Americans have always had a love/hate relationship with monopolies that goes back to 1776 and the ultimate monopoly of all — The British Colonial Crown.
George Washington probably had a better sense of American attitudes than anyone else of his era when he refused an American crown in favor of becoming a president who would lead for a while, then retire, gracefully, from public life.
In one way, we admire power. In quite another, we abhor being controlled. It happened to Henry Ford who was celebrated for putting America on wheels, but also chastised for poor wages and working conditions. It happened to all of those in power from Andrew Carnegie to Ma Bell to Microsoft. And, it has been happening ever-so-quietly within the fishing tackle industry.
While independent tackle dealers have been keeping their eyes trained on the road for the next flatbed trucks to ferry the bulldozers and payloaders that will level a nearby property to make way for a massive everything store, they’ve failed to hear the thump of catalogs dropping in mailboxes.
Mail order catalogs began to have an impact in 1895 when Richard Sear’s 532 pages of shoes, clothing, wagons, stoves, furniture, china, musical instruments, saddles, firearms, buggies, bicycles, baby carriage, glassware, and even fishing tackle tempted folks who lives far from the stores that stocked such necessities and niceties of life.
As the country grew, mail-order companies competed by offering specialty items unavailable in retail stores. By the 1980s, it didn’t matter whether or not similar items were available on the retail market. Name-brand recognition became the mainstay of mail-order catalog sales, and, as J. Peterman so wisely determined, catalogs can sell an image, as well as a product.
The frivolous 80s quickly gave way to the costly and competitive 90s. People started buying from mail-order catalogs under the false impression that they would save money by avoiding their state’s sales tax. In fact, shipping and handling fees often were several dollars more than they would have paid for the same item in a local retail store.
Some well-established mail-order fishing tackle outfits, such as L.L. Bean and Orvis, continued to thrive by offering company-exclusive items. Others, such as Cabela’s, successfully put their own name on product’s manufactured by others. A few, such as the venerable NetCraft quarterly catalog, vanished quietly.
Sales of company-owned catalog items are exclusive. They do not compete directly with independent tackle shops the way a large discount store down the road might, so fishing tackle catalogs weren’t perceived as a particular threat to what is a major sector of the Nor’east economy, and the local economies of communities all over the country. Still, their impact is significant.
Several years ago, one of our Nor’east Saltwater tackle shop owners received an urgent call from a New York angler, vacationing in Florida. His boat had been burgled of every piece of offshore tackle, and he had a long-range trip planned within days. Could a grocery-list long list of items be replaced immediately?
It was a large order that would require some fancy, shipping footwork, but it could be done.
In short order, several wholesale tackle distributors were contacted for items not in the shop’s stock. Every item was found, placed on hold order, and a lengthy fax was sent to the angler in Florida.
Then the angler called again. "I can get most of these things cheaper from a mail-order catalog, and have them shipped overnight," he said, and the sudden dawn of the mail-order tackle industry shone with a light brighter than the fluorescent fixtures in the chain discount store down the road.
For one particular offshore reel, the mail-order catalog price turned out to be only a few dollars more than the wholesale price quoted to the independent dealer. To match it would mean that any profit would barely cover the credit-card processing fee, let alone the shipping charges that the dealer dismissed in favor of making the sale.
The wholesale distributor’s sales representative, who worked on commission, was just as dismayed. He could do no better on the price.
"They’re getting a major discount from a major manufacturer," he said. "And they’re discounting even further. If all of their prices are that low, I don’t see how we can stay in business."
Indeed, many wholesale tackle businesses, as well as independent shops, found that they could not stay in business, and we have lost several notable and knowledgeable men and women in the fishing tackle business over the past few years.
As we entered the new century, the thumps of those catalogs hitting mailboxes was replaced by the clicks of computer keyboards as online Internet sales soared. Though still a small part of the overall Internet marketplace, the ease and availability of shopping on online fishing tackle websites cannot be ignored, and the competitive fishing tackle marketplace has practically become downright cutthroat.
The blood letting doesn’t come from the independent tackle dealers themselves. Though rivalries certainly exist, each shop has its own territory and customer base staked out, and shop owners as a group have worked together successfully within the framework of the New York Fishing Tackle Trade Association (NYFTTA) for years.
However, some major manufacturers have bowed to where the money is — the nationwide retailers — instead of supporting the men and women of the independent fishing tackle industry who made them famous. One major tackle company has even gone so far as to "sell" its label to outfits that manufacture inferior merchandise. Caveat emptor — Let The Buyer Beware — seems to be the bywords of the new millennium — know what you’re shelling out your hard-earned cash to buy.
With the thumps and the clicks growing louder each year, it’s up to us Nor’east Saltwater anglers to make sure those sounds don’t drown out the dings of the entrance bells in tackle shops throughout the region. Without the men and women of the Nor’east tackle shop industry, we would be at the mercy of the powers that be, and that’s something we cannot tolerate.
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