January Retail Sales figures (source Datatech, Edwin Watts):Nothing sinister, interestingly ball sales were down compared to last year, the average dozen price was $25.57 comprised of 75% low end balls and 25% expensive ones. The public is smarter than I thought, it is very difficult to tell the difference right now between the most expensive ball and the cheapest. Callaway and Acushnet don’t mind, their high and low end balls are both selling. Glove sales are down with an average retail price of $12.25 (seems low). Putter sales are also down, but their average price of $126. could explain that. Wood sales are up and the average price of $157. means to me that hybrids are counted in wood sales, cause I can’t find many $157 drivers!
What’s selling? Wedges at an average price of $91.00 (are people stocking up on the illegal grooves?); shoe sales are up at $80 average per pair; and bags are selling at an average of $112.00. Iron sales are also up at$70 per iron average retail price. Maybe the hybrids are also counted as irons.
In April 1977 the RCMP dropped by our bag storage at Bayview CC and had me go through the entire 750 member’s bags, to identify the sets that I had sold vs. the sets the RCMP thought had been purchased in the US. I did not play along but did find out what they wanted. “We are not interested in people smuggling in golf clubs, we want the excuse to further investigate these people, because if they cheat on clubs imagine what else they have in their homes, jewelry, campers, etc.” Doesn’t this sound like something George Bush would do for National Security?
