Southern Sales

[doug]

Does anyone remember Southern Sales...I think it was at/near Chimney Rock & Bissonnet ?

[Pumapayam]

Hey Doug,

We don't encourage repeat topics.

I went ahead and reported this to get merged.

Have a good weekend!

[Jeebus]

Hey Doug,

We don't encourage repeat topics.

I went ahead and reported this to get merged.

Have a good weekend!

What are you, the thread Nazi?

[sevfiv]

that link is dead, anyhow...

[isuredid]

History of Academy

1970s: Early History and Directions

Academy Sports & Outdoors came into existence in 1970, when Arthur Gochman and his business partner purchased Southern Sales, a Houston-based army-navy surplus chain comprised of six stores that were by that year no longer making any profit. At the time, Gochman was a practicing attorney in San Antonio. He had not been formally educated as a businessman, but he had learned much about the surplus retail business from his father, Max Gochman, who had owned a surplus goods outlet in San Antonio and in 1970 still owned and operated a small chain of stores in Austin.

Gochman bought out his partner in 1973 and changed the company's business name from Southern Sales to Academy Corp. The Academy name was borrowed from his father's stores. It came from a now-defunct San Antonio Catholic school named St. Henry's Academy. Max Gochman had opened his first store across the street from the school in the 1930s, selling pre-World War II surplus goods. Later, when he moved to Austin, he used the name for his four army-navy surplus stores. Because many University of Texas students and graduates lived in the Houston area and were familiar with the Austin stores, Max Gochman permitted his son to use the name, knowing that it would help his son's business.

For the first few years of Academy's operation, Arthur Gochman's involvement was, in large part, passive. He continued to practice law in San Antonio until 1978, when he gave up his practice and moved to Houston to assume active control of the company and complete the overhaul of its basic merchandising policies.

1980s: From Surplus to Sporting Goods

Gochman made streamlining the chain's image his first priority. He closed two of the original stores and completely discontinued the sale of military surplus goods, responding to market changes reflecting new tastes and lifestyles. Academy already had begun refurbishing its image in the late 1970s, when, prompted by the increasing popularity of athletic shoes and leisure wear, it had begun selling sporting goods and clothing. In the 1980s the company's management completed the Academy changeover into a chain of outlets offering a wide and competitively priced range of brand name, top quality sporting goods and clothing--creating the company image that it has since retained.

Under Gochman's tutelage, the company began its continuing growth cycle. At first it widened its in-state operating area, in part as the result of family loss. Max Gochman died in 1985, and Arthur Gochman took over his father's four Austin stores, refurbishing them in Academy's new image as sporting goods megastores. The Austin market was both reliable and profitable, and it helped Academy's gradual "transition from 'giant killer' to a retail giant in its own right." It also brought the number of stores in the chain from eight in 1980 to 12 in 1985.

Smart responses to market realities also helped the company's growth. In the 1980s, through surveys of his customers, Gochman realized that the great majority of them were men. To encourage women to shop in Academy outlets, he introduced lines of women's casual clothing and aerobic wear. It was a wise policy move, for within a few years women would account for 50 percent of the chain's shoppers.

Starting in 1986, Academy also adopted an EDLP (EveryDay Low Pricing) sales philosophy, rejecting the widely used deep discounting of select items to attract customers. That policy assures Academy shoppers that they will pay low prices across the entire line of merchandise and not be penalized by the higher markups many stores put on nonsale items to offset the deep discount prices on their "specials."

Wisely, too, Academy retained much of a regional identity, offering the company's home base Texas customers several lines not carried by other sporting goods outlets. An important example is Western footwear. By 1990 the company was selling more cowboy boots than any other chain in the United States. In that year alone, its sale of women's Western-style boots increased by a full 70 percent over the previous year.

By the end of the 1980s Academy had become a very popular Texas chain. Among other things, its outlets sold more state fishing licenses than its chief competitor, Oshman's Sporting Goods, or any other group of stores in the state. But its success in Texas also raised new possibilities. In the mid 1980s the company began an impressive sales record, with yearly increases in revenue matched with stable margins and excellent cash flow. The health and stability of the company encouraged its expansion, both in Texas and, starting in the 1990s, beyond.

[Montrose1100]

What are you, the thread Nazi?

Arn't you suppose to be lurking?

[Jeebus]

Arn't you suppose to be lurking?

I was never here...

[FilioScotia]

Hey Doug,

We don't encourage repeat topics

With all due respect Mr P, rigid enforcement of a policy against repeating topics and subjects of discussion seems to assume that the HAIF's membership and body of contributors is the same today as it was when it began. I don't think that's the case.

New people are discovering the HAIF all the time and logging in to offer contributions and ask questions. That's why it's now one of the most interesting local sites I've found on the web. Newbies don't know that a subject was brought up and talked half to death six months or a year ago.

[wendyps]

With all due respect Mr P, rigid enforcement of a policy against repeating topics and subjects of discussion seems to assume that the HAIF's membership and body of contributors is the same today as it was when it began. I don't think that's the case.

New people are discovering the HAIF all the time and logging in to offer contributions and ask questions. That's why it's now one of the most interesting local sites I've found on the web. Newbies don't know that a subject was brought up and talked half to death six months or a year ago.

ditto!

[SunKing]

With all due respect Mr P, rigid enforcement of a policy against repeating topics and subjects of discussion seems to assume that the HAIF's membership and body of contributors is the same today as it was when it began. I don't think that's the case.

New people are discovering the HAIF all the time and logging in to offer contributions and ask questions. That's why it's now one of the most interesting local sites I've found on the web. Newbies don't know that a subject was brought up and talked half to death six months or a year ago.

I'm a new forum member - but I've also learned that the 'search' feature is very helpful. Instead of starting a new thread - all the info you need may already have been posted. ...saves everyone a lot of time. Anyway, no worries - welcome tot he HAIF.

[Fringe]

Does anyone remember Southern Sales...I think it was at/near Chimney Rock & Bissonnet ?

I remember it well.

[H-Town Man]

I remember going to an Academy on 1960 near Kuykendahl in the late 1980's, before they opened a much bigger location near Willowbrook. That must have been one of the first ones after it became an all-sporting goods store.

[IHB2]

Academy trivia: Arthur Gochman was an attorney involved in civil rights law concerning Mexican-Americans in the 60s and 70s. so you could consider Academy's success a karma payback for thankless pro bono work.

[northbeaumont]

Does anyone remember Southern Sales...I think it was at/near Chimney Rock & Bissonnet ?

Over here there used to be a chain of Army/Navy surplus stores called G.I. Surplus. I don't know if there were any in Houston. My dad said that he went into one and they had a barrel filled with rifles with a sign on it saying that it was the kind that Lee Harvey Oswald used. He bought one and he still has it. He says that it's a piece that couldn't have done what the Warren Commission concluded that it did.

[texianjoe]

Does anyone remember Southern Sales...I think it was at/near Chimney Rock & Bissonnet ?

There was on on O.S.T. in a strip center also, near where Chuck Davis and and old movie theatre were. Southern Sales had a bunch of neat stuff kind of like Col. Bubbies in Galveston.

joe