Sportsmans Warehouse

[ram2]

Back in the 70's Minnesota had Holiday gas stations in the Twin Cities that were huge by six standards for the day and two of these had huge sporting goods departments...fishing and hunting. Those Holidays were bought out by Gander Mountain. The Twin Cities also had a couple of Galyans Sporting Goods stores which were way ahead of their time. Rochester, where I live, got a Galyans. Both of these early businesses were the hallmark of sporting goods, not clothes and boots but Galyans did sell both but not near as much as these later mega stores. Eventually Gander bought out Galyans. When the Rochester Gander opened after the buy out the first thing one walked into was a mess of clothes and you had to go to the BACK of the store to find hunting/guns/fishing/tackle. I told the store manager on the first visit the store would fail laid out like that. That Gander moved from the first location to a new larger store way on the north side of town. Same manager, same store layout only much more clothing. Huge amount of clothing. Same comments went to the manager. Shortly after this store opened all of the employees who had been there for years were phased out and young, school aged kids got those jobs, all part time, none with any first hand knowledge and, as alluded to by LBA, knew everything until they started talking. I stopped shopping there. I could never find what I needed and then there was the brain death among those who wanted to "help" you. Then word came that all Ganders were closing....toast. That writing was on the wall a long time. Then Cabelas took the dive by selling to BP. Dicks took a hit because of their "no gun" policy and many if not all are closed now. And now Sportmans has done down the corporate pipe.

There was a Galyan's in the Detroit area 20 years ago. It was eventually swallowed up by Dick's Sporting Goods. Definitely a different store, for the worse, after that.

A Gander Mountain opened in the same area around 2005. Despite being in a high traffic area, that Gander store never had any customers. The guns and gun supplies were always overpriced. As time went on, this Gander store became a junk pit. Merchandise was strewn all over the floor and the employees never cleaned up anything. I am surprised the store remained open until just a few years ago when Gander Mountain filed for bankruptcy.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

i worked at the Gander in Novi for a few years as the boat and atv mechanic. They had an awesome gun department with several great gunsmiths(imho) and counter guys that really knew their stuff. The Pontiac store became their clearance/clothing/returns dumping ground. There were some hella good deals there at the end. I bought my .45 ss Kodiak and a second one for my BIL for less than $150 each, may have been $100 each. I got so much higher end fishing and icefishing stuff for a song. Their store brand stuff, Guide Series, was usually made by the big brand companies and relabeled. Really good quality most of the time and great warranty. I bought a Guide Series bow made by BowTech for less than half the stores cost of an identical BowTech labeled bow. I miss that place.