"I really liked the displays, but ended up with everything," says Dave Wilderotter–owner of Dave’s Ski Shops in the Tahoe area–of his recent purchase of The Wave and Snow Wave snowboard shops, which were owned by Scott Sax. The purchase took place this fall after Sax decided to close the two stores earlier this year.

With the deal, Dave’s picks up a valuable retail location in Snow Wave, located at the entrance of Squaw Valley. Wilderotter’s other three shops are located in Tahoe City, Truckee, and King’s Beach. But the access at Squaw gives Dave’s the ability to rent equipment from the other locations and have the Squaw shop as a convenient drop-off point for the customers who just want to head home and not return to one of the other shops after a day of riding.

After his purchase of the two stores, which also included The Wave in Roseville, just outside of Sacramento, Wilderotter gutted and liquidated that store. "What I didn’t keep, I sold to the other shops," he says.

Included in the deal was the computer POS system that’s compatible with his existing system. He saw that computer and the fixtures made it worth buying both stores, but had no interest in actually having a store in the Sacramento area.

Dave’s has been in business for twenty years and focuses on the rental market for both snowboarding and skiing.

–John Stouffer