Golf Discount defaults, but gets life raft

[WUTiger]

Golf Discount, which has 17 stores in the Midwest and one in Arizona, has been placed in receivership.

The St. Louis-based superstore chain defaulted on $20 million in bank loans, reports a St. Louis newspaper. A bank has agreed to fund the receiver, Atec Inc., to operate the chain for the short run.

Here's the story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/bus...C?OpenDocument

[goblue107501]

Not too surprising to me. They have one store in Springfield that is pretty much the only place to look at all the current equipment. It is small and cramped and the prices are locally competitive, but pretty far away from internet retailers. I don't know how they stayed in business as long as they did. The problem with a golf store is that you have to carry an extensive amount of inventory to please everyone that might come in, but unless you turn it, the debt will catch up with you. I would go into the store every once in a while to look around and it was always busy, but it didn't seem like they were selling much. I had my eye on a particular club last summer an it was there every time I walked in.

I have been in some of the St. Louis stores and a couple were incredible, some were just okay. It is a tough business to compete in. Anyone who has a chain business will tell you that one or two good stores will not carry the whole operation.

[WUTiger]

Had a small Golf Discount shop near my house on the Illinois side. It closed for remodeling in November, with promises of a reopening in the Spring. We'll see...

We are lucky in this area. In a two-mile radius, we have three chain golf shops (now maybe only two), a Sports Authority with starter golf offerings, and Second-Hand Sport place with an occasional "diamond in the rough" club find.

[WUTiger]

St. Louis Golf Expo was held in St. Charles, MO., this weekend. Did anybody who went notice if Golf Discount had a booth of any kind?