sob sob boo hoo Sportsmens warehouse is closing

[calaverasslim]

well, it's over. At least for Texas. Sportsmans Warehouse is no more. They are closing.

Closing 23 stores, selling 15. Both stores in Texas are closing. Sales up to 30% off. Does not include firearms or ammo.

Reloading stuff is 10%.

Went into the one up in San Antonio this morning and the shelves are bare.

Another good thing comes to an end....

 

[MCgunner]

Is it true they kept real black powder there for sale? Someone told me that, but I never got up there to find out. Dangit. Pyrodex forever until I can buy some sieves and try making my own, I guess.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

*Wipes eye... just learned about them, yet so short time to do business.

 

[calaverasslim]

MCgunner. There is a dealer up in San Antonio that sells or at least used to BP. Your profile sez Texas Coastal Bend but that is a broad area.

Let me knoiw if your coming up this way and maybe so I can track him down.

As far as the Warehouse, they told me they did not carry BP. Yo no se

 

[Big Daddy Grim]

I went and blew a couple thousand holsters and tracer grips all 10% off I'll miss the good old store.

 

[MountainBear]

I'm on the opposite end. Stores in Oregon were sold to a Canadian farmers coop. I hope they pump some of their Canadian money into stock for the store and maybe I can find (brass, primers, powder, ammo, guns, holsters, etc).

Sorry to you Texas boys. I imagine I'll be getting a call from my Texas buddies in the next few months to send them stuff, assuming this new buyer is more successful at procuring things for the stores to sell.

 

[Jed Carter]

Walked into the Sportsmans Wharehouse in Lexington Ky several times never walked out with anything. Prices higher than anyone else, maybe now their prices will drop below MSRP. They won't be the last place to close because they were not competitive, all I could think of when I was in the store " who buys this sh**". A lot of useless crap to fill the square footage, they could have had twice the (useful) inventory in half the space. Gander Mountain you are next, Like a lowes without any hardware, or lumber, or plumbing, or roofing, or tools...

 

[jaholder1971]

Sportsman's Warehouse executives must be idiots.

The Wichita store is a profitable store, with revenues going up 15 percent during a down economy in an area hard hit by the recession. There's like 20,000 aircraft workers unemployed in the area.

Yet the SW folks are closing it, with the caveat that they might reopen it there later. Who the h#ll closes a profitable store then reopens it?

 

[searcher451]

I've been less than impressed with the store in my neighborhood, what with high prices and clerks more interested in impressing their friends than in making sales; an occasional purchase of self-defense rounds that's otherwise unavailable from the local gun shops or WallyWorld is about all I've managed to walk out with through the years.

That being said, it's better to have the place still in business than closed.

 

[ArmedBear]

We had two stores within a few minutes' drive of each other -- in a region where people drive HOURS to get to Cabela's or SW from ranches and small towns.

They could have made about the same sales from one store.

DUMB.

Lately, their reloading supplies (all I go there for, given the silly prices on their guns) have been utterly depleted. But they have plenty of t-shirts.

Guess what: in a slow economy, people spend a lot less on stupid items like t-shirts with low-IQ "humor" on them. Can't support a big store on t-shirts. Gotta actually have some items that people are looking for, for sale (and not 25 different varieties of turkey decoys, either).

I'm not surprised, especially given their Starbuck's-inspired business model of having too many stores, selling a lot of items that you'd only buy if you are feeling awfully rich that day.

I'm not happy, but this is more about the hideous way these stores are run, than anything else. In a bubble economy, I guess you can afford to run your business poorly. Not now, though.

 

[tuckerdog1]

I have to agree. They rarely had what I was looking for. And when they did, it was overpriced. In the couple years the store in Round Rock has been open, I've probably spent less than $40. It was on ammo. And that was just cause I was already there, and they had some.

Tuckerdog1

 

[Yo Mama]

SO wait a minute. Now that they ran off all my local stores and made them close, now they decide they need to close as well.

*** does that leave me with! Walmart!

 

[bonza]

I really liked SW. I happened upon my first one in Missoula, MT a few years ago & was really impressed. They later opened a couple of stores in western Washington, one about 45 minutes north of me, the other about the same distance to the south. Have never made any major purchases there, but did buy my Pelican rifle case from them & always found they had better than normal prices on Hornady round balls & RWS percussion caps. If it's only the southern stores that are closing & the Canadian company keeps the ones up north maybe ours will be ok. I was in there on the weekend & their shelves were pretty sparsley stocked in the firearms area, but the rest of the store was well stocked & fairly busy.

 

[chuckusaret]

We also helped put them out of business because of their P-poor ordering and tracking system. It was very easy to find out what your buddy was ordering, just needed his last name and zip code. There were hundreds of complaints about their order system sent by us. The company never took any action so most us stopped ordering from them.

