Gander Mountain bought by Camping World

[AZAndy]

News here!

Looks like they're planning a lot of store closings. Don't have one locally anyway, but since there's been some discussion here about their bankruptcy, I thought an update might be good.

 

[Aim1]

So what's the benefit of buying Gander if you are going to close most of them?

 

[JellyJar]

Sometimes it makes financial sense to buy out your competitors to close them down so as to decrease competition.


Edit: Especially if you can buy them at auction for a bargain.

I just read the link.

 

[MAKster]

Camping World sells RVs.

 

[375supermag]

HI...
The local newspaper ran a story on their website today that the local Gander Mountain store here in York, Pa. had put up a Going Out of Business banner.

The article stated a company spokesman was touting a 30% off sale.

Considering how they priced their products(the most expensive sporting goods store I have ever been in), I assume that means they raised their prices 50% and then deducted 30% from that. Probably still higher than Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops.

I doubt I will be stopping by to say good-bye.

 

[bannockburn]

Too bad on the store closings. More people out of work and fewer places to shop at. Have bought quite a few used guns from Gander over the years and have always been satisfied with those purchases.

 

[Fiv3r]

Too bad on the store closings. More people out of work and fewer places to shop at. Have bought quite a few used guns from Gander over the years and have always been satisfied with those purchases.

I agree with you about people being out of work, and as a small business owner I fight the impersonal bottom dollar cheapness of the internet on a daily basis. However, there is a difference between slightly higher prices due to having a brink-n-mortar or simply not having the capability to buy in massive quantities that yield serviceable razor thin margins and simply being ridiculously overpriced.

Gander Mountain consistently has the highest guns/ammo/gear prices in town. My LGS beats their price if not their in-stock selection (he generally prefers to order in what you want to keep overhead low), Academy blows them out of the water on ammo prices as well as clothing, Even Dick's which caters more to golfing and traditional sports sell their rifles at a reasonable price. On top of that, while they are generally nice and polite, their gun counter guys don't bowl me over with their knowledge.

So far at my local Gander Mountain the only thing they can hang their hat on is that they have a TON of guns...that are 30% overpriced compared to any other local competitor regardless of business size.

 

[vito]

Several years ago I had two handguns that I had no offers on from my gun club members or where I posted them online, so I accepted reasonable even if not noteworthy trade-ins from Gander Mountain on a new Glock 17. Originally they were asking list price for the Glock but came down somewhat and then gave me the decent trade ins. Certainly not my first choice for a gun shop, but I hate to see them disappear. Their selection of outdoor clothing was pretty nice.

 

[Deaf Smith]

Went by the local GM yesterday. They had the 'going out of business' sign. 10 to 30% off... catch is that didn't apply to guns, ammo, or related gear. Looked at Kayaks but they were 10 percent off... but the base price was so high all it did was bring it down to market value.

What a joke.

Deaf

 

[Zebraranger]

So what's the benefit of buying Gander if you are going to close most of them?

Retailers who are struggling with making profits, are usually targets of leverage buyout specialist such as Leonard Green & Partners who make good short term profits liquidating inventory and assets of the company they are buying out. Usually these companies are running in the red, so they buy them on the cheap so to speak. For instance, LP&G purchased Builders Square Home Improvement (200 stores) from Kmart for 10 million in 1998. They liquidated them in 1999 for huge profits. Each store maintained 4.5 million dollars in inventory. Even liquidating the inventory at 50% off resulted in huge profits. These numbers do not include other assets or lease liabilities. They also did the same thing with Hechingers Home Improvement. Bottom line is that there is big money to be made in buying retailers who are running in the red. Camping World just might be seeing an opportunity here.

 

[Sunray]

"...benefit of buying Gander if you are going to..." Tax write offs.
"...to decrease competition..." Nope. Competition is a good thing.

 

[Aim1]

Gander Mountain closing ALL of its stores now.



http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article149059559.html

 

[RovinOn]

Hey you're going to get a new shotgun in your RV when you buy from Camping World!

 

[RPZ]

I had read that Gander was floundering. Are they still going to close x number of outlets?

 

[Blkhrt13]

I keep seeing they are all about to close

 

[Fiv3r]

Yep. Looks like all of them are going.

 

[Aim1]

Someone on another forum said since they are closing all stores they'd increase to their max 30% off around August.

 

[Hokie_PhD]

I went to the Roanoke store yesterday.
It was a zoo.
10 to 30% off.

People were lined up from the registers 1/3 of the way to the back of the store.
The thing was most of the things I wanted or needed were still cheaper at Sportsmans Warehouse if Gander had them. And instead of poor service it was poor service with people who clearly unhappy and didn't want to be there as they knew they were losing their jobs.

It was sad, A because the huge crowd was obviously a bunch of vultures and B seeing people there who in a few weeks or month or so would be out of jobs working because they had to.

 

[22-rimfire]

The local paper said that Gander is closing all of their stores. Camping World will probably re-open some of them where the market justifies it and probably not where there are Academy, Bass Pro or Cabela's stores. The article said they wanted Gander's boating business.

I generally don't go to these liquidation events (close outs) as the prices aren't that good overall and most of the stuff I would be interested in sells quickly and is not deeply discounted. As mentioned above, I'll just stick to Sportsman Warehouse and the other sporting stores in my area for consistent pricing.

 

[ilbob]

I don't expect to see any Bargains early on

 

[Hokie_PhD]

I don't expect to see any Bargains early on

There weren't
Typical going out of business "sale".
In this case though it didn't look like they raised prices to lower them.

I wouldn't expect any bargains unless you get lucky as the herd was going crazy and like most of these sales people were feeding on it.

 

[cat_IT_guy]

I wen to the Peoria store on Friday. Definitely not fire sale pricing. I bought a pound of blue dot and a box of 180gr XTPs to shoot over it. Pricing, including 15% discount, maybe hit market price. The blue dot, not carried by bass pro around here, ended up about $22.50 for the pound. Better price than most Alliant powders locally.

 

[ih772]

At my local store they raised the price of their rcbs dies by $20 more than usual. Then the had a 15% of sale. They did that with many of the items in the store. People who have not been watching their prices long term thought they were getting a deal at 15% off.

 

[hdwhit]

Aim1 wrote:
So what's the benefit of buying Gander if you are going to close most of them?

Good question.

If you look at the banner on gandermountain.com mentioning the closing of all retail stores and telling people to check back in the Fall, the banner shows that the Overton's website is still fully up and running.

It looks from this as if:

1. Camping World was looking to acquire Overton's which gives them a position in boating (to mesh with their position in RVs), and
2. The promised return of the Gander Mountain website suggests Camping World may have been looking to buy an established e-commerce operation.

If you look at the RV Gear section of their existing website, it appears to be operated by a third party and the merchandise mix one the current site doesn't appear to be particularly well suited to the market they were after.

 

[salt&battery]

HI...
The local newspaper ran a story on their website today that the local Gander Mountain store here in York, Pa. had put up a Going Out of Business banner.

The article stated a company spokesman was touting a 30% off sale.

Considering how they priced their products(the most expensive sporting goods store I have ever been in), I assume that means they raised their prices 50% and then deducted 30% from that. Probably still higher than Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops.

I doubt I will be stopping by to say good-bye.

same thing in NY here. they only have 10-15% off. going out of business sale is usually 20-40%