Today was the soft opening of Academy Sports + Outdoors, in Roanoke, Virginia, and my efforts paid…read moreoff by being able to find out about it and being able to attend its soft opening.
As a wholehearted yelper, from the time I here about the opening of a new business, I start researching it to find out as much as possible and sometimes it's not until the opening day that I'm able to find out key information about the business. For example, it was not until today that I found out the local telephone number of this business. It's (540) 283-8340. And as soon as I did, I called the number, and I believe the manager, a lady with a very friendly voice, answered the phone, and revealed that today they were holding the soft opening, and that if I scanned the QR code at the entrance booth, I would get 20% off my purchase of the day. Since I was in need of new sneakers, I decided to take this opportunity to go and buy some there and at the same time write a review of the experience for Yelp so that others learn more about the store before they visit.
Academy Sports and Outdoors is "one of the nation's largest sporting goods and Outdoor stores," with headquarters in Katy, Texas. At Academy, "they believe in the power of fun" and through their assortment of sporting goods and outdoor gear, they help their customers have more fun, enjoying sports and the great outdoors. Especially in the Star City of Roanoke which is blessed with wonderful nature.
But if its indeed true that they have a great assortment of quality, hunting, fishing, and camping equipment and gear, as well as sports and leisure products, but what impressed me the most about the store and this company was its people, and their high values. At the end of my visit I was able to reflect on their customer focus and service, in the excellence of their employees in all they do. And in their responsible Leadership. In no other sporting goods store, have I ever seen or experienced what I did there.
When I arrived in my pearl white Lexus, I parked it in one of the spaces of their ample parking lot. Then I proceeded to walk towards the store. Their beautiful, modern storefront was adorned by a gigantic banner announcing their 20% off at the new Roanoke store.
Once inside, I first received a warm greeting by a gentleman at a greeting station where he had me scan his QR code for the 20% discount. If this discount doesn't seem impressive, what was, was that, contrary to other stores, that only accept one discount at a time. They stack up all those that you can find and deduct them from the price of the item. For example, the original price for my Brooks Men's Adrenaline GTS 25 was $154.99, they had a $30 off hot deal making them cost $124.99, then you could subtract the 20% off that, from the discount you got at the entrance, and since I downloaded their app, I got another $15 off, bringing my final price to $87.99 plus tax. And my cashier, Nyah, was more than happy to point this out, and show me all my savings for this quality item.
But even before I arrived to this stage, I asked an employee where were the sneakers, and instead of pointing and saying over there, he made sure to walk me to where they were, and getting team member Cobi to take care of my, and she did an excellent job of doing so, by the questions she ask me, and even though I told her I didn't have a price limit, she still helped me get a quality product at a very reasonable price.
As soon as I left the store, you better believe I talked to all my neighbors and friends about the store, and "word of mouth" is a powerful marketing tool.
