The end of the Bär Sport in Wädenswil

What consumers today still feel like buying goods in long-established stores that are not exclusive or particularly cheap if shopping there itself is no fun?

Bear Sport is a victim of changing customer buying behavior and expectations. Customers today want shopping to be an experience. Shopping should be fun. But it is precisely in such "small" stores that shopping is often not fun. They are overcrowded with masses of merchandise without a good overview, lack comfortable seating, and lack a cool lifestyle. Modern shopping centers deliberately put a lot of emphasis on this. Small stores can't do that or haven't understood that yet.

In an interview with the Zürichsee Zeitung, Serge Bär says that he always had good feedback from all partners, but what did the customers say? Because he could not expect any criticism from his partners, that is not usual in Switzerland, otherwise you are quickly sidelined as a critical partner, that is how it works in Switzerland. He also admits that he felt the growing digitalization. Was his website modern? Did he have an online store? Serge Bär's behavior is indicative of the industry. Many small retailers have not yet understood or accepted how the hare runs. Today, you have to be digitally modern, you have to have a modern website with a store, and you have to offer a lifestyle store where it's fun to meet people. In addition, the merchandise has to be hip and the price top. However, many sports retailers want to run their businesses as they did 30 years ago, but that doesn't work anymore and insisting on the tradition of the business is something no one pays a single centime for anymore, no one gives a damn about tradition.

If Bär Sport wanted to save its business, it would have had to come up with a new, modern way of dealing with customers, a modern website, digital offers and an interior design that would have made people want to open the door. True, these are today of course enormously many and high demands that the customer makes, but today even the small retailer is in competition with the whole world and who does not go along here, goes down, tradition or not. This is what happened in February 2019 in the Zurich lakeside community of Wädenswil. Customers don't care much. Sports stores that don't adapt to the needs of the times go under, including Bär Sport in Wädenswil. And he's not the only one.