Does anyone know of shops dropping Titleist balls?

From a consumer's standpoint (which is the only opinion I can offer), I would say keep them if you are in the black with them. If there is ANY profit at all, however small, I would keep them.

Why? What does it say about a golf shop that doesn't stock one of the most popular golf balls on the market? My first questions would be, "What else aren't they stocking? Is the selection here that limited?"

I get that you have to purchase a larger quantity up front to get a discount from your vendor, and that the margin is small. But the customer doesn't see that. They just see that they came into your shop and couldn't buy Titleist golf balls.

When I had a photography business many moons ago, I used a photo shop that stopped offering Kodak film. The owner said Fuji film was the same and had a bigger profit margin. But I needed Kodak for specific reasons which I won't go into here... so I stopped shopping at that photo shop. Plus, it was his opinion that they were the same. That wasn't my professional opinion. While Fuji was excellent, I always gave the edge to Kodak. And isn't in inconceivable that a photo store (before the age of digital cameras) wouldn't stock Kodak film, the single biggest film company in the world, at the time?

If the profit margin on the other balls is better, you are certainly within your rights to "push" the other brands- more prominant displays, better deals, etc. Plus, you know, the day you stop offering ProV1's in your shop, a guy will come in wanting to buy 10 dozen.

Just my par 2.

[quote name='daveduval23' date='28 June 2010 - 04:29 PM' timestamp='1277738949' post='2541933']
I'm a professional in England and I'm thinking of dropping Titleist golf balls from my shop. You have to buy so many to get on the best deals, and even then you make next to no margin on Prov1s.

I can imagine some of my members may not like not having Titleist balls on offer, but I'm thinking of offering a good selection of Taylormade and Srixon balls which will be cheaper for them to buy and will offer me greater margins.

Does anyone know of pro shops doing something similar? It seems all my friends who have their own shops are slaves to stocking Titleist balls!
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You could try creating a parent company with your friends and buy in bulk, that way you can get a better deal than if you all buy individually.

One mistake i see many shops making is stocking vast amounts of ProVs. Not many weekend warriors that infest golf clubs these days are willing to fork out £11+ for 3 golf balls which they will probably lose on 2 holes.
Selling large amounts of low and mid range balls is where the money is at these days.

probably already been mentioned on here somewhere, but PGA superstore here in dallas has not stocked Titleist or Footjoy for about 3 months. Something about pricing battle between the store and acushnet. No gloves, no shoes, no balls, they have maybe 5 clubs on the rack and thats about it. I get my Pro V's from a recovery store for half the price, so ball price doesn't bother me, but i would at least like to buy a hat or glove....

Don't do it
Consumer perception is Titleist is the number 1 ball in golf as most tour players use it
If you don't carry the most popular ball on tour then you may lose some consumers

Do an analysis for 3 months, see what % of your the balls purchased are Titleist

never ever drop the line completely. I would order small quanities and make next to nothing versus not having any in the shop at all. I would however go ahead with ordering larger quanities of another golf ball (like the couple you listed above) and make a large display and price them at a very competitve price and i guarentee you will do very well.

But never take away a product that sells, sometimes making nothing is better than losing customers that are spending money in other ways at your place.

The problem with titleist is if you only want to carry the balls in your shop they force you to carry gloves,bags, irons, metalwoods, umbrellas, rain suits, hats/visors and anything else you can think of that says titleist on it. When you open an account that's how it is, at least here in the U.S. My local shop has never carried Titleist balls and has been there for over ten years......some people refuse to play any other ball and it is that kind of close minded view that keeps Titleist balls selling in droves, not to mention the fact that they pay tour players a large sum of money to win the ball count survey every week. I myself have not used Titleist balls in ten years as there are as good or better balls available. I have had a few sets of irons and a Cameron putter which I have enjoyed. For a smaller shop I think you could survive without them.......Just my two cents

This would be retail suicide. Many people only go into a golf store to buy Titleist golf balls and if you don't have the #1 ticket product you are alienating your customers. Would not be smart IMHO.

