JRN3200

Prof. Michael Bobelian

Naotaka Washimi

Fishing tackle store in Bayonne survived from series of hardships.

“I wish we were in the food industry like MacDonald,” said Akira Hayashi, the owner of the True World Tackle, a fishing supply store in Bayonne, N.J. “Unlike our business, everyone can be a customer for McDonald’s and people often don’t cut back on food.” Both commercial and recreational fishing is declining industry in the U.S due to the various factors such as strict regulations on recreational fisherman, rising gas price, environmental change in ocean. The recreational fishing industry that “True World Tackle” is in, the consumers tend to shy away or cut back on spending on fishing tackle and bait when economy slows down.

The First hardship that True World tackle encounters was when the landlord doubled the rents in 2007 when store was in primary location in Jersey City. The store had location inside the Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City with huge parking space for its customers and huge store allowed Mr. Hayashi to sell many types of merchandise. There was huge garage next to tackle store and had few mechanics work for the True World tackle to provide repairing and maintenance for boaters. During that time, Jersey City went through gentrification as the city cleaned its tarnished image as a place long plagued by political corruption, crime, financial mismanagement, industrial pollution, and undeveloped infrastructures. However Mr. Hayashi said that he was confident because there were no other competitors nearby and he knows the fact that his business had many loyal customers and people rely on his store for service and place for shopping.

Even he moved to new location in Bayonne where he has store now, his business offers maximum flexibility and convenience to its customers since business hour is 7am to 7pm during a week and 5am to 7pm on weekend. It also open 7 days a week which any other competitors in fishing tackle industry can hardly imitate since most stores are family owned. Moreover his store owns fishing boat for fishing charter business supported by many repeat customers.  Up until 2008, his business enjoys steady growth supported by many loyal customers in his community. The location of Bayonne is ideal place for business in business environment. Bayonne is a peninsula surrounded by New York Bay and Newark Bay having many boat marinas, public parks and fishing piers. It also located in between Jersey City and Statin Island where higher income people often travel to Bayonne to shop at his store.

However, the favorable business environment started to change since 2008 when economic crisis started. Mr. Hayashi’s business took a hit badly when people cut down on leisure spending and abandoned their boats. His income decreased sharply since boaters spend more money that local customers. In addition to that, Wal-Mart opened in November 2011 not far from the store, which put Mr. Hayashi’s business in jeopardy to keep his loyal customers. Mr. Hayashi said that “Fishing industry can never be able to back to money making business”.

Big challenge in his business occurred in 2012 when deadliest and most destructive hurricane hit Tri-state area leaving huge damage on both commercial and recreational fishing industry. Hurricane Sandy struck the fishing industry in New Jersey and New York in multiple ways. Both states have significant commercial and recreational fishing industries that support vibrant fishing communities as well as contribute to the broader coastal and state economies. Public fishing piers across the region were destroyed including some of the city’s iconic fishing spots in Coney Island and the south beach of Staten Island. In some cases, like in Sandy Hook, N.J., the storm erased beaches, forcing them to shut down for long periods of time.

Beside customer shied away all of sudden after hurricane, two weeks block out in Bayonne causes his fresh and froze bait to spoil and flooded basement ruined many of his merchandises in basement. He incurred huge loss from spoiled bait since bait is one of his most important money making merchandise and important items to operate his business.

“Hurricane Sandy destroyed our hope of survival,” said Mr. Hayashi. In addition to the difficulties from high gas prices, the opening of Wal-Mart and rising costs, the decline in the number of customers after the hurricane is the most serious problem to his business.   Few months after Hurricane Sandy, Mr. Hayashi’s business is one of the many in the recreational fishing industry still trying to recover from the storm.  The business lost all its customers for many months forcing Mr. Hayashi to lay off his four employees for first time in business history. “The fishing business is very conservative” Mr. Hayashi said. Making small effort to gain loyal customer is the way for survival.

The survival of his business totally depended on how quickly demand recovers in Bayonne and Jersey City. Mr. Hayashi is committed to the fishing industry and believed that his customers are what he called “enthusiasts” or fishing addicts, and he is sure that they come back soon as everything back in normal. Shrinking store’s profit was troublesome for Mr. Hayashi during 2012 since business expense such as wage, rent, marina fees; maintenance fees for his boats are relatively high.

However, Mr. Hayashi still believes that he has passion for this fishing industry and dedication to local customers which helped him to get through series of hardship he encounter in the past.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1b74R2Yyj5QhpgbCulPlv0xK5o7KIcoVRJ21DSywFqmc/edit?usp=sharing  (Slide Show)