We asked archery retailers from across the country if they were satisfied with their store location. Here’s what they had to say.

Jessie Smith

Barefoot Archery / Charlotte, North Carolina

We’re located in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is one of our state’s largest cities. We haven’t changed the location since purchasing the shop. We’re two blocks off the interstate, so it’s really convenient for our customers to get in and out of here. And those who’ve never been here before have no trouble finding us, either. Our store is also in a standalone building, which greatly increases our visibility. Overall, it’s treated us really well. The longevity of our location alone speaks for itself – we recently celebrated our 50th anniversary.

In the past, our parking lot was a little constricted, but we now have adequate parking, because a gentleman next door has room to spare when we need it. If I could change anything about it, I’d have more parking directly in front of my shop, but we do pretty well with what we have. We have a gravel parking lot, which poses occasional complications for folks in wheelchairs – my son is in a wheelchair, and we’ve been able to figure it out. I would pave the parking lot, but that would cause issues with water runoff. That’s something I can’t control.

I have a lot of customers who live in uptown apartments, and they don’t have a backyard where they can shoot. Those folks can come shoot at my indoor range. There’s also a rail-trail that stops two blocks away. But the bulk of our customers come in from the interstate. Overall, it’s a great location, and I’ve never had any desire to move.

Josiah Richards

Ross Outdoors / Phoenix, Arizona

We’re actually located in an industrial area, and that has posed some real challenges for us. However, we’ve been able to work around them through advertising, social media and word of mouth.

We have a big sign on our storefront. You can’t see it from the freeway, but we’re only about 1 mile off the freeway. Our store is very accessible. People can jump off the freeway and zip right in here easily. Our parking lot is also proportionate for our customer-traffic flow. We have about 30 parking spaces.

We’ve been here 11 years. Our location has been quite challenging, but we step up to the plate and offer our customers reasons to come and find us. We deliver great customer service, plus we offer great products at competitive prices. And when people come to our store once, finding it again and again is no problem at all.

Gary Hintz

Bucks and Bulls Archery / Stevens Point, Wisconsin

I moved our store about 2 years ago. We’re on the same street, but two buildings down. We’re on one of Stevens Point’s busiest streets. A projected 60,000-plus vehicles travel the street daily. We’re actually right next to Subway, too, so people walk right by my store to get to Subway. There’s lots of foot traffic.

If we were on the very busiest street, I feel our store would be lost in the sea of businesses. The combination of traffic and visibility has set us up to succeed. Plus, mobs of people drive past our store when they’re off work, and they can conveniently swing in to chat or pick up something. Most people won’t drive off the beaten path. They want convenience.

We also put brilliant signs out by the road so people see them each time they travel our street. Plus, there are traffic lights right out front, so most people eventually stop right by our store while they wait for a green light. And our storefront is quite large, too, which helps. At night when we run our shooting classes, we have our lights on, so people can see us shooting from the road. Overall, we have great roadway presence.

It’s really easy to get in and out of our parking lot. We have access right off the main street and from a side road. We have about 60 spots, and it’s plenty big enough when we have big fundraisers and other events.

Our store is actually in a strip mall. Normally, that would be a disadvantage, because stores tend to blend together, but since we have the biggest building in here with a big storefront, we really stand out. Plus, we have excellent signage. We’re really easy to find, and our customers agree. Of course, some customers called in after we moved to find out where we went, but we get very few calls anymore. Pretty much everyone has figured out we only moved down the street.

We recently built a new website, too, and that really helps customers find us easily. We have a locator on there with a pin showing exactly where we are.

Top photo: iStock