, i could have made some money doing ANYTHING else, but it comes back to the basics. How you want to live.
I don't want to wear a suit, i don't want to answer to some little bitch. I come into work at 12 and go home at 6 and enjoy my family. I would like a big house with an SUV, but honestly, that doesn't drive me at all. When you have a little kid getting his first real set-up and see that familiar look on his face...well, thats why we do it.
So good on you for keeping Tupelo skating! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| TCBSK8 |
| Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 11:51 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2003
Posts: 1211
Location: Tupelo, Mississippi
|
That is EXACTLY right, man.
My shop is the central meeting place for every grom in Tupelo. A few of the kids that showed up the first year I had my shop (96) are now my tight bros from way back when. New kids come in just about every day and I know that "look" you mentioned well. If they hang around long enough and skate hard, I load them up and take them to skate a park or a pool or something that they just wouldn't have access to outside of me. The whole time I'm thinking how rad it would have been if an "old dude" had done the same for me when I was a grom. I was tripping pretty hard when I wrote the original post, but things are alot better now.
It's exactly like you said - it's all about what kind of life you want. Me, I want to LIVE skateboarding till I'm Hoveround-bound and beyond!
 |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
| Bad Brains |
| Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 12:26 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 Oct 2002
Posts: 331
Location: New Orleans
|
Dude, you're doing what you want to do. That's worth a hell of alot compared to working for people who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground and get put in charge of major corporations that idiots like me end up working for.
Don't join the guys making cash working for other people thinking "God I wish I was self-employed" who are now unable to take the chance because they have the nice house and the SUV and can't afford to do it.
The grass is always greener, it's the dog shit that makes the difference.
[ This Message was edited by: Bad Brains on 2003-08-20 13:26 ] |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| mac |
| Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 1:12 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 04 Mar 2003
Posts: 1776
Location: west chester,pa
|
The only shop I know of that has been in business continualy for the past 20 years has several things going for it...
- Affluent (sp?) area.
- Phenomenal location with tons of pedestrian and car traffic.
- Softgoods sales out the ass... around this time of year the parents walk in with the groms and spends hundreds at a time for "back to school" gear.
- Transformation into a snowboard shop every winter, which you can't likely do in your area.
- Bam Margera, the home town boy made good, basically doing anything that the owner asks him to do after all the years he supported bam.
- Bam's hot ass girlfriend behind the counter every day to keep us old fucks coming in.
Every other shop I can think of, going all the way back to when I was 7 years old, is long gone.
My point is... alot of things in life are just about being in the right place at the right time. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| martymule |
| Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 2:20 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 11 Jun 2003
Posts: 60
|
mac
do you live in West Chester? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Tue Jul 01, 2025 5:16 pm
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
