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Gander Mountain Has Been Sold

Well, all the inventory has been sold. Camping World purchased the name and intellectual property rights.

They will keep 17 stores but will change the format. Adding Camping World items.

John Boyd

And in 3 years someone else will buy camping world. The circle of life I suppose.

Some people can see future trends so clearly and there are some who cannot. The move to the suburbs and huge shopping malls in the 50's and 60's now, today those very same malls are closing at an alarming rate.

Currently, internet sales merchants are flourishing while Sears and KMart are closing stores left and right and now so is Gander Mountain. Who's next, Cabela's?

In Winchester Va the Gander Mountain is within 100 yards of Camping World. Neither seem busy.

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
JR

John, that is about as apt a comment as we are likely to see.

The new owner said they way overextended themselves in the gun market and with new gun friendly adminstration, folks aren't rushing out to buy guns. They want to reduce guns and fishing gear from the inventory. Welcome to the new version of Dicks Sporting Goods. Think the Titanic comment is more then true. The question is whether Cabelas is next.

Rapid expansion, with no clear need for it, is almost always a recipe for certain failure. Just because you can, does not mean you should and with outside investors you get the urge to expand followed by the regret that follows quickly if sales and profits do not soar. Then the panic sets in, as the investors demand fast action or bailout by selling their interest. The next group has no skin in the game and only is interested in getting as much money out of it as they can, as quickly as they can and if breaking it up looks more profitable than fixing it they are going to break it up or sell it off.

Gander Mountain, Cabelas, Bass Pro shop have all gone through a expansion period and now need to figure out if they can make it at this size and do they need stores where they built them. Gander Mountain figured out they can't. If they are smart they will close the stores which are dogs and be more cautious in future expansion. With the decline in hunting a market saturation has long been achieved. If fishing follows the decline in hunting, which it almost is certain to do, any growth in outdoor activities must come from camping and hunting.

Millennials don't do outside too much. Old farts still hunt but we are getting long in the tooth, so hunting interest is rapidly in decline, in many areas. Places I use to duck hunt, in my youth, which had 20 groups hunting them now only have four groups. Sometimes not even enough pressure to keep birds moving. Fishing is the same but not to that extent yet. Even Golf is feeling the decline in interest. Adjust to the market or become the next Gander Mountain.

Total closing, all stores nationwide. GM is history:

http://www.gandermountain.com/?cID=YM

JR

Difficult to have much sympathy.

Prior to about 2005 or so, GM stores were useful.

Before they sold the mail order business to Cabelas, I used Gander frequently.

I blundered across fair used gun deals on 2 occasions, and actually bought 2 new guns from them back then.

They stocked target ammo in quantity, and I well remember a store display with stacks and stacks of WW209 for a decent price and Super-X 22's back when they were good for $9/brick. Does not seem so long ago, but that must have been mid 90's.

Then came the ammo shortage and the profiteering started.

I quit them when they started raping people on ammo, and now buy almost exclusively from online vendors.

Owning the gold mine isn't enough, you have to be smart enough to run it.

Stopped in at the local Gander today. Signs in the gun department stating that firearms and ammunition are not part of the clearance. I troll through several times a year, and always make note of a few prices on expendables I use. I would say the prices on those items were marked UP at least 30% for the "clearance".
The store was festooned in a minimum of $30,000 in signage for the event. "Huge Reductions", Out of Business Forever", Major Markdowns", blah,blah, blah.
I'd bet most of the stuff ends up at Sportsmans Warehouse after Gander has managed to gouge what they can from those lured in from the publicity. I'd bet that was arranged weeks ago, in fact.

I won't be back.


Best,
Ted

Ted, thanks for the heads up. That's the oldest, most well-worn tactic in the going-out-of-business procedure, raising prices to cover discounts. They won't be bothered with my money.
JR

Good quality but high prices. Rapid expansion of stores (some within an hour from each other) that no longer make them a destination place killed them. The liquidation company is controlling all sales. You can't even pay them cost of a used gun. It is out of the employees hands

Can't think of a thing I need from them. Heck, my local Walmart carries more 16 gauge ammo then Gander Mountain does (3 different loadings from Federal/Remington/Winchester) and at much better prices. I will have to drive by their winchester store this week so I'll probably drop in and see what their camo rain gear looks like. Got wet turkey hunting in Nebraska this year. Hate getting wet.

Tut you are correct

They just opened a GM near me in September. It's a pretty quick demise.

na na na na
na na na na....
hey hey hey.......goodbye.....

The one closest to me opened in December. Talk about a short lifespan! I could never find anything I wanted in one, other than maybe some clothing. Sha-na-na-na indeed.

In our local newspaper, today, there was an article stating the outfit that bought them in the chapter 11 bankruptcy intends to leave three stores in Alabama open, including the one in Opelika. If they want to stay open, in my opinion, they should make the prices competitive.
Mike

Did a drop in yesterday to the Winchester Va. Store. No discounts on Ammo. Ditto on guns. 10 percent on most everything else except 20 percent on some clothing. The amazing thing is I was in that same store a few months ago and they had 30 percent off on some nice camo clothing. That same clothing is now at full price, but you save that 10 percent. Makes no sense, but there is without a doubt a method to the madness. Per the store employee's they are going to stay open for another 3 months to slowly liquidate stock. Think I will wait another month or so before I waste my time by going in again.

I don't understand why retailers like GM choose to take a traffic driver, like ammo, and price it high. They'd have a lot more people stopping by, and browsing other categories, if ammo were competitive. Academy seems to moving in the wrong direction here. Sad.