We are just about mid-month and heading for a record January. Thankfully we are not talking about the lack of snow in Toronto but rather the sales figures that are piling up at the store alongside our inventory. We are hearing one thing on a daily basis from customers and it is this, “Holy cow have you guys got a lot of stuff here!”

If you are familiar with our fly fishing store here in Toronto you will be able to tell from this picture of our new Simms inventory that we are having difficulty finding space to put all of the items that have arrived in the last few days. We also just received another shipment from Orvis and more fly tying materials that will be up on the shelves early next week. We are busy but if sales for the balance of the month continue on the pace we saw in the first half of the month we won’t be complaining…

Plan on dropping into the store on Saturday afternoons for free open vise fly tying sessions. The coffee is on, the advice is free and the fishing stories will have you in stitches!

Our first pre-season delivery from Simms is now expected in the store any day and we realized we may have a problem because not only is this order huge but it is the first of 4 orders from Simms that we have coming. Our Simms inventory is already one of the largest in Canada but it is about to take on a life of its own. We are now in a position of having to look at how we might rearrange the store to create more space because we are going to need it!

http://vimeo.com/27202894

Many anglers in Ontario are aware that one of the other fly shops in southwestern Ontario is currently for sale and we are getting asked on an almost daily basis if we are interested in buying it. The short answer at the moment is an emphatic “no”. Specialty retail is a tough business at the best of times and the current economic climate is not exactly conducive to spending money on an acquisition. In addition, the location of this shop, while ideal during the season, makes it a very tough financial proposition during the off-season months. That said, the positive feedback and encouragement we have been getting in response to this rumour has certainly been surprising and the underlying message of support has been very much appreciated.

We have to admit that moments like this make us take a step back and say, “It would be pretty cool if we could put something together.”

Timing is as important in business as it is in fly fishing…