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Racking up sales: more and more pool and spa retailers bank on billiard table sales as consumers blackball vacation plans

Pool & Spa News, August 22, 2003 by Rhonda J. Wilson

Pool and spa retailer Mike Small has been pleasantly suprised by one recent consumer trend: Billiard table and hot tub combinations sell more than aboveground-pool and patio furniture combinations.

"If a customer comes in and buys a swimming pool, you'd think it would be easy to sell him a patio set," says Small, the billiard table and aboveground-pool buyer at Seasonal Specialty Store in Foxborough, Mass, "But it's way easier to sell a hot tub to a customer who wants to buy a pool table, or a pool table to a guy who wants a spa--especially with financing. I probably sell one out of 15 spa customers a pool table."

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This purchasing trend is not unique to Small's East Coast store. Other retailers across the country are experiencing the same phenomenon. "We get a large amount of crossover business," says Scott Wheeler, general manager at Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Pools Plus Inc., who sees approximaely 30 customers each year making a simultaneous pool table and hot tub purchase.

"It's a common thing for people who start improving their home with a beautiful hot tub to also put in a billiards room," says Wheeler, whose average billiard table sells for about $1,700. "They're usually redoing the whole house and they want to turn it into a recreational center."

Small, whose billiard table sales have increased about 30 percent in the last year, says business couldn't be better. "Billiards are hot in general right now," he says. "While pools have been recession-proof up here, they're not weatherproof. But billiards are recession-proof and weatherproof."

Solid sales

Industry experts credit the recent upsurge in billiard table sales to the "butterfly syndrome." That's the term being used to describe the next evolution of cocooning that happened when consumers began staying closer to home after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.

"People are taking advantage of the indoor and outdoor areas of their homes and yards to create an environment for family activities and entertaining," says Amy Long, director of marketing and business development at Billiard Congress of America in Colorado Springs, Colo., a national nonprofit trade organization dedicated to promoting and growing cue sports worldwide.

"Events aren't exclusively indoors or outdoors," Long says. "People go back and forth between the two, so maybe now a pool party involves the outdoor spa and the indoor billiard table, or the indoor spa and the outdoor billiard table."

In addition, the number of people participating in billiards has increased. In 2001, nearly 40 million Americans engaged in the sport, which represents a growth of 4.7 percent over 2000 and 7.8 percent over 1999, according to the BCA.

"Anecdotally, retailers are reporting that ... more people are putting money into recreation, game and family rooms," Long says.

Most retailers agree that world events have significantly reshaped the recreational habits of many Americans. "I believe that terrorism is driving the customer to stay home and do less traveling," says Stephen Goss, general manager at Branch Brook Co. in Hazlet, N.J. "Therefore, they put more money into their basements and backyards."

Goss, who is in his fifth season of selling billiard tables that range in price from $800 to $4,000, also offers aboveground pools, hot tubs, patio furniture, pool supplies and several types of game tables.

"The customer is looking to do a complete game room with a furniture-grade billiard table, bar and stools and maybe an air-hockey table," he says.

In an uncertain economy, billiard tables also won't break the bank.

"A pool table will entertain a family longer than a vacation for less money," Small says. "They can buy it today for $2,000 to $3,000 installed with 0 percent interest for a year. Unlike [a trip to] Disney World, which is over when it's over, you still have a pool table."

Cueing in on customers

The older the kids are in a customer's family, the more likely he or she will purchase a billiard table, according to many retailers. Parents like knowing what their kids are doing, while adolescents like having their friends over to play pool. It's a win-win situation.

"It's hard to find something that your teenagers want to do with you," Wheeler says. "If you can find something fun for them to do, then they're not out running around in the streets and hanging out with friends who are trying to talk them into drugs, drinking or whatever."

Billiard tables also appeal to men who like to own expensive recreational items and hang out with their buddies. "You've got your Tim Allen--"Home Improvement" types, who want the real sophisticated models with '27,000 horsepower,'" says Small, whose billiard tables cost between $1,100 and $10,000. "That type of customer is going to have their friends over, and they're going to want to pull out this impressive table because they are men who want to say, 'I have quality equipment.'"

On the other hand, families with small children purchase billiard tables to instill traditional values. "They want to teach their children the game of billiards and family togetherness around the pool table," Wheeler says.

Racking up sales: more and more pool and spa retailers bank on billiard table sales as consumers blackball vacation plans

Pool & Spa News, August 22, 2003 by Rhonda J. Wilson

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