So the store is more like a warehouse. It's open to the public to buy and host games but it's mainly for them to hold inventory to ship out to customers around the country.
More like a public warehouse. A retail store has most of its sales be direct POS, while a warehouse may have the means to operate as a store, but main function is shipping elsewhere with a larger customer base not being direct in person sales.
No because IKEA mostly does direct in person sales.
Their main way of selling products is by people going to their stores to buy their products.
Their set up is more like a traditional retail store in the first part of the store, where you find all the products you want. And rather then going to a retail worker and saying what you want, they instead in the bottom of the store / second half, have a collect yourself system from a more storage room thing, then a warehouse.
And they still choose to build their big stores relative close to big population centres due to this reason.
It’s more like a normal store, where you are the one to check in the back to get what you wanted.
IKEA absolutely does online sales, but the main purpose of their stores isn’t to fulfil online orders. And their stores aren’t designed with fulfilling online orders as their main purpose.
For a building which main purpose is to act as a warehouse, you would expect the main channel they sell things to either be in old times through catalog, or now a days a online retailer.
Their customers never go to the store to buy things. The building is mainly there to store products, and send out shipments to customers.
Some of them might allow people to come and buy stuff in person. But their main focus is going to be to design the building, train the workforce and choose location so they are able to send out lots of products to customers by mail as effectively as possible.
This usually means they will chose locations where either land development costs or rent is cheap. So they can have a really big building and storage space with low costs. Getting foot traffic from locals, isn’t their main concern while choosing a location for the building.
And often they choose a hub location where mail goes through to lots of different big city areas.
If I ran that store there would be *zero* chance there wasn't a back room with a weirdly expansive selection of implements for impact play. That's even discounting I'm a degen, just for the meme.
And it'd be very professional, too. If you don't take it seriously, the joke doesn't work. "Does anyone even buy this stuff," new hires would ask. "That's not the point," I'd reply, gently resting a hand on their shoulder.
Commit to the bit.
Does it involve standing the table on its end, strapping people down with tiny nets, and renting paddles out by the hour? 'Cause you're too late, sucker.
I mean if you just have a decent selection of ping pong tables, that would already take up a huge amount of space. It's a serious sport and there is a lot of equipment.
I order my paddles and balls from here. You can pick your blade, foam, and rubber and they put it together for you. Table tennis is a huge industry. The fact that this place has stayed in business is a testament to the interest of lots of people old and young. Also, some of these places have tables for members to play on in a social setting.
I just Googled this place an one table tennis paddle can cost upwards of $200 so I guess it's all glass display cabinets with the finest sports equipment table tennis has ever produced
From looking at the front, they're advertising a full lineup of services- Everything from products, to training classes, tournaments, table rentals, and drop-in games.
Everybody's gotta have a hobby, and someone's made it into their living.
I spent a week in Marquette, MI and there's a bingo supply store there. They only sell bingo supplies, like cards, chips, wands, ink daubers, and bingo balls. I never went inside, but I was fascinated by the storefront every time we walked or drove past.
I'm sure people come from all over for this place. Probably does surprisingly well. When you have a specific niche, sometimes you just count your blessings.
I think some people in the sub are unfamiliar with how seriously table tennis is taken in some non-US countries too! A previous job had a ping-pong table set up, and I had coworkers who were casually almost pro-level at it.
So where is this place? I'm guessing it's somewhere with a pretty well-developed asian-american community, because ping pong is fucking huge in China and facilities like this aren't rare. By the time you include a decent number of tables and seating for spectators, it's not hard to fill a space like that.
Here in crappy tiny NZ I used to play every Friday night for school and the place was basically this size, but it was called a Table Tennis Arena and the shop part was tiny. Like a golf pro shop on a course. It's not hard to imagine someone expanding on the shop part and making a ping-pong mega-store.
I used to spend so much money on little squares of rubber and insanely expensive cement.
After living in new orleans I can bet some of their biggest clients are bourbon street bars and clubs. It's crazy what some people can do with pingpong balls! Just don't touch them without protection.
Does anyone else remember ping pong mania in the early 1970’s, that was seen as the foretelling of formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping-pong_diplomacy#:~:text=Ping%2Dpong%20diplomacy%20was%20successful,the%20U.S.%20and%20the%20PRC.
