Goody’s Sporting Goods
1340 N. Marine Corps Drive, Unit B
Tamuning, Guam
By Akina Chargualaf
Since his university days, Jeffrey Bristol has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Coming from a background of opening several restaurants in Southern California, he moved to Guam 20 years ago. A prior skiing incident led him to discover golf as a recreational hobby during his recovery, and like most of his businesses, his hobbies had become the root of his success.
In Guam, he opened and today remains the owner of Island Discount Golf & Tennis, Nike Sports by A.B. Sports and Goody’s Sporting Goods, all specializing in sportswear and equipment.
How did Goody’s get its start?
After we opened Island Discount Golf [in Guam Premier Outlets] — this was about 17 years ago — I had a unique opportunity to open up the Nike store in Guam Premier Outlets. It just kind of grew from there. Then after that, GPO approached us about Guam needing a sporting goods store. […] We got some investors together and decided to open up a sporting goods store. Eleven years ago, we opened Goody’s. We initially opened in GPO and we moved [to our current location] about three years ago.
What range of products and services do you provide at Goody’s?
We try to pretty much cover all the sports. Even with golf and tennis, we carry all the major brands. Instead of keying on products, for us it’s price-driven. We try to match the internet as much as possible. Like for golf and tennis products, if you look online, it’s exactly the same. But on top of that, we have additional local discounts that we give out so it’s cheaper to buy here than online. For the 20 years I’ve been here, we always try to give the customers the best value. We’re always thinking long term.
What are some challenges you have faced as a business owner?
I think the biggest challenge is the internet. People are so used to shopping online. That’s by far the biggest threat to retail.
Are there any sports trends you’ve noticed recently? How have they changed over the years?
The running trend has been big for quite a while. I think [runners here] are finally getting more used to the high-tech material, like the Dri-Fit, and all this high-tech compression stuff that people weren’t wearing before. Now, they’re actually wearing more of the trendy stuff.
For the last 10 years, things have stayed pretty much status quo for us. The only thing we’ve noticed is a huge downturn in golf. The equipment business has gone down. I think that’s a worldwide trend — golf sales have slowed.
What are some values you’ve discovered to becoming a successful business owner?
I feel that to run a successful business you have to really listen to what the customers are looking for and what they want. For our store, we really try to hire employees that tend to all get along. They may not specialize in the sport per se, but we’ve created a family atmosphere where everybody is happy working together, and I think that reflects to the customers. Customer service has to be at the top.
How often do you receive shipments?
We receive shipments once a week. We have a freight forwarder from Los Angeles, and everything gets consolidated there and it gets shipped to Guam.
Any advice for future entrepreneurs?
If you’re adamant about starting their own business, I think the key is you really have to do your homework. You have to study the market, you’ve got to do some research. I’ve made that mistake where you kind of just go with your gut sometimes, and that could be the worst thing you could do. […] Most businesses when you’re starting out, there’s a good chance you’re going to fail. But if you take that failure as a failure on yourself, you’re never going to succeed. You just have to get over it, use it as a learning experience and see what you can do better the next time.
Unfortunately, going into business for yourself is really tough. You’re going to go through a lot of obstacles, you’re going to have to work twice as hard than you would working for someone else in the beginning. You’re going to have some ups and downs, and when you do have those downs, you just have to learn from them and go forward. n
Store hours
10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Monday – Saturday
10 a.m. – 8 p.m., Sunday