I agree with you on many of your points, Jere but the one thing I will
counter with is this. The sport of fly fishing suffers from elitism and
price gouging based on image. The mom and pop fly shop will always get my
business over a mass distributor. At the same time, the image oriented shops
that cater to the SUV driving, latte' sipping, couldn't save their butt out
in the wilderness if they had too but would look great when they died from
exposure crowd will never get my business (Sorry if I offended anyone. Not a
personal attack just a generalization. I like latte's! Really, I do.
hehe.). I think the trade shows offered the consumer a way to off set the
outrageous prices on some gear that tends to be dominated by the upscale
shops. Yes, you can counter that the high prices were caused by the shows
but to that I say fly fishing gear that is only available at the quality fly
shops continues to rise in price (especially rods) while the gear that is
available on a more mass appeal (like float tubes) have come down
significantly.
We all like great service and appreciate the small shops. My favorite shop
owner in Spokane sold his store a few years ago and have been unhappy with
the selection of shops here since. It isn't that the gear selection is less.
It actually is more. However, gone are his cups of coffee on a rainy day,
the reading couch in the corner with all the latest mags and videos to watch
and the individual customer attention. In its place is a shop full of gear
but lackluster customer service. I find myself shopping online more and
buying what I can at the likes of the White Elephant stores.
There is no simple solution to the issue but I think the point we were trying
to make is that going to these shows to play with all the gadgets, buying a
few new toys (at a discount so we can justify it to the spouse!) and seeing
some great presentations made it a fun day and really didn't do that much
damage. Much of what I often bought was additional things I typically would
not have thought about getting or more of an impulse buy. The fly shops
still got all of my regular business. Going to a show just to see 200
fishing guides, the latest, greatest Ronco gadget and some presentations just
lacks something.
I hope you are settled in your new home in the Idaho Falls area and are
enjoying the great fishing in that region.
Mike
Spangle, WA