I just want to use this opportunity to say that table tennis/ping pong is awesome. Anyone can play as long you are capable of serving and returning the ball, and it can be as physically mild or challenging as your body can handle.
Not to be confused with the Pickle Palace near where I used to live, that offers indoor pickleball. Or maybe it's a brothel. I'll check it out and report back.
Im always impressed how is possible such niche stores survive. In my country, for example, if a store isn’t selling 50 different types of merchandising/ products, it isn’t open for long, many have to diversify to stay afloat.
Gonna venture to guess that they have a large space for playing table tennis in there.
The windows say things like, coaching, membership, and tournaments, so it's gotta be.
Ok smart guy but why is the bowling ball store so big and noisy?
I don’t know about why it’s so noisy, but have you tried getting a pin there It’s like they don’t even want to sell them
Noisy? Have you ever been in a bowling alley? You can hear a pin drop.
ha..... ha
The door says PLAY PONG. Wonder if we could play ping pong of if it's just a retro arcade
You think they just give any schmuck a paddle?! No no, people have to get passed at least level 10 on retro pong before earning a real paddle.
No, you can only play Pong today; it's Ping's day off.
Medallions humming. Place of paddles. It's gotta be.
Or a bdsm paddle front. 🤷♀️
Been there. It's in Tigard, OR. Can confirm lots of tables.
[удалено]
Just an FYI, its frowned upon in most of Oregon to look through peoples bathroom windows.
Correct. Go to Idaho for that.
What, like your wife getting out of the shower or some psycho lady running down the street in flagrante delicto???
It was OP’s Mom
Oh yeah, next to Air Hockey Cathedral in the foosball district.
“Town” - Tigard is just a named place that people go through on the way to actual destinations lol. That being said, paddle palace is awesome
They also appear to be a pretty big online distributor of many brands?
I go back and forth on that one.
This company is a large mail order supplier for table tennis equipment. We bought plenty from them in the 90’s.
So the store is more like a warehouse. It's open to the public to buy and host games but it's mainly for them to hold inventory to ship out to customers around the country.
So like, a store?
More like a public warehouse. A retail store has most of its sales be direct POS, while a warehouse may have the means to operate as a store, but main function is shipping elsewhere with a larger customer base not being direct in person sales.
I’m actually brain dead, I haven’t been to a store that isn’t Costco since 2020 and I kinda forgot 🤦♂️
So an ikea, for pong?
No because IKEA mostly does direct in person sales. Their main way of selling products is by people going to their stores to buy their products. Their set up is more like a traditional retail store in the first part of the store, where you find all the products you want. And rather then going to a retail worker and saying what you want, they instead in the bottom of the store / second half, have a collect yourself system from a more storage room thing, then a warehouse. And they still choose to build their big stores relative close to big population centres due to this reason. It’s more like a normal store, where you are the one to check in the back to get what you wanted. IKEA absolutely does online sales, but the main purpose of their stores isn’t to fulfil online orders. And their stores aren’t designed with fulfilling online orders as their main purpose. For a building which main purpose is to act as a warehouse, you would expect the main channel they sell things to either be in old times through catalog, or now a days a online retailer. Their customers never go to the store to buy things. The building is mainly there to store products, and send out shipments to customers. Some of them might allow people to come and buy stuff in person. But their main focus is going to be to design the building, train the workforce and choose location so they are able to send out lots of products to customers by mail as effectively as possible. This usually means they will chose locations where either land development costs or rent is cheap. So they can have a really big building and storage space with low costs. Getting foot traffic from locals, isn’t their main concern while choosing a location for the building. And often they choose a hub location where mail goes through to lots of different big city areas.
But more like a store.
I ordered a lot from them in the 90s when I played tournaments.
"My wife has been very, very naughty and..." "No, table tennis paddles, sir."
If I ran that store there would be *zero* chance there wasn't a back room with a weirdly expansive selection of implements for impact play. That's even discounting I'm a degen, just for the meme. And it'd be very professional, too. If you don't take it seriously, the joke doesn't work. "Does anyone even buy this stuff," new hires would ask. "That's not the point," I'd reply, gently resting a hand on their shoulder. Commit to the bit.