[quote name='bhamgolfer' date='28 June 2010 - 02:30 PM' timestamp='1277749839' post='2542323']
This would be retail suicide. Many people only go into a golf store to buy Titleist golf balls and if you don't have the #1 ticket product you are alienating your customers. Would not be smart IMHO.
[/quote]
I disagree. As mentioned above, the PGA Superstore is not selling titleist/footjoy gear anymore and it was just as busy there yesterday as ever.

If they aren't requiring him to stock a bunch of invetory he doesn't want and his decision is solely based upon poor margins, you can argue he should just suck it up.

But if they are requiring him to tie up dollars in excess inventory he doesn't want that's a whole different story.

I guess it all comes down to how you handle it- how the displays and marketing are put together.

You can decide to sell only Ferrari's because the profit margin is higher- you'll make money on each car but you'll have a small dealership with relatively few employees- who are all doing very well for themselves.

But how does that compare to the huge Chevy dealership down the road?

I'm probably comparing apples to oranges, so I apologize.

It's hard to really get in-depth with this topic because we don't know the sales numbers, margins, the volume of people in his shop, etc. You can argue each side of this coin and really not be right or wrong in either case.

The PGA Superstore may or may not be a good example- they are a big store with a lot of traffic regardless. If the OP doesn't fit that model, again, apples to oranges.

Interesting topic.

I guess it all comes down to how you handle it- how the displays and marketing are put together.

You can decide to sell only Ferrari's because the profit margin is higher- you'll make money on each car but you'll have a small dealership with relatively few employees- who are all doing very well for themselves.

But how does that compare to the huge Chevy dealership down the road?

I'm probably comparing apples to oranges, so I apologize.

It's hard to really get in-depth with this topic because we don't know the sales numbers, margins, the volume of people in his shop, etc. You can argue each side of this coin and really not be right or wrong in either case.

The PGA Superstore may or may not be a good example- they are a big store with a lot of traffic regardless. If the OP doesn't fit that model, again, apples to oranges.

Interesting topic.

Difficult one. From a business standpoint if you are hardly making any margin on them, then I don't see the problem with no longer stocking them. I guess where you might miss out is on the other sundries that people by when also buying Titleist balls though quite how much business that equates to might be difficult to calculate.

Personally I wouldn't be bothered in the slightest if my local shop dropped Titleist as they have slipped a long way down the pecking order in terms of the range of balls they offer and the relative value for money of their products. Srixon and Bridgstone make a far better overall range of products IMO. It's just a matter of educating your customers and breaking the mentality that Titleist is the be all and end all when it comes to golf balls. Maybe 20 years ago. Not any more.

I personally know the owners of 3 different pro shops and gererally they carry Titleist because they have to but do not expect to make money on them it ends up being a necessary evil. I play ProV`s because I`ve been playing Titleist for 40 years but if they stopped making them it wouldn`t matter because there are plenty balls that compete proformance wise but I just like to see Titleist on the ball.

i say if you make any profit at all keep them, i wish my home course would have anything other than titleist, that is the only ball they carry so i dont buy from them, ive asked many times if they ever plan on carrying callaway tour I(s) or I(z) or srixon, or taylormade pentas for other premium balls and the answer i get is not at the moment everybody wants titleist! Come on not every single person that plays at my course is using titleist, theres no way!

The key to this is to begin to work with your customers to get them to consider a ball other than Titleist. Ask the other suppliers to give you some balls to give to Titleist users so that you can show them the ball is just as good or better at a lower price. As someone else stated, the consumer does not care if you make money or not. SO, you must begin to teach them to want another ball to be successful.

