At first it was cold...

At first it was cold. When it was cold the customers came to the store in large quantities. "The snow is wonderful" they would say, "and we need some skis!". It turned out they needed gloves, and jackets, and scarves too. And life was good.

And then it got warm. And when it was warm the customers became far fewer saying "we need some skis!". Some of them were actually saying "I need some new titlist golf balls" or "I need to get my bike tuned up" instead. So what do ski shop employees do when this happens? We skied! The industry demo days were timed perfectly for the warm spell.

Splitting the staff to allow everyone to go to the demo is always risky. If business is strong that week our customer service will be weaker than I want it. Tuning and waxing will get backed up. Rentals will take longer. You know the deal.

But this year it was perfect. The shop was slow, the snow at the demos was great, and we had a great time. Thanks again to the "ringers" brought in to help demo the skis. I figure I personally got in about 55 skis tested. I have test cards on about 160 different models overall. We had about 40 total"skier days" with four testers in Denver, ten in Norcal and nine testers in Socal. That's a lot of testing! I feel I have a pretty good handle on everything we stock and much of what we do not.

So now it is time to get cold again. And it is getting cold. Snowy too. It looks like nine days straight of precipitation at this point. And going right into the holiday weekend. I couldn't have planned it better myself. To top off the cake I am heading to Utah for four days at the end of the week. I am getting some revolutionary new Fisher boots fitted for me (more on this when I get back). And then I must ski on them. So this is a business trip. More importantly to me, I am also getting to see some people that I am close to but don't get to see enough. Marielle, for one, has been absent from my life for way too long! So come on snow, and come on cold. Put away the golf clubs and the bicycles. Let's get another round of winter coming in strong!