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Golf Shops in the U.S.

• What is the current number of golf specialty shops in the U.S. (all 50 states)? By golf specialty shops, I do not want to include major sporting goods chains or mass merchants that happen to sell golf equipment. Only on course and off course golf shops and small "mom and pop" sporting goods stores that sell golf equipment and apparel. I know that 15 years ago the number was approximately 12,000 shops. What is that number now? How do I get the best sales list of all the on-course and off-course golf retail shops and sporting goods retailers that carry golf products in the U.S. and Canada, with contact information?

• Answer:

  Hello again franky99-ga, I'm glad to hear that the information I've been unearthing is on the right track. There are two principle sources I am aware of that can privde you with lists of retail shops that supply golf equipment. I'll describe them both in detail, as they have different capabilities and limitations. If anything I present below is unclear, or does not meet your needs, just let me know by posting a Request for Clarification, and I'll be happy to assist you further. ---------------------------- The first site to bring to your attention is InfoUSA at: www.infousa.com This service provides commercial mailing list information for a fee. You can use the site's sorting tools to scope out the size of your universe, and there is no fee for this -- you only pay if you buy an actual mailing list. For starters, click on the link at the top of the page that says: "1. Business Sales Leads & Mailing Lists", which takes you to the next page where you click on the button: "Click here to start your US selections" In the "Keyword/Yellow Page Heading" box that shows up, type in the word "golf". This will take you to a lengthy list of headings related to golf businesses. Select whichever business are of the most interest to you. When I did it, I chose two categories: --GOLF EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES-RETAIL, and --SPORTING GOODS-RETAIL You may want to use the same two categories, or you may find another combination even more appropriate. The next few screens offer you choices to limit your selections by size of the business, credit rating, geography, and other categories. If you don't want to make any selections here (I didn't), then just click the button that says "Next". Finally, you get to a "Review Selections" page, and if everything looks as it should, click "Next" again to get to the pricing page. BE PATIENT! InfoUSA is sorting its database at this point, and the process can take a minute or so before the next screen pops up. At last, you get to the Results page which, first of all, gives you a count that looks like: "Your selection resulted in a count of 26,386 leads" That is there are 26,386 golf shops and sporting goods shops in their database. If you had chosen a different combination of categories, of course, you would wind up with a different number. The Results page also gives you a number of options to purchase the records, in either barebones format (at a cost of about $4,000) or more complete records (costing about $5,000). You should note, however, that InfoUSA routinely sends out 50% off coupons to anyone on their mailing list. If you want to receive these, just contact them by phone or email, and I'm sure you'll begin finding them in you in-box. By the way, you can get the Canada listings by repeating the whole process, except at the very beginning, click on the ""Click here to start your Canada selections" button instead of the "US selections" button. I came with an additional 4,939 listings for our friends north of the border. --------------------------------- The other system to note is the Yellow Pages search function at: www.switchboard.com Click on "Yello Pages". On the left-hand side of the next page is a link that says: "Search Nationwide". Click this to start your search. In the "Enter a Business Name" box, enter the word "golf" and click "search". The next page will show a result: "Found: 30838 businesses". That is, there are 30,838 business in the nation with the word "golf" in their name. You can see by perusing the list, that most of the listings meet your criteria -- that is, they are shops selling golf equipment and supplies. Unfortunately, the site only allows you to access 10 listings at a time, so obviously, the business of getting access to the full list of almost 31,000 records is a cumbersome task, at best. However, you can also use the search tools at switchboard.com to access the listings in a given area -- a state, or particular city, for instance -- which can greatly simplify the level of effort involved. As far as I know, the site does not provide an option like InfoUSA, where you can purchase electronic access to the full list. --------------------------------- A similar setup can be found for Canada at: http://www.canada411.ca/ Click on "Find a business" Enter "golf" in the "NAME" box and click search. This will take you to a list of 4,461 golf businesses throughout Canada (and note how closely the number matches the InfoUSA data). --------------------------------- I hope these sites meet your needs. As I mentioned above, if you need any additional information, just post a message to let me know. Good luck in your efforts. pafalafa-ga search strategy: None. Made use of bookmarked sites.