Happy new year from all of us at PoolPro. We appreciate your support in 2018, and hope 2019 is great for you personally and professionally. We’ve never before done a themed issue of PoolPro, but we’re starting 2019 with an issue all about retail. If you don’t have a swimming pool retail store, don’t put…
There are three things most people don’t enjoy about their pool cleaner: cleaning out debris, removing the pool cleaner from the pool, and expecting to find your pool clean, only to realize the cleaner has been in the same spot for hours. Those were three frustrations Hayward wanted to tackle when it started working on…
Photography by Doug Melillo John and Lisa Morgillo own the place. Their daughter, Lia, heads the marketing and sales department while Lia’s boyfriend learns construction. Lisa’s brother, Al, is the project manager for in-ground installations. Sue, Al’s wife, runs the front-end cash registers for the store. Doreen and Paul, John’s sister and brother-in-law, do sales…
The Virginia Graeme Baker act demands all residential swimming pools to have a proper drain cover to prevent entrapment, but even if the right drain cover appears to be in place, poor care or improper installation can mean an entrapment risk still exists. Steve Barnes, director of science and compliance for AquaStar Pool Products in…
For service-based pool businesses that have demonstrated growth and success, adding a brick-and-mortar location often tops the list of natural next steps. But even if the bottom line can absorb the associated overhead costs, long hours and extra staff that comes with a physical location, it can be tough to know whether it will prove…
The pool retail world is a fairly informal industry — the central product, after all, is leisure. But formality is subjective, and in a country that in two generations went from three-piece suits at baseball games to sneakers at weddings, written dress codes are beginning to feel like workplace relics from a bygone era. Appearance…
Going local is a huge trend in buying. Locavores are people who choose to buy products and eat food grown or produced within 100 miles of its final destination. The purpose is to cut down on transportation costs, reduce environmental impact and support area businesses. Localization works for pool and spa retailers as well. Although…
For David Riley, founding partner at business-improvement firm Gemini Effect, inventory management would be a piece of cake — if reality didn’t keep getting in the way. “If you had the world the way you wanted it and you could manage things perfectly, you could operate a business without ever having to invest in inventory,”…
When you’re expanding, moving or opening a new location, the to-do list is long, but make sure to consider the promotion and marketing of your new or added store. Scott Clark of Spa & Sauna Company of Reno has traveled this road three times and is moving his original store to a higher-traffic location. “The…
Paolo Benedetti knows that today’s high-end automation equipment is far too complicated for pool service providers to maintain on their own. “It’s getting so bloody complex that even the builders are relying on a series of dedicated experts to provide the support we need,” Benedetti says. The founder of Aquatic Technology Pool & Spa and…
Meet our panelists It’s been a longtime goal at PoolPro to create a panel of pool professionals to share their opinions and expertise. Each edition we’ll pose a question to our group. We tried to find panelists who vary in geographic location, experience and company size. Craig Sears CSP, CPB, CPO, President Sears Pool Management…
Everyone has a preference in competitive markets: Burger King versus McDonald’s, Walmart versus Amazon — and in this industry, the brand of pool equipment you install and the sanitizer you recommend to customers. In the world of chlorine versus bromine, the competition is likewise fierce. What’s the difference? You can’t have a good matchup without…