Like many homes and other parts of the Club, our Golf Shop received some damage from the winter storm last February.  We were lucky that our damage wasn’t significant, but it gave us the opportunity to take a fresh look at the Golf Shop. Since the carpet had to be replaced, it got us thinking about the overall layout of the shop.

As in anything related to fashion or design, the old layout of our shop was “current” when it was built in 2008, but trends change and evolve. For example, cotton was still a big seller in 2008; cotton shirts merchandise best when folded. Now, cotton shirts represent less than two percent of our sales. In addition, our traffic in the shop has increased significantly over the last couple of years and comfortable customer flow is important to us. With concepts like this in mind, we found some opportunities to change things to create a better retail environment for our members and their guests.

The old counter was positioned in the center of the Golf Shop, which took up a lot of valuable merchandising space. In retail, corners are typically dead space and the prime real estate is near the entrances, along with the center of the space. This is where we found our biggest opportunity — we demolished the old counter and installed a new smaller counter near the newly renovated Pro Office. We didn’t gain any additional square footage, but this allowed us to transform an ineffective corner into functional, operational space while opening up desirable retail space. This, combined with new lighter-colored carpet, makes the space feel a lot bigger.

With this new open space, we needed to update our fixtures to fit the new layout. First on the list is what I like to call a fancy giant rolling rack. It’s basically a traditional double bar rolling rack but made from wood that complements the other design elements of our shop. This fixture alone can fit more than 180 hanging items, plus it has a flat table on top of it to stack more merchandise. Next up were nesting tables. We had a few large tables in our previous layout, but we were limited in how we could merchandise on those tables. Time for another retail tip: folding displays look best when you can create layers or levels. The three new sets of nesting tables allow us to accomplish that goal. Each set includes three tables at different heights. On top of that, our creative Merchandiser, Camille, found little crates and stools for these tables to add even more interest and elevation change. The final touch was two slat wall plaques hung where the old counter used to live. These slat walls offer a lot of versatility with how displays can be organized and are perfect for hanging items.  We also replaced all of our hangers with new C-Star logoed hangers that match the other millwork in the shop. All of these new fixtures allow us to fit more merchandise in the shop even though our footprint didn’t change. 

I mentioned above that we renovated the Pro Office — this was a project that was actually planned prior to the winter storm but was scheduled later in the year. This project involved knocking down a few walls and creating a more open space. Our team has grown since 2008 and so have the tools we use. The old layout had built-in desks and storage, which was very common at the time, but we needed additional storage and more workstations for the team. Knocking down the walls provided better flow and replacing built-ins with freestanding desks and storage was a better use of the space.

If you haven’t seen the new layout, come on by and check it out!

Corey Roberson is the Director of Golf at The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch. He can be reached at croberson@cordilleraranch.com and 830.336.4653.