Play It Again Sports 5407 Fruitville Rd Sarasota Fl 34232

When Marker Zimmerman looked into buying Sarasota'south Play It Again Sports, he knew information technology was a chain of sporting appurtenances stores specializing in selling used and new sporting equipment.

What the 61-year-old native of New Rochelle, New York, was unfamiliar with was the origin of the name.

Play It Once more Sports. Play information technology again, Sam, a misquotation of the line "Play it, Sam" from the moving-picture show "Casablanca."

Zimmerman's independently owned store isn't exactly a gym articulation, just because of COVID-19, many gym patrons take turned to him for assistance.

And sales at Play It Over again Sports have reflected this need.

"For the year, I'm up double-digits," Zimmerman said. "I'one thousand bitterly sweet almost how practiced the business organization is due to the pandemic. But that doesn't mean I want this pandemic to continue. I want to exist normal, too."

For area sports enthusiasts in need of stuff, there's Dick'south Sporting Goods, the nation's largest sporting goods retailer with approximately 850 stores and 30,000 employees, and Play It Again Sports, started in 1983 in Minneapolis and at present with more than 450 stores in the United states of america and Canada.

Zimmerman was on the back end of a 37-year career as a commune manager for CVS Pharmacy in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut expanse. But the company reorganized in 2017, a shuffle which greatly increased his piece of work load.

"More work for the aforementioned pay," Zimmerman said. CVS eventually severanced him and the move caught him past surprise. "I would have retired with them."

But with three children in college and not yet fix to sit at dwelling, Zimmerman looked into ownership into a variety of businesses. His love of sports zeroed in the former high school baseball game thespian and track star in 2018 on the Play It Again Sports franchise for sale in Sarasota.

Zimmerman visited a couple of stores, one being the Sarasota location, which had seen its sales tumble. The possessor operated 26 other Play Information technology Again Sports franchises around Florida, but hadn't been in his Sarasota location in 10 years.

"I knew it wasn't very profitable," Zimmerman said. Still, he saw the potential in it, and after getting approval from the Winmark Corporaton, the franchiser of Play It Again Sports, Zimmerman forked over virtually $200,000. The Sarasota location was his.

"I was nervously excited," he said. He renovated the store, but without much bachelor inventory, Zimmerman began listening to the requests of his customers.

So he started selling discs for disc golf. Zimmerman brought in more bikes and more than fettle equipment. He got the necessary infinite by ridding the store of cumbersome hockey equipment.

Only six months later on Zimmerman took over, Dick's opened a store at The Mall at University Town Center. And for the first month at Play Information technology Once again Sports, sales tanked.

"I was like, 'Oh, my God. What's going on here?' " Zimmerman said. "But after a month and a half, it started going back up again and it hasn't stopped."

That's considering COVID-19 has been good for Zimmerman'south business. Bike sales are up more than 100 pct. He's operating with a ratio of 60 percent new gear and 40 pct used due to no one coming in with their used equipment.

In March, when area gyms shut down, fettle junkies descended upon Zimmerman's store for equipment. "In that location are fitness junkies out there like you can't believe," he said.

Sales of dumbbells, benches, weight bars and plate weights exploded. People came to Zimmerman for inline skates, bikes and golf equipment. "It fabricated up for the other stuff I was not selling."

He was forced to close in Apr, but since reopening on May iii, Zimmerman hasn't been complaining, save for 1 thing.

His vendors can't get him the equipment fast enough. Zimmerman ordered 27,000 pounds of weights. 10 weeks later, he got only 8,500.

"And I can't tell the customer when he tin can get information technology," he said. Equally a result, Zimmerman volition post on Facebook when an order of equipment arrives.

"Then it'southward first come, get-go served," he said. "I wish I had carte blanche to be able to get whatever I wanted, when I wanted it."

Someday the virus will pass. But Zimmerman thinks the sale of certain equipment won't equally part of the post-COVID-19 world.

"I retrieve, quite frankly, (information technology will concluding) until the end of time. I don't think information technology will cease."

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Source: https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/sports/2020/08/10/covid-19-sarasota-play-it-again-sports/3332346001/

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