 

[Wolfebyte]

Sorry, no great loss..

the store in Austin is poorly positioned right off of IH 35 at the new 45 toll road.. right behind a Target. Never had a salesman that knew the first thing about what he was selling. Never found a "great" deal, even with the 30% off stuff was still higher than I can find online.

 

[USAFNoDAk]

I ordered a wooden storage box from their catalog one time. It looked like it would be a nice gift for my father, who is into reloading. Several felt lined drawers, etc. When I got it, I couldn't give it to him. It looked like some 8th grader built it in wood shop. Poor fitting corners. Cheap hinges nailed in with cheap brass plated brads. The drawers were flimsy. I kept it for myself and use it for miscellaneous storage in my wood shop. I never gave them any more business after that. Worst $39.95 I ever spent.

 

[Big Bill]

The one here in Soutern Idaho stayed open. I hope they keep it open. I've bought several guns from them and have been happy with the selection and purchases.

 

[Jeff F]

Here's a link to the news and the stores that are closing and the ones that were sold.

http://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/news.cfm

 

[Duramaximum]

Let's write our congressmen, maybe we can get them bailed out too! But seriously, that does suck because Sportsman's is a great place to shop.

 

[misANTHrope]

We also helped put them out of business because of their P-poor ordering and tracking system. It was very easy to find out what your buddy was ordering, just needed his last name and zip code. There were hundreds of complaints about their order system sent by us. The company never took any action so most us stopped ordering from them.

I think you're getting Sportsman's Warehouse confused with Sportsman's Guide. The latter, as I recall, was the party guilty of the insecure order lookup system. SW doesn't do any online sales at all, according to their site.

 

[05kas05]

i know i have been in the round rock tx store many times and have never walked out with anything. the store clerks were less than helpfull and most of the stuff i went to buy could be found at wally world or academy alot cheaper.

 

[22-rimfire]

Walked into the Sportsmans Wharehouse in Lexington Ky several times never walked out with anything. Prices higher than anyone else, maybe now their prices will drop below MSRP. They won't be the last place to close because they were not competitive, all I could think of when I was in the store " who buys this sh**". A lot of useless crap to fill the square footage, they could have had twice the (useful) inventory in half the space. Gander Mountain you are next, Like a lowes without any hardware, or lumber, or plumbing, or roofing, or tools...

I prefer Lowes to all the large hardware stores. I am a regular shopper.

I guess you have never been in a Bass Pro or Cabelas store. All of these stores are essentially retail. I buy carhart tea shirts at SW. My other option was ACE hardware and they are always high priced there, but the stores are convenient and I spend considerable money at ACE. Why? Service and convenience.

SW is staying open in my area. It is one of their top stores for sales in the country. It has little significant competition within 2 hours drive in any direction other than Dicks. At 2-hours, there are three Bass Pro stores in three compass directions relative to SW.

I've gotten used to SW. During my first visit, I honestly expected a Bass Pro type store. SW is far from a BP. So, I wasn't impressed at that time. Since that time I have become a regular customer and their staff is helpful and generally well informed about their merchandise. I don't expect them for example to have the same knowledge base as a speciality store for say kayaks or guns. Their fishing department is very good.

The gun department has mounted and bore sighted four scopes on rifles for me for FREE. Each rifle and scope (with one exception of a scope) was purchased elsewhere. They just enjoy the work and enjoy handling the guns. You do however need to go at the non-peak times of the day if possible for the scope work. I don't expect them to ignore paying customers on my behalf.

So, I give SW a 7 or 8 rating overall with 10 being the highest rating. Their inventory will improve or they will go out of business.

 

[Seafarer12]

i know i have been in the round rock tx store many times and have never walked out with anything. the store clerks were less than helpfull and most of the stuff i went to buy could be found at wally world or academy alot cheaper.

I don't know what you were looking at but I got some killer deals there over the years. Chinamart and Academy don't have squat compared to SW. They were also the best place around for reloading stuff. McBrides is the best reloading supply around now. Pretty sad.

 

[EHL]

In my area, SPortsmans was pretty nicely priced on a lot of things. Wally world still beat them on more common items though. (9mm bullets, .380, bore snakes, etc..) But the problem was that most reloading components here in SouthEast Idaho could only be bought at Sportsmans Warehouse or order it online. Some of the local gunshops had some stuff, but it was way overpriced compared to Sportsmans. I can agree that their ordering was horrendous! They had 75% of that store stuffed with stupid red-neck low brow humour t-shirts, camo bikinis, and baby camo clothing, and 25 various turkey decoys! They should have cleared alot of that garbage out and ordered more ammunition and components since that was the biggest seller and they were always out of stock. They could have been much more profitable.:banghead:

 

[PTK]

Stores in Oregon were sold to a Canadian farmers coop.

Here in Colorado, too. I do wish they'd restock ANYTHING at all.... barely anything there, nowadays. I was lucky to find a case of my favorite 28ga ammo there last month. They aren't ordering any more.