If you're in Arizona, you're reading this and you happen to own a pool and hot tub store, congratulations. You've tapped into the top trend in the Grand Canyon State, where that combo of retail merchandise is 526 percent more likely to happen than the national average for pool and hot tub stores.
The fact that hot tub stores are ranked in the No. 1 spot is great news for Arizona, where the Great Recession hit hard, especially for hot tub stores. In the aftermath of the collapse, surviving and living to tell the tale was a challenge.
In Arizona but don't have hot tubs in your pool store? Don't fret. If you have billiards, a popular ancillary product for swimming pool supply stores, you're also ranked high: That product combination is 283 percent more likely to happen in Arizona than the national average, and the No. 2 type in the state.
These stats are the result of a data collaboration between The Huffington Post and Yelp, which reveals "what kinds of stores are the most insanely popular in each state, based on the review website's listings."
The popularity of the store types in Arizona speaks to a trend we've noticed the past few years: the professional pool industry is gaining ground, and more stores are opening to fill the markets of those that closed. The U.S. market is strong enough that a Down Under company has entered the mix.
Arizona isn't the only state to rank pool stores high, though. In Colorado, pool and billiard stores top the list. And for retailers thinking about adding an ancillary product, the HuffPo/Yelp data might offer some direction: The top spot in Florida and Kentucky is taken by the swimwear category, which is a product some pool and spa stores stock to success.
Pools stores also made the rankings in California, Illinois and New Hampshire. Read More
