Re: the 20%+ discounts on most sites - I'm super curious how/why shops are offering such deeper cuts compared to last year, and last holiday's (Labor Day?) sales for that matter. My closest friends from high school who were brothers used to own a shop for 10 yrs here and would talk about slim profit margins, esp. on hard goods. I wonder what gives this year, esp. with everyone talking inflation and supply issues for months down the road?
I cannot speak for everyone, or even many, but coming into this time last year, I seem to recall there were still unbelievable shortages on almost everything, with some skate shops barely having any hardgoods at all, others only able to get all the more random brands and even then, not much of it either in most cases - that stuff available being most of the stuff no one ever wanted when everyone was fully stocked up that is.
What was in stock in some places was marked up to even higher prices, just to try to cover costs as well, things being air freighted in just to have something in the cabinet or on the wall too, so there was no way the little stock shops did have was going on sale.
Right now everyone is riding high from having a bumper year and enough skate hardgoods to be able to run some decent sales again, from what I am seeing in my local shops and online stores. Sell some stock, make some money and then be able to get more in just before Christmas (which is how it is for one shop I know) as those early December orders need paying for.
Sorry - might have been a bit carried away, but I hope you get the point.