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Bobco - In Administration

I’ve had many a purchase from BobCo, this is a sad state of affairs in my opinion and the loss of another independent is not a good thing. We are seeing it all too often lately. We seem to be in a situation that is governed by a large national with buying power and on the other hand a massive market and demand in 2nd hand gear that’s available online in a couple of clicks.
 
Stephen Goderski said:
Back in the day if you wanted some, say, swivels, you would have no option other than to visit your local tackle shop and hope that they had your favourite make in stock (and what a nightmare for tackle shop owners; they can't stock every brand or swivel or hook, etc) so you hoped for the best) and while you were in there buying your swivels you then made a load of impulse purchases at the same time.

Now, why drive for half an hour or more to your favourite tackle shop to buy your swivels not knowing if they will have the right brand when you can go online and in less than a minute have them winging their way to your front door?

Less footfall for the tackle shops means less business means less profit. I think anyone that actually wants to own a tackle shop must be clinically inane anyway but the way things are they have no choice
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Alan Rose said:
One of my local shops decided to close its doors a couple of years ago. It wasn’t because they were broke, but because after 25yrs or so they were sick and tired of anglers’ attitude. I mean I know it’s Yorkshire and all that, but they’d drive half an hour from York to buy worms at BobCo to save 10p a kilo
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Martin Jarvis said:
I’ve had many a purchase from BobCo, this is a sad state of affairs in my opinion and the loss of another independent is not a good thing. We are seeing it all too often lately. We seem to be in a situation that is governed by a large national with buying power and on the other hand a massive market and demand in 2nd hand gear that’s available online in a couple of clicks.
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I'm truth too ebay has not helped the tackle trade. Having said that it has been of tremendous benefit for my retirement years .
 
Alec Hague said:
I'm truth too ebay has not helped the tackle trade. Having said that it has been of tremendous benefit for my retirement years .
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Oh definitely, and I’m as guilty for buying 2nd hand as anyone (most of my baitrunners are 2nd hand). Now if I go back 48yrs ago when I started out then my tackle was mostly bought new or on rare occasions handed down and the handed downs were either glass fibre or split canes ( I was young I wouldn’t use the split canes).

Tackle has moved on a lot since then and so has the depths of peoples pockets, that said though the majority of us have had a rough 4 years or so financially and want bang for the buck and 2nd hand is filling that requirement for many. Lots of older gear is still in high demand (Bowler rods, Fox extreme, Shimano reels etc). It must be a living nightmare to be an independent tackle dealer these days.
 
Wayne Botley said:
Bobco had an eBay shop, I spent enough on there . Quite a lot of shops use it.
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They do, but the seller has to pay eBay to list, then PayPal (if the item is bought via PayPal) take a fee from the seller too, it used to be around 11% for a business but that was years ago so it may have changed.
 
Bobco is / was my local tackle shop and I’ve bought virtually all of my tackle and bait from them in person, and online, during my relatively short time as an angler. Great shop, great service, great people.
However, they do seem to have struggled with their stocking over the last few years: when I first discovered them they always had everything in stock, but the last four years have seen plenty of bare shelves, and frustrating visits - check the website to see if they’ve got what you want ( as advised by their staff ) and then get to the shop only to discover it’s not in stock. This became a common occurrence and a standing joke amongst my angling cronies some of whom eventually voted with their feet and went elsewhere to spend their dosh. If there’s no stock to buy you can’t spend your cash, so I kept my gift vouchers and loyalty points for a day when they would have the rod I coveted, in stock.
I remained loyal to bobco ( if you don’t use them …) as it’s a no-brainer to keep supporting your local dealer. I made an online order on the Tuesday night, and, when the news broke on Wednesday that they were ‘in the mire’ I nipped in to the shop only to discover they wouldn’t honour my loyalty points ( £145 in store credit, which equates to about £3500 spent in store ) or my gift vouchers. Bob did seem genuinely apologetic about the situation though, and
I thanked the staff I knew for their years of help & advice, and wished them well. I guess I’ll just have to buy myself that new Acolyte from somewhere else…
 
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