Local store wards off competition

When College Mall opened in 1967, there were only two stores in the shopping center. One was locally owned Smith's Sport 'n' Shoe.\n38 years later, Dick's Sporting Goods opened a 50,000-square-foot store in the mall, and Sport 'n' Shoe owner Steve Smith said he has never been the least bit worried. In fact, when Smith was asked about Dick's coming to the mall 18 months ago, he said he liked the fact that the store was coming.\nNow, over a year after Dick's grand opening, Smith doesn't even look at Dick's as major competition, since he said the two stores only have a small overlap of similar merchandise. Smith said Dick's inventory is "80 to 85 percent products that aren't footwear," but "footwear (is) the main emphasis" of Smith's store.\nSince Smith's Sport 'n' Shoe moved to College Mall, the store has provided Bloomington residents with a traditional "brown shoe" store that only sold casual, non-athletic shoes. When Steve Smith bought the store from his father in 1989, the shoe store changed more than just ownership, Smith said, it got a new image. \nSmith changed the look and feel of the store to appeal to a larger customer base, he said, by providing brand-name shoes. Eventually, Smith began selling apparel from national companies such as Columbia Sportswear and The North Face. \nIn the mid-1990s, Smith's customer base started to grow. The store moved to a 4,000-square-foot building - where K&S Menswear is currently located - in College Mall. Fueled by the growth of his customer base, Smith began carrying collegiate-licensed clothing and NFL, NBA and MLB merchandise. \nIn 1998, Smith's Sport 'n' Shoe moved to a new 13,000-square-foot location in the mall across from Sears, where it is still located today.\nSmith said local stores like his have advantages over national chains. \n"Being local (means) you're in tune to your market," Smith said, and being locally owned means he can "get certain shoes before the big national guys are allowed to," especially since his store is rated by many companies as an "A channel store."\nVendors give certain stores top-shelf retail ratings based on service, presentation and whether the stores discount items, Smith said. The ratings generally break down into three channels: A, B and C. Smith's store is an A channel store, whereas larger national stores such as Dick's tend to be "B" or "C" channel stores. Being an "A" channel store allows Smith's to buy any available products, unlike "B" or "C" channel stores, Smith said. Sometimes there are small exclusive products that vendors reserve for their very best "A" channel stores, giving them an advantage with such products.\nSmith said his store has been the only one in Bloomington to have the Asics 2120 shoes for the last five to six weeks. In the next couple of weeks, Dick's and Finish Line might carry the shoe, but Smith said he has an advantage with this product until then.\nAnd luckily for Smith, customers sometimes prefer local stores, avoiding large corporate chains. \n"A business that is locally owned gives customers the impression that (the business) is more personable and friendly," said sophomore Daniel Sloat. \nTo stay ahead, Smith said he will "always strive to do things better than the competition." As for other popular stores in College Mall, "We've seen them come. We've seen them go," Smith said. "We've even seen some of them come and go again"