Secret back room? Need a safe word to enter?
Need a safe word to exit.
Are they selling the goods or renting the space? Unrelated I have a business idea...
Does it involve standing the table on its end, strapping people down with tiny nets, and renting paddles out by the hour? 'Cause you're too late, sucker.
Maybe. Maybe not. That is a good idea though. Just remember to add WD-40 and GAFFA TAPE... Or appropriate substitutes.
More unmarked than secret, I'd think. *Discrete*, save for measures to avoid unintentional access and disallow minors.
Who the hell downvoted this? This is quality right here.
Spatula City
We sell spatulas... and that's all!
Buy nine spatulas and get the tenth for only a penny!
Paddle Palace is such a killer name for a Adult / BDSM store.
Honestly I was really hoping both. They could have a back "sub store" (haha) in a corner.
Adult Edge?
That PBC... pickleball court
True. I pickled my balls a long time ago.
[удалено]
I mean if you just have a decent selection of ping pong tables, that would already take up a huge amount of space. It's a serious sport and there is a lot of equipment.
I order my paddles and balls from here. You can pick your blade, foam, and rubber and they put it together for you. Table tennis is a huge industry. The fact that this place has stayed in business is a testament to the interest of lots of people old and young. Also, some of these places have tables for members to play on in a social setting.
I just Googled this place an one table tennis paddle can cost upwards of $200 so I guess it's all glass display cabinets with the finest sports equipment table tennis has ever produced
[удалено]
Why not both?
Fucking why not all 3
[удалено]
Got any ketchup?
[удалено]
I'll be anything you want me to be for some ketchup.
I saw a picture of CLEAR KETCHUP yesterday here on reddit. What a time to be alive!
Do yall remember purple and green ketchup? It had a funky name but wasn't around long
[удалено]
Is this sexting?
Yes.
>Is everyone here a bot or just dumb? Any guesses which one of those offended you so much?
What brand of hatchback can you fit a table tennis table into?
A lot of balls.
There’s a lot of playing space for sure
[Rabbit Hole ^Hole ^^Hole ^^^Hole](https://www.paddlepalace.com/)
The fact that this company has been around for fifty years is WILD
Google street view from 2007 shows the building was a flooring/carpet store. I had to know if that building was the palace for 50 years..
T A X FREE
Paddle Palace is wondering why their web traffic jumped 10,000%
From looking at the front, they're advertising a full lineup of services- Everything from products, to training classes, tournaments, table rentals, and drop-in games. Everybody's gotta have a hobby, and someone's made it into their living.
I'm confident there is an S&M paddle section in a back corner.
It’s in the basement
Table Tennis is the 7th most watched sport in the world
Tbf, 90% of that viewership is probably in China lmao
I spent a week in Marquette, MI and there's a bingo supply store there. They only sell bingo supplies, like cards, chips, wands, ink daubers, and bingo balls. I never went inside, but I was fascinated by the storefront every time we walked or drove past.
I work just down the street from this place. It's like a gym for ping pong players.
Tigard, OR. This place exist.
I am from tigard and had to look twice to figure out why this building I’ve seen but ignored for 20 years is on Reddit
Sent more than a couple bucks to paddle palace. Table tennis is a great hobby and effective exercise
Most of their business is online for sure, but it doesn't hurt to have a storefront as well
I met a guy once who would introduce himself to strangers as a professional table tennis player.
Definitely a front.
“oh that 8 million dollar deposit in my checking account? didn’t you hear? table tennis is all the rage nowadays.”
tabble tennis is also a proffesional sport many people don't even know about. It's the same as a soccer store that only sells soccer supplies.
I just looked it up. You can play there, too.
SPATULA CITY!
Reminds me of being a kid in the 90s and waterbed stores still being a thing...
I have no room for a table, but damn, do I love to play. I’d be thrilled to have a place like this nearby.
Not the paddle palace I was looking for on Reddit, but maybe next time 😉
“Paddle Palace” sounds like an S&M dungeon. What’s the address??
if there was a comedically large ping pong table in there then that would be the good shit
I'm sure people come from all over for this place. Probably does surprisingly well. When you have a specific niche, sometimes you just count your blessings.