[quote name='copegolfer' date='28 June 2010 - 12:15 PM' timestamp='1277745343' post='2542183']
probably already been mentioned on here somewhere, but PGA superstore here in dallas has not stocked Titleist or Footjoy for about 3 months. Something about pricing battle between the store and acushnet. No gloves, no shoes, no balls, they have maybe 5 clubs on the rack and thats about it. I get my Pro V's from a recovery store for half the price, so ball price doesn't bother me, but i would at least like to buy a hat or glove....
[/quote]

I noticed it this weekend and asked. Somewhere in the company someone violated the MAP agreement during a sale about six months ago. They lost their account with Acushnet. Balls, gloves, clubs, shoes, apparel, everything. I buy my shoes brick and mortar if I can coz it's too iffy to buy shoes sight unseen. They always had every size an style IN STOCK. Not now. I dunno, a company that can't keep stock of the biggest OEM's wares is odd. While a smaller or green grass shop not stocking Taylor Made or Srixon balls wouldn't make me do a double-take, no Titleists is a head scratcher.

Can you get Pro-V's through another channel and stock them in your shop? That way you still have ProV's, but don't have to worry about the other merchandise. Plus you'll be able to stock more of the better margin stuff.

I appreciate all your comments guys...

To give you a bit more of a back ground my club is a fairly average private members club. Membership is pretty healthy, and shop sales are fairly average for a shop of this size. Like most clubs we have a decent number of low handicap players who would probably demand Prov1's, but the vast majority of our members are older retired guys who don't care what they use as long as it's round and white!

I must say I agree with those of you who talked about re-educating my members to try something else! I myself for example used Titleist balls for all my amateur career and use them currently. But I'm thinking my shop at this club is never gonna have a massive turnover and a huge customer base, so there is a limit to what sales I can achieve. Therefore why not maximise profit on those sales?!

Here's a few ideas:

1) I do expect my turnover of balls to drop if I dropped Titleist. I reckon somewhere in the region of 10-20%. However, using Tm and Srixon as an example I could increase my profit margins by approximately 20%! Not only that but there are no real minimum order levels with these brands, so I wouldn't have the £3000+ tied up in Titleist balls I currently have.


2) To put a different spin on it, lets say some rep came to my shop and said do you want to sell this special chocolate bar? It's the most popular selling chocolate bar in the country. By the way, it costs you 40p and you have to sell it for 50p, plus you have to buy £500 worth of chocolate at a time. I'd be telling this guy he was crazy and I'd chase him out my shop!!

I think where the chocolate bar analogy breaks down is that it doesn't have any "meaning" to golfers analogous to what Titleist has spent the last few decades creating.

Like it or not there are a lot of golfers who deep down associate "serious golf" with Titleist golf balls, right now mainly the ProV1 range. Being seen to a certain extent as a less "serious" shop by those golfers is the cost of not doing business with Titleist. That's how they are able to demand such favorable terms from retailers.

None of which is to say it wouldn't be worth your while to drop the Titleist line. It just isn't as simple as a really good and popular golf ball (or chocolate bar) with low margins, there's all that emotional baggage that goes along with it.

I don't stock titleist balls and have worked in shops that didn't as well... Callaway is probably our best seller and then bridgestone... nike and srixon have been a tough sell so far though



[quote name='daveduval23' date='28 June 2010 - 10:29 AM' timestamp='1277738949' post='2541933']
I'm a professional in England and I'm thinking of dropping Titleist golf balls from my shop. You have to buy so many to get on the best deals, and even then you make next to no margin on Prov1s.

I can imagine some of my members may not like not having Titleist balls on offer, but I'm thinking of offering a good selection of Taylormade and Srixon balls which will be cheaper for them to buy and will offer me greater margins.

Does anyone know of pro shops doing something similar? It seems all my friends who have their own shops are slaves to stocking Titleist balls!
[/quote]

Since it's a private club, why not poll the membership?

Have a little poll/raffle in the pro shop where you ask membership what they want in the shop. Then pick a few out of a hat to win a dozen of a competing brand to try.

Or take a few sleeves of a competing brand, and ask for ProV1 users to volunteer to use the other balls for a round and see how they like them.

If the whole thing goes over like a fart in church, you'll know you should keep the ProV1's in the shop.

Just a thought.

Tough call. If it were my shop, I would probably drop them and stock TM, Callaway, Srixon, and Bridgestone instead.

