Business & Tech
5 Questions With a Trenton Business Owner: Father's Day Edition
This week we spoke to Rich Smith, owner of Custom Golf.
Trenton Patch has been buzzing around Trenton recently speaking to local business owners and asking them . With Father’s Day almost upon us, we decided to help our readers find a couple of places to go for last-minute gifts.
This week Patch freelancer Frank Wladyslawski caught up with owner Rich Smith.
Smith grew up in Trenton and graduated from in 1970. He served in the U.S. Air Force as an electronic technician and later earned an associate’s degree in engineering from Wayne County Community College.
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Upon completing his education, Smith worked as an automotive designer for Ford Motor Company for ten years, then “turned a hobby into a business” and opened a golf store.
Custom Golf is located in downtown Trenton at 2644 W Jefferson Ave.
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How long have you been open?
“23 years; I’ve been here 20. (First) I was in Southgate at Dix and Eureka in the strip mall there.”
What do you like about Trenton and doing business in this community?
“I grew up here. I used to come in here when this was a drug store 50 years ago. My mom used to come in here too, 70 years ago. I could have opened a store in Southgate, it probably would have been a better spot, (but) I was seeing the downtown dying here. I had a pretty good customer base already before I moved here.”
How did you end up choosing the name Custom Golf?
“Because everything I do here is custom-built to the individual. Nothing is sold off the rack, we’ll go through an hour, hour and a half long fitting session using the launch monitors or computers and we determine the proper length of the club for a person- the shaft flex, kick points, swing weights, grip size and set make up too.”
Is this traditionally a busy week for you, leading up to Father’s Day?
“No, it’s just busy from maybe March to mid-August in general. Big stores (and) the Internet have kind of killed small businesses anyways, especially the Internet. But (I’m) hanging in there, some things you can’t do on the Internet.”
What do you think you have that would make a great Father’s Day gift? I see you even offer lessons here?
“Probably everything I sell every day. I do lessons, I do everything here. I (even) fix your clubs if you break them.”
