As you may have noticed the last few days have been rather cool.  Yesterday my daughter and I took advantage of those temps and ventured down to the Chicago Sports Depot. I had noticed that they had a tent set up last homestand and I wanted to take advantage of their killer clearance prices.  If you are not familiar with the Depot, it is attached to the park and offer a bunch of very expensive Sox gear.  So expensive that in 2012 they advertised lower prices trying to get people to come in and look around.  Still isn’t working, but their clearance prices are bomb.  I have bought several things from them, usually at SoxFest when they offer half off their clearance prices, great deals for jerseys.  Well, if you don’t mind wearing an ex player.

Thursday I picked up a nice fitted hat for $10, hell of a score.  But while I was looking for more stuff something caught my eye.  Take a look –

One of the things is not like the other (shout out to my boys on Sesame Street) guess which ones?  Now I am all for capitalizing on recent successes by a player.  Or even a new player.  So no big deal that they made these Delmonico and Giolito shirseys, but why so cheaply?  At least make them look like the others.  I walked over to see how much these official knockoffs were and was floored when I saw they were charging $29.99, same as the others.  That’s wrong on so many levels.

I know it’s been a hard row to hoe for the Sports Depot.  Last season they sold all of their Southpaw “Bobblehead of the Month” bobbles for $10 each.  They were originally $79.99, then $35, and finally $10 and they had cases of them left.  At SoxFest this year one of the managers told me (after I told him that I really appreciated the low prices) that it was “great to run a non-profit business”.  I felt bad, but seeing this doesn’t make me feel better.  Maybe they need to sell reasonably priced merch?  Fitted hats there run you $40 to $50.  A hat! I used to buy tons, but now I wait it out, buy them on clearance for $10.

I know they are trying to capitalize on a captive market that Jerry has created with his parking lots, but we got the internet on our phones now buddy!  We can order that hat and get it shipped for lower than your offering price.  So maybe you go for volume over big sales?  Just a thought.

I am sure someone smarter than me has run the numbers and they might make more money with the initial sales being so high rather than a slow burn with a midlevel price. That is usually the first mistake I make, trusting people are qualified to be in the position they are in. It has been rather eye opening in recent years, as I have been downright disappointed with some people that I have met out there in the world that have gotten to levels in life and have no idea what they are doing.

So if you are in a pinch and need a Sox hat or jersey and have extra money to spend, hit up the Sports Depot.  They are very nice and very helpful.  I have given them a bunch of money, but usually when they mark the merch way down.  Maybe it is time to reform the business plan, maybe it is working for them.  If you wanna chat, email me at mysoxsummer@gmail.com for the cheap fan perspective.

Hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend fam! Hope to see you at the park this week!

-MSS