Hiking boots instead of ski boots: The mild winter especially spoils the business of sports shops that make a big living from selling or renting winter sports equipment.
Many small entrepreneurs are coming under pressure. For example in the Bernese Oberland. “We’ve had the worst start to winter in years and we’ve had about 30 percent fewer sales as a result,” says Gusti Oehrli (60), owner of Edelweiss Sport in Gstaad BE. We can’t make up for it this season,” he said. The rental and sale of ski equipment in the store is also affected. He hears the same from other sports retailers in town.
Swiss downhill legend Oehrli has run the sports shop for 25 years. “We had more people in Gstaad than ever before,” he explains. However, many families only rented skis for their children, but did not ski themselves due to bad conditions.
Improvement seems so far away. Normally, new guests should have arrived in Gstaad by now. But Oehrli fears that some will think differently: “Sales are currently down completely.” Even bringing up the discount campaign doesn’t work: “If there’s no one there, you can do whatever you want. If we gave the goods for free, we can now give two pairs of skis a day.” But discounts weren’t going to be an option either: His business bought sports goods at a high price, and the prime season for making money is short.
The current winter reminds Oehrli of 2016. The lack of snow back then also ruined things. “Some bad winters can be exploited by long-running businesses. But as soon as something like this piles up, we have a problem.”
Price promotions required
The situation in eastern Switzerland is not so good. “The sales job hasn’t been satisfactory so far,” says Ramon Wehrli, 34, owner of Beat Sport, which has branches in Widnau SG, Buchs SG and Wildhaus SG. With no snow to be seen in the distance, the clientele is missing and therefore there is almost no desire for winter sports. “As of January 5, sales are down by about 20 percent compared to last season,” Wehrli summarizes.
Seasonal rents were almost the same as last season. This is because many book their season rentals in late October or early November, according to Wehrli. However, the rental business as a whole is also affected. “The day-to-day rental business is now miles away from last season,” Wehrli says.
For this reason, sports retailers resort to price campaigns. “Otherwise, it doesn’t fit our business model, especially not right now,” Wehrli complains.
The shift from winter sports to “autumn” activities such as hiking and cycling is somewhat comforting. The mechanics at Beat Sport’s bike shops are busier than they were this time last year.
the higher the better
Higher areas are better. This is reflected in sports shops as well. Nico Pesko, 42, of the sportswear store of the same name in Lenzerheide GR, reported that sales between Christmas and New Year were “almost at the same level as the previous year”, with a minus 2 percent. The rental is going “surprisingly well” and is satisfactory given the circumstances. There is no need for price campaigns, especially since the season has just started.
In Saas-Fee VS, too, sports shops have no reason to complain. “We started winter just as well as last year,” says Patrick Fux, 47, of Cesar Sport, who with his family runs three sports shops in the town. Thanks to the high degree of snow reliability, there is more activity on the ski slopes in Saas-Fee this winter than in the already strong last season.
Cash registers are stolen, both on rental and on sale: According to Fux, foreign guests in particular like to rent skis or snowboards at the ski resort. “Guests from Switzerland who drive regularly prefer to buy the equipment.”