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Shop employees represent

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steezenskis
Posts: 1044 - Karma: 31
this is a thread for all the shop employees out there. share stories, opinions, and comments on life in a ski shop.
May 5 2010 11:07PM
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J.DUKE
Posts: 1233 - Karma: 38
im not an employee, per se, i just lurk at my local shop
May 5 2010 11:21PM
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ugsey
Posts: 95 - Karma: 14
i formerly worked at one, and i live in australia, so we just get gapers who have no clue about anything...also the store had maybe 5 park/freeride skis...the rest were racing/on-piste type skis. but it makes sense that they sold a majority of those, seeing as australians have no clue about freestyle/freeride skiing.
May 6 2010 1:45AM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24704 - Karma: 29,687
Worked at one for 5 years until they laid me off for the summer back in March (i know right? ski areas are still open here in california - i hate management sometimes...)

It was awesome times...
-mounting skis...
-fixing boots...
-talking about skiing ALL the time...
-getting to hang out all day and watch ski movies and dick around...
-free passes to resorts...
-cool contests that reps and the companies would put on to win free gear (usually incentive deals - sell 10 pairs, get a free pair of whatever - I to date had won 6 pairs of skis + binders, an Ipod, 2 pairs of ski boots, countless shwag, and 2 free trips to colorado to shred. No big deal)
-not to mention all the sweet proform deals on gear...


I didn't make jack shit the whole time i worked there... but god I had more fun than anybody, and got to ski more than anyone too.. I have a job there this September for sure... we'll see where I end up...
May 6 2010 6:07AM
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-ShredTheGnar-
Posts: 2038 - Karma: 111
I worked in a skishop for 2 yeears. basically the same as dingosean.... But i did make money....

Then i left to travel.
May 6 2010 6:30AM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24704 - Karma: 29,687
I made 11+ commission. Peanuts where I live...
May 6 2010 7:14AM
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dangerdad
Posts: 2228 - Karma: 317
i work at a shop. It's not to bad except for the brutal wages...
May 6 2010 10:30AM
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Lemuel
Posts: 14477 - Karma: 10,515
I wish I worked at a shop. Everytime I go to a shop I know more than the people working there. Telling me my lizzies wouldn't float in powder. Yea, good one.
May 6 2010 10:37AM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24704 - Karma: 29,687
They wont if you weigh 400lbs!
May 6 2010 10:44AM
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s.parker
Posts: 1041 - Karma: 259
hey me too!
May 6 2010 10:46AM
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steezenskis
Posts: 1044 - Karma: 31
the best part of working in a shop is the proforms. i got my griffons for $100 and my chronics for $200
May 6 2010 5:04PM
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zagfan5
Posts: 2608 - Karma: 144
used to be in a shop, it was cool, but in the fall between summer and winter there was nothing to do. we'd have monopoly games a few times a day on the itouch. and make giant tape balls and have fights across the whole store. tape balls hurt when thrown like a 90 mph fastball.
May 6 2010 6:24PM
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Dan.
Posts: 7201 - Karma: 1,126
I used to work at the original shop devoted to freeskiing. it was nice, we played n64 sometimes, shot airsoft guns across the place, talked about motorcycles. got to ride some sick skis, meet some cool people, never had any gapers to deal with like big box ski shops. overall, great experience.
May 6 2010 7:24PM
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YooperSteeze
Posts: 1248 - Karma: 45
Me too, I think we lurk at the same shop
May 6 2010 8:26PM
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schism
Posts: 1705 - Karma: 389
I'm a seasonal employee at the local shop. It's pretty sick, i get to learn about skis and sell them. The people i work with are pretty chill but it can definitely get boring at times.

so far I've gotten Smith I/O, Dynastar Huge troubles, a couple of t-shirts a hat and some prepaid mastercards.

And I pro dealed some fks 140s.

It's a sick job for sure.
May 6 2010 8:35PM
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Austeeze
Posts: 807 - Karma: 18

worked last season for the first time in a snow store,some of the same experiences as DingoSean meeting distributors, reps etc,... lots of mucking around when the boss wasn't around and there was no activity in terms of customers- watching and downloading Entourage in the store office, smoking weed out the back on thurs/frid nights, pizza , playing games like trying to hit certain ad promos with coathangers used for outerwear

just loved doing all the techy stuff though and talking about skiing in general and local resorts. Dealing with gapers sometimes was very annoying but you put up with it. Pretty much no promotion of freeskiing in the store though, but plenty of snowboarding.

May 6 2010 11:57PM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24704 - Karma: 29,687
Who else has the time of their life fucking with gapers?
May 7 2010 12:09AM
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treebeard
Posts: 3589 - Karma: 1,065
east coast gapers are the finest of the bunch.
too many stories to remember.
gotta love tuning 210cm, 210lb metal volants
May 7 2010 1:02AM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24704 - Karma: 29,687
You have no idea...

Try California gapers... Who bring in pairs of skis from the 1970's (Olin Mark IV's most of the time..) to get remounted with bindings - of course after bitching over and over when we tell them we cannot re-adjust their 4 year old bindings since, well.. they didnt even have Din as we know it back then...

or guys who come in and say the K2 Apache (Recon) is awesome in powder...

or guys who think skis that are 90 underfoot are ZOMG SOO FAT!...

or guys who think Northstar@Tahoe has such steep gnarly terrain! (It doesnt... at all)




The best though is the guy who said he was a ski instructor at Val'D'Isere for 10 years, and he skied on snowblades, because he could easily beat WC racers down the course... THAT was gold...

What's better is when he wanted us to mount a pair of Marker Barons on a pair of his Fischer Watea 78's...
May 7 2010 2:30AM
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tom.skier
Posts: 817 - Karma: 392
I work in a little ski shop not too far from my home slope.  It's pretty good.  Brutally boring in the summer though.
May 7 2010 6:02AM
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steezenskis
Posts: 1044 - Karma: 31

i work on the east coast in jersey. all the time we get guys who think that there hard core cause they ski beaver creek and deer valley.

May 7 2010 9:06AM
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