Published December 2002

Ski shop weathers the weather, competition

Snohomish County Business Journal/KIMBERLY HILDEN “When it comes to ordering, we ski on everything and ride on everything, or just about everything, before we buy it,” said Ron Downing (left), standing amid Mt. Pilchuck Ski and Sport’s inventory with partners Doug Fraser and Nancy Broberg-Fraser, holding the store’s unofficial mascot, Tucker.

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

The Northwest ski and snowboarding season is just getting under way, but already, the folks at Mt. Pilchuck Ski and Sport in Everett are looking at inventory for next season.

Relying on a mix of factors — forecasted sales numbers and more than 25 years of doing business, among them — principals Ron Downing, Doug Fraser and Nancy Broberg- Fraser will then have to commit to buying that inventory six to nine months before the first ski lift runs.

And, in between selling water skis and wakeboards during the summer months and transitioning to winter sports equipment and apparel soon after, they’ll hope for a good ski season, with plenty of powder and a nice snow pack — a major, but uncontrollable, factor to Mt. Pilchuck’s bottom line.

“It’s a challenge,” Downing said, noting that winter-sports sales account for 90 percent of Mt. Pilchuck’s business. “You just take your best guess ... and it’s a very difficult thing. That’s why there are very, very, very few of us left. There’s only four or five of us left in this business as far as specialty winter-sports stores. The rest of them are gone.”

Mt. Pilchuck Ski and Sport, however, has stood the test of time, beginning as a retail site at the old Mount Pilchuck ski area before that recreational facility was shut down in the 1970s. Now in its 28th year at 10822 Highway 99 S., the winter-sports shop relies on its low prices, expansive inventory and experienced crew to remain competitive, Downing said.

“Because we specialize, it’s not just a department; it’s a total commitment to winter sports. ... Our people eat, live, sleep this stuff,” Downing said, noting that many of the staff, which numbers 30 in the winter months and about half that in the summer months, have 20 to 30 years of retail winter-sports experience.

“It’s an obligation on our part to be a resource for (customers),” he said.

Downing, himself a former ski patrolman and racer, has shopped all over the world for deals on ski and snowboarding equipment and apparel, visiting manufacturing plants and building relationships with people in the industry.

“So when it comes to ordering, we ski on everything and ride on everything, or just about everything, before we buy it,” he said. “Sometimes, we get to be involved in the development of it.”

Over the years, Mt. Pilchuck has tweaked its line of summer and winter offerings, selling boats of all types in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and adding snowboards to the mix early on.

That product line didn’t start cooking for the shop until the mid-’90s, when the company developed a handful of lease programs that enabled customers to lease new gear for a season at a fraction of the sales cost, with the option of returning it or buying it outright, Downing said.

“That just caused our snowboarding business to explode,” he said. “Then we attracted ... better lines, and as all the other stores went away, we’ve really tried to capture that market as best we can.”

Mt. Pilchuck also has implemented aggressive marketing campaigns to capture the Snohomish, Island, Whatcom, Skagit and north King County markets, advertising in newsprint, television and radio, and putting together special events to lure potential customers to the shop. So far, the results have been good, even in a down economy, Downing said.

“We had a record sales year last year,” he said. “... And October (2002) was the best October we’ve ever had.”

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