Concord’s best-known local hockey and lacrosse equipment store has gone through its share of transitions over the years: the Great Recession (which was bad); COVID sending everybody outdoors (which was good); warm winters hurting pond hockey (bad); the arrival of big-box store competitors (mixed).
Now CSG Hockey is going through another. Founder David Palisi, a third-generation Concord boy whose grandfather once owned five stores in the city and whose father started a tiny (90 square feet) pro shop at Everette Arena, has sold the business.
But don’t despair, local hockey fans, because he sold it to long-time manager Zac Guercia, who has worked for Palisi on and off since 2003. It’s a handoff they’ve been contemplating for years.
“We’re going to modernize things into the future but we’re going to keep the mom-and-pop shop feel. Not much is going to change,” said Guercia, another Concord boy (CHS class of 2006) who has been a lifelong goalie, including a few stints as backup for the Manchester Monarchs, where he started as a water boy and rose to equipment manager.
Palisi, 66, is working three days a week at the store as he transitions into semi-retirement, which is often something of a shock for people who have owned their own business. He’ll spend more time with his wife, Annie, 4 children and growing brood of grandchildren but won’t abandon his deep connections to the state’s hockey community.
Those connections and knowledge are the reason CSG, which has eight employees, hasn’t been killed by the arrival in the state of national retailers HockeyMonkey and PureHockey or the behemoth that is Dick’s Sporting Goods.
“If you’re going to spend $5,000, you don’t want to do it with somebody who doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” said Guercia.
CSG stands for Concord Sports Group, the most recent of several business names that Palisi has used over the years. The location on North Main Street, across from the state prison is a little odd. The building was originally designed to load granite from the nearby Swenson quarry onto trains from adjacent tracks. Despite its not-very-obvious front door, CSG will say in the leased 10,000-square-foot space because it works for the business and people know it, Guercia said, although they wouldn’t mind a bit more parking.
Many parents of young skaters and lacrosse players have been grateful to CSG over the years for its robust used-equipment and trade-in business. The used-equipment room is now devoted to goalie equipment to benefit from Guercia’s expertise, including a synthetic-ice floor so customers can try out the pads. CSG Hockey has a quarterly program with SidelineSwap that gives the same access to used equipment. One advantage: “We don’t have a giant room of smelly used equipment any more,” Guercia said.
Pelisi said customers have always spanned age ranges and skill sets from little kids brought in by hockey-loving parents, serious players in high school and college, midlife casual players, and even some pros. Many come from surrounding states, having learned of CSG through travel hockey programs.
Over the years the biggest changes in product have been the result of youth and school hockey going upscale. Skates can easily cost $1,000 a pair these days, fitted with 3-D sensors for foot sizing and shape, and when a varsity hockey player breaks three or four sticks in a season, each one can be $300.
Those price increases have helped CSG’s robust repair business.
CSG works to keep less-expensive options available, including a starter package for kids that provides everything from under $300 as well as low-cost equipment like pond-hockey skates for well under $100.
Pond hockey is an interesting aspect of the business. It requires a separate set of rugged, cheaper skates and helmets and even wooden hockey sticks but that order has to be placed in fall and can be a real drag if lakes don’t freeze, as is increasingly the case. Last winter was great, Palisi said, but the three winters before that were terrible, leaving the business with unsold inventory to carry over.
Another change in the business is the addition of lacrosse equipment, since many hockey players also play lacrosse. It a small section but it might grow if the business needs it.
“You can’t stay still,” said Guercia. “We’ll have what people need.”
