Rob McGillicudy, a former star player on the football team, has opened a sporting goods store near the campus of Southwest State University. The store sells team sports, hunting, and fishing equipment, accessories, and supplies. The brands of equipment McGillicudy's store carries include Daiwa, Pflueger, Browning, Remington, Teamsport, Spalding, Ritter, and Louisville Slugger, among others. In addition to sales of new equipment, Mr. McGillicudy provides an extensive repair and service facility capable of restoring even the most sophisticated and well-used sports equipment to first-class condition.

In a recent interview, Rob explained his business strategy: "I am convinced there is tremendous interest in sports among the students, faculty, and staff of Southwest State. I want to satisfy their need for products and services suited for all areas of sporting activity. Generally, I stock the products and brands that they ask for as long as I can get them and make a profit on the sale. Some manufacturers, like Mountain Munitions, from whom I used to buy shotgun shells, make this a problem. I have had to stop dealing with them because they acted very independently, sometimes not filling orders for up to six months. On the other hand, I also have to deal with people like that salesman from Sweetwater Jerseys. That guy won't take no for an answer. He keeps trying to sell me what he's got to sell, rather than what I know my customers want."

"Some of the products I stock are purchased from wholesalers because we order in small quantities. I like dealing with most of them, though, because they ship our orders very quickly, so my customers don't have to wait long for special order items. If I ordered from the manufacturers, it would take forever to get some products. I'm also lucky because this old building has lots of display and storage space, so I can have a pretty good stock of most standard products for my customers to choose from. A lot of my business is people who buy stuff the day before fishing season, take it home right then, and use it the next day."

"I think I'm doing all right. My relationship with the bank lets me borrow money at a very good rate, so I can buy inventory for cash. Of my two employees, one is a local outdoorsman in his fifties who knows what the "seasoned" sportsmen in town like, the other is a student who has a good grasp of what's hot with her fellow students, so the locals like us because we've got the older styles of products they like, while the kids generally like us because we have things that some of the older stores in town don't stock yet. Don't get me wrong about them; they're good merchants and tough competitors and it takes work to compete with them. I sometimes stick my neck out by buying a particular item, but I haven't been stuck with much unsellable inventory yet. I think I'll keep doing this for a while."