Put your money where your mouth is.

Today is about our local Retail Partners.

People like Disc Nation, Another Round Austin, Armory, PIAS and others. Even if they represent national brands, these stores still have local franchise owners. 

A large part of our business is tied to these stores. 

There is one statistic with stores I don't talk about publicly.

That is that most NEW brick-and-mortar disc golf stores don't make it past their first lease. It's even more noticeable the past two years because we had a huge boom of new stores during covid.

A lot of these new disc golf stores that invested in disc golf are now struggling. They came from the era when selling discs was easy-mode. It isn't anymore. You all know that by now.

A lot of these stores have hard choices coming up about renewing that lease. Or moving to a new location. Or just going online only. 

It happens fast. New stores pop up and replace them too.

The ones you do see succeeding are either owned by some really hard workers or are tied closely to a popular brand/city/tour/club.

The reality is though, it is really difficult to operate a business built around just flipping discs. It's a viable business, but it is not something you get rich at. It is hard, consistent, never-ending work.

Let's say a store buys a disc from Mint for $9.00. They plan to sell it for $17.99 to $19.99.

Most brick & mortar stores need to be hitting about $1000 per day(7 day average) to make it work long term.

That means you need to be selling around 50-55 discs a day to be successful(across all brands).

If we have a new Mint release, the stores have to buy 30-50 discs to keep up with the competition and customer demand. Now multiply that number by every brand. Now imagine ordering every model from every brand.

Now add in every new release, after new release, after new release...

If these stores want to be successful they have keep $20,000+ worth of discs in stock every day, just for one brick & mortar store. 

That is just for discs. Baskets, bags, minis, etc. That all costs more.

There are disc golf stores in Texas closing. The popular TD's are running less events too.

So how do we help these stores more? Just selling them discs isn't promoting them enough. Is it all on them? Or can Mint do more?

One idea I have started to develop recently is to limit some new releases to Texas stores and Events ONLY.

For example: Only selling a Variant Stamp to Texas stores.

Why would we do this? 

For one, a lot of our sales come from this state. We are a regionally focused brand.

Sure we sell nationally, but we serve Texas. We talk about Texas. A lot now. I don't mean that in a political way either. I'd be saying Florida or any other state if we had our warehouse(s) there. We believe in regional brand focus that much.

So guess which stores send me the most feedback? Which ones text me weekly and sometimes daily? Which ones ask for more inventory asap? Which ones I prefer to sponsor? The ones that buy the most custom event stamps?

The Texas stores.

These mom and pop Texas places can not outspend Foundation, OTB, Infinite, Disc Store, 1010, Another Round, etc. 

They do consistently outsell them when they have Mint inventory though.

A lot of signs for me point towards...

Double down on Texas. Keep your friends in business.

Will it upset some national stores? Yes. I expect a lot of emails and calls I have to make when we do this.

But the actual customer, the Mint fan and supporter...they will likely go out of their way to buy from these Texas stores if they have an online shop. 

This Texas exclusive idea needs refinement on our end, but there is something to it. It has legs.

To me, the need to be more regionally focused in this sport is bigger than ever.

I think regionally exclusive releases might help turn the corner for some with slower businesses. If they can sell 50 more Mint discs in a month, they have a better chance.

Many of the European countries that are thriving in disc golf are smaller than Texas. That border forces them to share a lot of resources. They are continually re-investing their own disc golf dollars in their local businesses and within their borders.

In the United States, is very easy to spread that investment around.

If you order from someone like Infinite(which is great!), your dollars are now spent by Infinite on whatever they want. Usually whatever is NEW.

If you order from a store in your hometown though...those are the people that run your tournaments. Install your courses.

They spend your dollars on things that physically benefit you. They want to keep their every day customer happy.

So that's where I'm at today.

Reminding myself to put my money where my mouth is.

Until tomorrow.