News

As 2021 draws to a close, now is a good time to reflect on the radical changes that the sportfishing industry has witnessed over the past couple of years. 2020 brought a global pandemic, which created innumerable challenges but also unprecedented growth in the sport of recreational fishing. License sales data provided to Southwick Associates indicate that fishing participation was up more than 13% nationally in 2020 versus 2019. Additionally, Southwick Associates estimates that fishing equipment sales grew by nearly 55% overall in 2020. We know that fishing attracted millions of new participants during the pandemic, and that experienced anglers spent more time on the water than ever before. There’s also a lot of evidence that these trends have carried on well into 2021. | More Information

Nearly 2 million more people than last year are expected to shop from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year even as consumers have continued the trend of starting their holiday shopping earlier in the year, according to the annual survey released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. Fully two-thirds (66 percent) of holiday shoppers surveyed in early November plan to shop Thanksgiving weekend this year. That amounts to an estimated 158.3 million people, up from 156.6 million last year but still below the 165.3 million in pre-pandemic 2019. | More Information

Retail sales rose in October as many consumers began holiday shopping early to avoid any shortages amid pandemic-driven supply chain disruptions that are dominating businesses and shoppers this holiday season, the National Retail Federation said. The U.S. Census Bureau said overall retail sales in October were up 1.7 percent seasonally adjusted from September and up 16.3 percent year-over-year. That compares with increases of 0.8 percent month-over-month and 14.3 percent year-over-year in September. Despite occasional month-over-month declines, sales have grown year-over-year every month since June 2020, according to Census data. | More Information

Worldwide Organizational Announcement
Please join us in congratulating Stacie Rozzini who will be moving to the position of Merchandising & Marketing Assistant. Stacie has managed our front desk/reception area since she started at Worldwide in 2014. Stacie's fantastic customer service skills shine while managing all of Worldwide's incoming calls from members/vendors and in her work at our registration desk at the trade shows. Over the past 2 years, Stacie has taken on additional administrative responsibilities for the trade show and vendor maintenance and that has now evolved to this new position. She will continue to support both Marketing and Merchandising teams in these areas.
 

Worldwide New Team Member Announcement 
We are excited to share that Kori White has been hired for our Front Desk position.  She has worked several years in a front desk role handling mutli-line phone systems as well as the customer service aspect of supporting this position.  Most recently while working in a car dealership she assisted the finance department in several functions. We hope to expand her role to assisting in the accounting department and her previous experience makes her a great addition to our team.