Independent Streak: A Sporting Chance
Photo/Edd Cote
HATS OFF: Alan LeBlanc runs John's Sport Shop in Gardner with his sister, Anne LeBlanc. The siblings say they constantly feel pressure from big box competition.
Photo/Edd Cote
DOWNTOWN BUSINESS: John's Sport Shop, located at 38 Main St. in Gardner, was founded by John and Therese LeBlanc in 1963. It's now run by John and Therese's children, Alan and Anne.
The inside of John’s Sport Shop looks about the same as it did in the late 1960s, insists Anne LeBlanc, who co-owns the business with her brother Alan LeBlanc.
The sports gear and equipment lining the walls and racks indicates the year 2011, but the creaky wood floors, dark orange carpeting and vintage sporting goods posters hanging near the front door tells of the decades the store has existed through on the classic New England downtown strip that is Gardner’s Main Street.
Customers dropping into the Main Street shop will find soccer balls, baseball gloves and bats, customizable jerseys, ball caps, snowboards, ski boots, badminton racquets, dart accessories, plastic caps for the butt-end of a street hockey stick and a myriad of other athletic goods for all four seasons.
“We have a little bit of everything,” said Alan LeBlanc. “We’ll be selling skis and someone comes in for a bathing suit.”
Staying On Top
In today’s brick-and-mortar retail world, competition is never far away. And the LeBlancs are acutely aware of it. They said they have worked to differentiate themselves by offering a wide range of services.
Customers can get their skates sharpened, baseball gloves replaced, trophies engraved and clothing embroidered.
Providing those services — Alan handles most of those duties himself — is a big piece of the store’s strategy for keeping its market share amidst competition from the likes of much bigger companies nearby like Olympia Sports and Walmart which have materialized in the area in the past 15 to 20 years. John’s Sport Shop has three part-time employees, including an embroiderer, and the LeBlancs, who both work full time.
New and flashy layouts may be exciting for some businesses, but the LeBlancs are more concerned with keeping up with their inventory, helping customers locate things they need and positioning themselves as supporters of youth sports and the local business community.
“We keep busy,” Anne LeBlanc said.
It is that strategy that has helped John’s Sport Shop to succeed in an environment that has changed drastically since their parents started the business 48 years ago.
“In business, you need to sell yourself first so people trust you,” Alan LeBlanc said. “Then you can sell your product.”
John’s has done that by sponsoring youth sports teams in Gardner and surrounding communities.
It’s a valuable way to advertise and it has brought customers through the door, he said.
Some of the area leagues purchase their team jerseys, equipment and trophies from John’s Sport Shop.
Times Have Changed
John’s is named after the siblings’ father, who opened the store in 1963 with his wife, Therese LeBlanc. Alan and Anne quite literally grew up in the store. The store’s website has a picture of a young Alan sleeping in a box of sale items.
Therese and John LeBlanc have since passed away, and their children have shepherded the brick-and-mortar store through drastic changes in the retail landscape. Changes have ranged from much of Gardner’s booming industry leaving town in prior decades to the proliferation of big box stores and Internet retailing.
Though it has not moved, John’s exists now in a different world.
Big box stores can carry more inventory and they can buy it in larger quantities, resulting in cheaper prices.
John’s has felt the effects through a loss of customers to both the Internet and to competitors, Anne LeBlanc said.
“Anyone who tells you they haven’t is not telling 100 percent of the truth,” she said. “You can’t really compete on some stuff. But we like to think we make up for it in other ways.”
Though the LeBlancs are both firm believers in buy-local efforts, Alan LeBlanc said he can’t knock the big box stores entirely.
“They’re low on price and they have tons of inventory,” he said. “This is the age of instant gratification. People want it now.”
For those who go to John’s looking for a particular item, they are likely to find it. But if the staff needs to order the item from elsewhere, Alan LeBlanc hopes the customer doesn’t feel he wasted his time. LeBlanc sees it as a chance to make a new friend.
“Growing up in town, working with the locals, I find it so rewarding,” he said. “We are fortunate to be in business here.”
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