Club + Resort Business’ Second Annual Awards recognize The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe (Calif.) for reimagining its 20-year-old pro shop to now feature a curated selection of golf and lifestyle apparel, gifts, home goods, and health and wellness lines. “We wanted to inspire our customers to come to us for most, if not all, of their retail shopping,” says Director of Golf Steve Wilson.
The December 2020 issue of Club + Resort Business features the 2020 Innovation Awards, recognizing club and resort properties that have conceived and implemented concepts that have paid real dividends in the form of enduring member and guest satisfaction and loyalty.
This property was recognized for innovative achievement in the Golf Operations category:
What’s old is new again. This past summer, between COVID closures, The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe (Calif.) decided to remodel its 20-year-old pro shop. “The Shop” now features a curated selection of golf and lifestyle apparel, gifts, home goods, and health and wellness lines. Even non-golfing members are enjoying this new shopping experience.
Steve Wilson, Director of Golf at The Bridges, describes the old space as a “pretty typical golf shop” with dark carpeting, a large counter, a combination of four-ways and two-ways to display hanging apparel, and multiple nesting tables spread throughout. So what prompted the change?
“We wanted to inspire our customers to come to us for most, if not all, of their retail shopping,” Wilson says. “We wanted to be more efficient with our offerings, to create an exciting online and personal shopping experience that blended with items sold on the floor as spontaneous purchases.”
The planning process for the shop makeover was fairly extensive, Wilson says. The Bridges hired a retail consultant to help the staff reshape its buying process as they prepared for re-opening the shop with a different business model. A team within the club with extensive interior-design experience was included in the decision-making process, as was a construction team with a great deal of experience with high-end, private-club buildouts.
From start to finish, the process took about five months. The Shop still occupies about 1,000 sq. ft., matching the existing footprint, but is now utilized much differently.
And new vendors have come with the new spaces. “Most were from the lifestyle and gift category,” Wilson says. “Vendors such as Alo, Lululemon, Antiqua Farmacista, Oats Cashmere, Beyond Yoga, Lafco, Rails, and Citizens of Humanity denim.”
The Bridges introduced new categories as well, such as lifestyle and leisure, health and wellness, home items and gifts.
Overall, Wilson describes the new Shop as “brighter, lighter and cleaner, with much more style to it.”
“There is much more room to walk around and shop,” he says. “The cash-wrap station no longer acts as a wall dividing our staff and the clientele. We’ve added a seating area where members can have a glass of champagne, bourbon, or sparkling water during a personal shopping experience with our Personal Stylist.”
The end result is an “overwhelming success,” Wilson says. “As with anything new, some are slow to change—but our sales show that most of our members and guests love the idea and new look.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.