I've always thought it would be nice to have MINT recovered balls for sale in the shop. You could buy them wholesale from LGB or Knet in the Titleist models and have more margin on them.

[quote name='daveduval23' date='28 June 2010 - 09:29 AM' timestamp='1277738949' post='2541933']
I'm a professional in England and I'm thinking of dropping Titleist golf balls from my shop. You have to buy so many to get on the best deals, and even then you make next to no margin on Prov1s.

I can imagine some of my members may not like not having Titleist balls on offer, but I'm thinking of offering a good selection of Taylormade and Srixon balls which will be cheaper for them to buy and will offer me greater margins.

Does anyone know of pro shops doing something similar? It seems all my friends who have their own shops are slaves to stocking Titleist balls!
[/quote]

Not slaves to the balls themselves, but what comes from stocking lost leaders. The #1 concern for any retail owner is foot traffic. For as long as I can remember, when it comes to retail inventory golf balls, especially Titleist #1 balls are what's known as lost leaders. People want Titleist, or in my case Callaway but possible buy something else while in the store. Not stocking the #1 ball in golf (even though I don't play it) would IMO be an error in P&L judgment.

I play Callaway i(z)'s. If a shop doesn't stock them I don't visit that shop. The other day I went into a new store that carried my ball of choice. I not only bought a few dozen balls, but a few gloves too and will revisit that store. Provide customers what they want, not what provides the best profit.

Even though I don't play ProV1, if I went to a golf shop and they didn't carry it, I would think something was wrong with the store. After all, they seem to be the crown jewel of golf balls. Besides, you never know who will come in for some ProV's and walk out with a Vokey wedge or a new driver. Keep 'em if you can. If your business plan can't support it, and you're willing to risk it, rip 'em out. I'd try to talk to Titleist and ask them for relief before I took any drastic steps. Just an opinion from one who has no skin in the game (other than a wish that local golf shops remain prosperous).

I agree that you need to provide the members what they want, if the members agree to not have titleist balls in the shop then so be it. Titleist balls have never had any margin to them, but if they drive traffic and your members want them then I would keep them.

I totaly forgot about the PGA SS losing their Titleist account and stopped by there the other night to grab a dozen prov1x's since they were the only shop still open. After browsing around for a bit then remembering they no longer carry them I asked the guy if they lost the account, he said yup pointed to my titleist hat and said it looks like I should get a new hat. To which I responded looks like I should get a new golf shop and walked out.

It's almost the same as some businesses that don't take American Express. I use Amex almost exclusively. These companies complain that Amex takes a higher margin... OK. I'm sure you can increase your prices a couple of percent to counter that... what they're really saying is they don't want my business. Again, OK.

I think the suggestion of getting feedback from your customers and test out the tempature of your partons. If they say yes we still want to have the option of buying Titleist golf balls here, and it is a good percentage of your customer giving that feedback, Then I would say keep them in your shop, otherwise look at seling off your stock and bringing in more profitable offerings.....Let your consumer voice play a factor.

We all know that if your fan of a certain golf ball and only play that ball, then if store A does not carry it, then they go to store B,C,D until they find a place that has the ball they want for sale.

Believe me when I tell you that the PGA Superstore chain is doing everything in its power to reestablish the account with Acushnet/Titleist.

I would try set up a few fitting days with ball manufacturers. you can get a pretty good feel of the direction of your membership from that without even telling them what you have in mind unless the result of the fitting days is to make a change. as hard as ball fitting is being pushed these days, i would imagine some ball companies/reps wouldnt mind a chance to gain a strangle hold on the ball business at a club. worst case scenario is you dont change a thing and get to host a couple of fun and educational days for your membership at little/no cost to your club and the members are none the wiser. Dropping Titleist is risky business no matter what, though...

Keep the Titileist balls. Even if the margin is small, I'd rather have a lot of sales with a small profit than relatively few sales with a bigger margin. As many have already said, Titleist is a brand that will draw the public into the shop in the first place, even if they aren't buying the specific product.