P&H Soccer Store: The soccer store for all your soccer needs

On a nice, sunny Monday, March 13 afternoon, I went to pick up my co-writer to go on our mission to the P&H Soccer Store on the intersection of East Cesar E Chavez Avenue and North Ford Boulevard in East Los Angeles to interview the owner of the store, Antonio Aldana.

Aldana, who is more commonly known by friends and customers as “Tony,” has been working in East L.A. for what he calls, “quite a while” already. The reason he decided to locate his store in East L.A. because he believes many people around the neighborhood are huge fans of soccer. Not only is East L.A. filled with Mexicans, but Mexicans who play soccer or are fans. Therefore, there are plenty of business opportunities for Aldana to make money selling his products to those living in the community, as well to those just visiting.

Personally, I am not really a big fan of soccer because I’m not that good at it, but my co-writer is really into soccer and is fairly good at it as well. He goes to the soccer store to get equipment like shin guards, cleats, and socks for fairly cheap and affordable prices.

The store also offers great service, and the employees are very cool and kind as I found out when I entered the store for the first time.

The favorite thing Aldana says he enjoys about his job is just the fact that he’s helping both young and adult participants in his favorite sport, soccer. He says when he makes sales to people, he often gets into conversations about either a soccer match coming up professionally, or about where the customer plays at.

Aldana tries to be as helpful as possible to his customers because he believes that pleasing them is the main priority of his job. A good store in our community does not just focus on pure profits, but puts effort into communicating and helping customers getting the best products available.

Since my co-writer is a frequent customer, he’s noticed that there has been no change in the store ever since the first time he shopped there in 2013. Aldana told us that he wanted to keep his store looking the same because customers that don’t often go there will be able to find what they are looking for.

When you enter the store, there are shirts and shorts of mostly every soccer team. There you can find stickers of teams, hats, posters, shirts, and equipment such as soccer balls, socks, shin guards, and the most important, cleats.

In this store you are able to find everything that has to do with soccer, and if you don’t find it Aldana would be able to go to his contacts and try to get it for you. This is one of the reasons why I recommend this soccer store next time you’re looking to get some soccer gear.