Sportsman Warehouse

 
No mention of Cranberry store...
 
 
 
https://www.post-gazette.com/business/money/2019/09/30****s-selling-Field-Stream-stores-Sportsman-Warehouse-guns-hunt/stories/201909300120
[p****s selling some of its Field & Stream stores, Utah buyer says
 
As****s Sporting Goods weighs where its stores should be and what it should sell, the Findlay-based retail chain is striking a deal to sell eight Field & Stream stores for $28 million.
 
Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings Inc., a Utah sporting goods chain, said Monday the deal for the specialty stores is expected to close in mid-October.
 
The Field & Stream stores are located in Washington, Altoona and Camp Hill, Pa.; Horseheads and Rochester, N.Y.; Greensboro and Asheville, N.C.; and Troy, Mich., according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
 
“We are very pleased to announce this opportunistic expansion of our current 95-store base through the acquisition of these eight Field & Stream locations. Each of these stores operates in strong markets, with well-established customer bases,” said Sportsman CEO Jon Barker in a statement.
 
[p****s had previously said it was evaluating the strategy for its hunting business, including its 35-store, outdoor-focused Field & Stream operation, as sales had been declining in part because of the retailer’s decision to pull back on gun sales.
 
“Although the broader hunt industry also remains challenged, we believe that our firearms policy changes have contributed to a continuing decline in our hunt business,” the company said in its most recent quarterly report.
 
In 2018,****s Sporting Goods said it would stop selling modern sporting rifles at its Field & Stream stores following the massacre at a Parkland, Fla., high school, among making other gun policy changes. The company had already stopped selling assault-style rifles at its namesake stores.
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Later, the company went further and removed hunting merchandise from about 125****s Sporting Goods stores, giving the space to higher-margin products that it said were more relevant to the local market.
 
For instance,****s has been swapping out guns, ammunition and accessories — a low-margin business — with things like outerwear and batting cages.
 
“The space allocation decisions were initial steps taken in a broader strategic review of our hunt business including Field & Stream,” Ed Stack, CEO, said on the company’s second quarter 2019 earnings call.Camilla Yanushevsky, an analyst with CFRA, said the deal announced this week makes sense for both companies.
 
For****s Sporting Goods, the company wants to “transform into a higher margin business — and the hunt industry is challenged and low margin. This gives opportunities to focus on higher margins, like private label — and a chance to optimize their inventory assortment.”
 
For Sportsman’s Warehouse, hunting and firearms are a big part of its revenue — about 48.3%, Ms. Yanushevsky noted — so this deal is a chance to capitalize on that.
 
“In the past fiscal year, firearm same-store sales increased 5.8% for them,” she said, referring to a key metric focused on sales at stores open at least a year. “The company noted its lower margin, but clearly, people are going there to buy hunting equipment, and the company said it wants to increase their market share in firearms.
 
“We think they’re going across strong markets, looking for hunting and fishing license holders.”
 
Stephanie Ritenbaugh: sritenbaugh@post-gazette.com; 412-263-4910
Updated at 3:35 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2019

I too liked that store. Also liked the Gander’s too. This article pretty much explains why those stores can’t stay open (or at least assuming most inventory isn’t high profit margins). Seems like FishUSA has a good business model for modern day Sportsman’s supplies. Always nice to walk around and check things out first. But if you have a good idea of what you want, great prices and ridiculously fast shipping, FishUSA can’t be beat. Wish there was a Pittsburgh store.

Gander Outdoors sucked in terms of selection and especially the pricing. Nice clean stores but overall felt like alot of wasted space. The Gander Mountains were better IMO. Field and stream are ok but closest one to me is an hour and a half away.

Brick and mortar is on its way out. Hell I can order something from one of the shops in the UK or Fishusa and it's here in 2-3 days at a cheaper price, packaged well, and without having to make a trip somewhere. Only ever had one issue with the UK store but they quickly fixed the issue and had a new top section in 48hrs at no cost with a few extras.