The Tech Edition
April 09, 2008
No need to wait for summer vacation
Bricks and mortar online
By ANN RICHARDSON
Staff Writer
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A Taste of the Shore
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Before the techno-revolution, it was the mailman that brought the
world to our doors. Arriving in the form of a colorful catalog, we
thought we were all that when we picked up the phone and ordered the
pretty “new spring arrival,” and when it arrived – about a week later –
we were styling.
We all know how the computer and the Internet have changed our lives.
With the World Wide Web and overnight shipping, we literally have the
globe at our fingertips; anything we could ever dream about is only a
mouse-click away.
Our local brick and mortar favorites have not missed the trend. A piece
of the Jersey Shore – from surf art to saltwater taffy, fishing tackle,
rods and reels to caramel popcorn and fresh-ground coffee – can be
found, as usual, on your favorite island or conveniently delivered to
your home anywhere in the world.
Tackle Direct is a stone’s throw from the bay and some of the best
fishing in the area. Behind the seashore façade of the Ninth Street
building in Ocean City, a whirlwind of activity defies the quiet
off-season: a budding fishing empire in the works.
The store, through its brilliant www.tackledirect.com website, services
every state in the nation and over 150 countries around the globe. The
online store operates 24/7. The brainchild of owner Patrick Gill, the
humble beginnings of the business trace back to selling rods and reels
out of a Rhode Island dorm room and a small shack along the bay near
10th Street in 1997.
“We’re huge online,” said sales manager Joe Pappano. “The fishing
industry has really taken a beating in our area. Our online business has
allowed us to expand beyond anything we could have imagined. A lot of
the local guys who were not tech savvy, who didn’t know how to operate
anything other than a little local business, have gone out of business.
You can’t sustain a business without the Internet.”
Though not quite to the caliber of a Bass Pro Shops, boasting a huge
Internet presence and a destination shops across the nation, Tackle
Direct has fine-tuned and turbo-charged its site to become the top, or
one of the top three websites to appear in a search for any
fishing-related product.
“We have a great team, and we did a great web design,” said Pappano. “A
lot of money was invested in our search engine. If you put in Penn
Reels, we’re going to come up. The key is search engine optimization.”
The Tackle Direct site offers little clue to its Ocean City roots. A
small line says “visit our New Jersey store” and the address reflects
its Jersey Shore roots. The web presence is designed to cater to global
fishing hotspots. Locals can mosey on over to Ninth Street.
A button on the site links to “live help,” a.k.a. John Vaughan. What
began as a part-time college job has turned into a career for the
25-year-old.
“We have 10,000 items on our website, they’re all here,” he said. “We
ship right from the store. People link into the store; they ask me what
kind of rod or reel they should buy, all kinds of questions. It’s pretty
cool. I like helping people; I love fishing and I love talking about
fishing. I make my own recommendations based on my experience with the
products.
“Business is booming, we’ve been very fortunate,” he said. “We’re just
gearing up locally, but in Florida and California they’re hot right now.
We’re shipping all kinds of stuff around the world. We’re getting ready
for summer, and right now we’re busier than Christmas.”
Surf art is the hot seller at the Gallery at Sagemore. The Asbury Avenue
shop in Ocean City features beautiful paintings, pink sand, sunrises,
sunsets and tropical flowers. Mostly it’s about surf art, like original
works by local artist Kim Weiland, influenced by the “ever-changing
story of the coast.”
The works of local artist Aaron Bogushesky - the youngest and biggest
selling artist in the gallery - are also among the over 3,000 available
paintings and prints.
Known globally as Surfing Artists International, Sagemore’s surf art can
be found globally thanks to the Internet. Started by web pioneers Phil
DeAngelo and Steve Miller working out of the basement of DeAngelo’s
home, the business has grown exponentially.
“We always had a passion for art and beach culture,” said DeAngelo of
the duo’s humble beginnings. “While we were out surfing one morning we
looked around and realized how many businessmen were out before they
went to work, we looked at the lineup and realized they were just like
us.
“Growing up with a passion for the surfing and the lifestyle had a huge
impact on us,” DeAngelo added. “It’s the sport of Hawaiian kings. It’s
popular world-wide so the web is a great tool for us.”
Sagemore is affiliated with McGraw Publishing. Artists represented by
the gallery are published internationally.
“That’s how we developed our relationship with McGraw, we were the first
online retailer for them. They represent Disney and our company
exclusively. They used our website for a template; everyone else has to
follow ours.”
You could walk into a gallery in Japan, or England, and see a Bogy print
of Ocean City. You could buy it online from anywhere in the world.
“It’s pretty neat,” said DeAngelo. “Bogy’s ‘A Day at the Beach’ features
Wonderland and the Boardwalk, the giant Ferris Wheel and it’s a big hit.
Ocean City is featured around the globe.
“We’re bringing the artwork that started it all to eBay,” he added. “We
will be carrying original one-of-a-kind paintings, archival limited
editions, high quality posters and gift items. Our painters are both
artists and surfers. They’re inspired by the surf, they evoke the thrill
of surfing in the perfect swell and they capture the essence of the
surfing lifestyle.”
Johnson’s Popcorn operates three Boardwalk stores. The 13th Street
location remains open year-round to service the local crowd, but also as
ground zero for a burgeoning Internet business. Click on
www.johnsonspopcorn.com and
order the trade-marked caramel-coated delicacy and have it shipped
anywhere in the world.
Johnson's has a new site up and running.
"We spent a considerable amount of money to have a professional design
it," said owner John Stauffer. "We're doing something new. You can put
your credit card number in and it goes right to the bank, not to us at
all. We don't even see the numbers. It's a security item. “
They are using technology in other ways – gift cards.
"You can give someone a gift card, and they can use it when they come in
the summer and get what they'd like, nice and fresh," he said. "You can
use it whenever you want."
The Ocean City Coffee Company’s Boardwalk shop is only open three or
four days a week during the winter. However, the online business keeps
them busy seven days a week.
“We have orders every day, people come in the summer and get their
coffee fix, they go home and they want that fresh-ground coffee all year
long,” said owner Joan Williamson.
At Shriver’s, at Ninth Street and the Boardwalk in Ocean City, Holly
Cockerham says their online presence makes the dreaded rainy day
bearable.
“We’re always busy online, we don’t worry so much about the weather,”
she said. “The web was 60 percent of our business at Christmas. We’re
finding that people buy fudge and taffy when they’re here, and then when
they go home they want to have their little taste of the shore. They
want to rekindle the memories, the feeling of summer, that
happy-go-lucky beach day feeling.
“It’s amazing, they call on the phone and tell us their stories,” she
said. “They spent their whole life here in the summer, now they’re in
Florida or Texas or wherever and they want it shipped. They could do it
online but they want to call and share their memories. Some order it
online and then call, just to talk about it.”
Even the Ocean City Chamber of Commerce is getting into the action. The
OCCC website,
www.oceancitychamber.com is in the process of an overhaul and when
unveiled next week, will allow the user to translate into French and
Spanish. French speaking Canadians are a hot commodity this year.
“The web presence is so important,” said OCCC Executive Director Michele
Gillian. “Our mothers and fathers let their fingers do the walking in a
very limited way, in a phone book. Today it’s the Internet and people
click and cut and paste and go anywhere. You have to have the best
possible web presence. When they surf the net you want it right there at
their fingertips.”
Ann Richardson can be e-mailed at
annrichardson@catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by
calling 609-624-8900, ext. 250.