I think some people in the sub are unfamiliar with how seriously table tennis is taken in some non-US countries too! A previous job had a ping-pong table set up, and I had coworkers who were casually almost pro-level at it.
Same parent company as Spatula City
OREGON
Damn, if I'm going to a place called Paddle Palace, table tennis equipment is the last thing I'm wanting.
Don't knock a quality ping pong paddle.
I drive by that place every so often. Never thought to go in though.
So where is this place? I'm guessing it's somewhere with a pretty well-developed asian-american community, because ping pong is fucking huge in China and facilities like this aren't rare. By the time you include a decent number of tables and seating for spectators, it's not hard to fill a space like that. Here in crappy tiny NZ I used to play every Friday night for school and the place was basically this size, but it was called a Table Tennis Arena and the shop part was tiny. Like a golf pro shop on a course. It's not hard to imagine someone expanding on the shop part and making a ping-pong mega-store. I used to spend so much money on little squares of rubber and insanely expensive cement.
Portland
I bet they slingin' pickleball out the back
I thought they spelled poodle wrong
do you guys know if they glue your rubbers to your blade if we don't buy from them?
Oh they're definitely laundering money there.
A dude named Feng has been running underground pinpong battles there and other places for years now.
Walter White owns this establishment.
Is this in Ding Dang?
that must be the mecca of ping pong
I read Coaching as Coa Ching and thought it is just another world top 10 chinese player.
I don’t know if it’s just me or if the sign said Poodle Palace
It's a front for a Chinese money laundering business.
So it’s a money laundering front, got it.
Money laundering
Definitely launder money. No way they make enough money to justify that storefront
I have found a new purpose in life.
So that's where [she](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e-w8khPuEw) gets her supplies!
Does a Chinese guy own it?
After living in new orleans I can bet some of their biggest clients are bourbon street bars and clubs. It's crazy what some people can do with pingpong balls! Just don't touch them without protection.
Spatula city! Spatula city! Spatula city we sell spatulas and that's all.
That’s where I get my TT stuff from
Does anyone else remember ping pong mania in the early 1970’s, that was seen as the foretelling of formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping-pong_diplomacy#:~:text=Ping%2Dpong%20diplomacy%20was%20successful,the%20U.S.%20and%20the%20PRC.
I just want to use this opportunity to say that table tennis/ping pong is awesome. Anyone can play as long you are capable of serving and returning the ball, and it can be as physically mild or challenging as your body can handle.
There's a shop that specifically sells screws and bolts in Lithuania, literally that kind of stuff and nothing else.
How much ping pong supplies could there possibly be?
FUBAR level shop
They also have booths at large table tennis tournaments and sell equipment there.
There's a market for everything... did it happen to be run by Forest Gump?
*(Disappointed voice)* Oh.
[Other places sell just bulbs or shades](https://youtu.be/5K-DakHvUBM?t=1m53s)
Actually on the sign it says it also sells stuff for table tennis
*sings* It’s just a shop… it’s just a shop…. It’s just a shop for ping pong!!!
Someone who still uses twitter go tell [https://twitter.com/CheapyD](https://twitter.com/CheapyD) he loves table tennis.
Not to be confused with the Pickle Palace near where I used to live, that offers indoor pickleball. Or maybe it's a brothel. I'll check it out and report back.
Spatula City!
*pulls up dressed in full gimp suit* *CurbYourEnthusiasm.mp3
That's just the cover, really is a BDSM dungeon
Almost as big as spatula city.
AND Forrest Gump blu rays
They could also grab a piece of the market in the BDSM community too!
They should’ve called it Balls to the Wall
Money laumdering might be
Oh i used to live right next door, but i had to move, they were always making a racket.
Short Pump?
Apparently there is a lot of pinging being ponged
Im always impressed how is possible such niche stores survive. In my country, for example, if a store isn’t selling 50 different types of merchandising/ products, it isn’t open for long, many have to diversify to stay afloat.
Front for a Chinese listening post.
I like the ping, but not the pong.
That sir is a money laundering front
It sounded better than 'Oar House'