SFR Optimal Fly Shop Hours?

Sorta fishing-related
Divad

Divad

Whitefish
What do you wish the optimal hours for a fly shop be? (Within reason)

On weekdays I wish hours closed closer to 7 or 6 at the earliest to have time after work. And likely wouldn’t be stopping in much before 11am M-F.

Weekends is a toss up for me on the likelihood I’d stop in early or late.
 
Divad said:
What do you wish the optimal hours for a fly shop be? (Within reason)

On weekdays I wish hours closed closer to 7 or 6 at the earliest to have time after work. And likely wouldn’t be stopping in much before 11am M-F.

Weekends is a toss up for me on the likelihood I’d stop in early or late.
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Thread drift: I’m retired so whatever works for the shop works for me. ;-)
 
I've got one shop in town, and a buddy works there. They close at 5 weekdays. I mostly order online(even form them sometimes).

If I owned a shop I'd be:
Mon-Thurs 10-7
Fri-Sun 7-3

Before you kill me, the local shop is mostly based in online business. I drop as much money as I feel like I can in local shops when I visit them. But I'm not taking time off to go grab some hooks or some shit....
 
Having them open M-F until 6:00 would optimal, since I usually leave the office at 5:00 and my short but brutal commute can put me there most times 10-15 minutes before they close. I know what I want, so it is in and out fast food style for me and not holding them up from closing on time.
SF
 
Our shop ( back in the day ) was closed on Sunday, open 10 to 6 Monday - Saturday, with exception of Wednesday we were open until 9 in the beginning, then reduced that to 7. After 7 the streets in our area cleared out, our customer traffic dropped significantly and we had some problems. The only other business open on our street after 7 was a shots & beer joint.

If we had a fly tying class (starting at 7 p.m.) with students that were really enthusiastic and wanted to keep going, we'd stay to 11 p.m.

It really depends on the type of shop, urban, metro, destination, seasons, etc. For me, a destination shop that's closed on Sunday wouldn't be useful.
On a lot of trips out of state, I plan on rolling into town on Sunday and get my license, local must haves and info., because come Monday morning I'm getting wet.

On the other hand, in a metro downtown area where the area empties out on Friday at 5, being open on a Sunday wouldn't make much sense.

A lot of shops used to be closed on Mondays, kind of like Barber Shops. We opened Mondays more for customer service and managerial reasons than sales. We called Monday, Warranty Day, because that's when guys who were terrified about the rod they'd broken over the weekend would come in. We wrote nearly all of the warranty claims gathered in a week on Monday, the rest of day was for writing orders, calling them in, meetings, etc. puncutated by the occasional customer that came in to buy something. Wed - Sat were our big sales days.
 
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When we had a shop in town I was always out working when it was open, so I would go on a Saturday if I could. Really needed a 7:00 closing time at least.
 
I've always lived in a town that didn't have one. I've been within 30 minute drive only a few times. So the last 20 years I've done most of my shopping online, but I make sure I do that from local fly shops that have a good online presence- Pacific Fly Fishers, Gorge, Red's, Caddis, etc. The last complete setup I bought (that will probably be the last complete setup I ever buy) was from Red's. If I'm buying, instead of tying, I buy most of them from Pacific. Their service is awesome. Thanks Michael! But it's all online because if I have time off, it's with family, friends or on the water fishing.

Like @Yard Sale said, I'm not going to get off early just to go spend $$ at the fly shop. Now, if I have time and in the area (usually on a trip), I love visiting fly shops. At least the friendly ones. There are more of those these days. Truly nice people like Amy at Deschutes Anglers, the guys at The Fly Shop before Mark retired, and a few others out there are super helpful and not jerks. Seems easy, but always surprised by how many shop owners don't get it.

10-6 or 11-7 during the week seems like a no-brainer to me if you really want people in your shop. Not the greatest hours for family life though so I get that side of it too. Whatever they do, if they don't have an decent online presence they won't last. Sadly, that's been proven over and over now.
 
Depends on location. We were a destination shop and open 8-6 daily year around. Except Christmas Day and Super Bowl Sunday if the Broncos made it that far. And I am quite sure there were those who were pissed off that we were closed those days. There were folks waiting for the doors to open at 8 and those who felt rushed when we closed at 6. We always thought the guys in the city shops had it easy.
 
I agree that it really depends on location.

In an area with a lot of population but not a lot of fishing, later hours during the week so people can stop by after work would be great, and being closed on Sunday probably isn't bad.

In a destination or tourist town (even if fishing isn't the main draw), long hours on weekends should be standard. I am always amazed when any type of retail store that draws in tourists or other visitors aren't open on Sundays, at least until 3 or 4 when people start heading home. In fishing-centric destinations - Fort Smith or Craig, MT for example - I would think being open pretty early in the morning so people can come in for a few flies or to set up a shuttle, etc is important so they don't have to waste much of the morning waiting around for the fly shop to open.
 
As others have mentioned, destination/location makes a big difference as well as opening and closing of the season in areas like West Yellowstone.
If I had a shop in a high traffic, seasonal area I would have the coffee on at 6 a.m.
 
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skyriver said:
I've always lived in a town that didn't have one. I've been within 30 minute drive only a few times. So the last 20 years I've done most of my shopping online, but I make sure I do that from local fly shops that have a good online presence- Pacific Fly Fishers, Gorge, Red's, Caddis, etc. The last complete setup I bought (that will probably be the last complete setup I ever buy) was from Red's. If I'm buying, instead of tying, I buy most of them from Pacific. Their service is awesome. Thanks Michael! But it's all online because if I have time off, it's with family, friends or on the water fishing.

Like @Yard Sale said, I'm not going to get off early just to go spend $$ at the fly shop. Now, if I have time and in the area (usually on a trip), I love visiting fly shops. At least the friendly ones. There are more of those these days. Truly nice people like Amy at Deschutes Anglers, the guys at The Fly Shop before Mark retired, and a few others out there are super helpful and not jerks. Seems easy, but always surprised by how many shop owners don't get it.

10-6 or 11-7 during the week seems like a no-brainer to me if you really want people in your shop. Not the greatest hours for family life though so I get that side of it too. Whatever they do, if they don't have an decent online presence they won't last. Sadly, that's been proven over and over now.
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Yep, this.

Whenever possible, I try to order from more local shops. PDX fly shop has some great folks; at Orvis, Brian & Rob are great; Amy and crew at D Angler; never met him, but talked over chat and Joe at Red's has been great. I do order most of my stuff online and try my best to order from these shops. Unless it's musky stuff, then it's almost always Musky Fool, which is another brick and mortar store just not here. But all have a great online presence....
 
Salmo_g said:
Hah! 24/7/365, of course! It's all about customer service, right? It's not like a fly shop is going to turn a profit anyways . . .
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Hah! I'm planning to drop in on Bjorn today. I'll tell him (on my way out the door, so I get a head start toward my rig before he starts shooting) that he needs to start doing 24/7 Instacart. Should be exciting....
 
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