Gander Mountain in Lakeville. whats up?

I need to vent my frustration with the Gander in Lakeville, no offense is this red headed stepchild of the Gandar chain

I have stoped in 3 times looking for the basics, fishing line, Suffix Hi Vis 6# nothing, racks of 10 and above?

Fire Line crystal, all kinds of 2# 4# and 12 and above nothing else, found a kiosk all 2 and 4#?

Stop in to look at sunglasses, all last year stuff.

I was looking for a Oxygenator for my livewell, call the manufacture yes Gander carries it, call Lakeville nope we dont have it, so for the heck of it call Eden Prarie Gander lady walks over yep we got it.

I stoped by Eden Prairie holy snikies I think the folks at Lakeville should stop by, everything is full Fireline all sizes Suufix all sizes rods all sorted out and neat no boxes laying around.

Makes Lakeville Gander look like the back room of Wall Mart

I have also been in the Mankato Gander much better than Lakeville

I had money to burn a gift card so I used it there at Eden Prarie, by the way I went accross the road earlier and bought my fishing line at Fleet Farm.

By the way when I was at Lakeville Gander 2 people working the fishing area at lunch time, they are helping some people, then chatting with each other, went to get help, one guys says he is taking lunch at noon, so that leaves 1 guy, at the probebly the busiest time of the mid day, the customers lunch time(me), Iknow they have to eat but do it before or after the store slows down

I will drive else where.

Funny you mention that! I found the same thing recently looking for lead line, and Suffix Elite. Went to Woodbury, and they were full of them!

Most of the time I can get what I want and have decent service, but recently I went there twice to look at sunglasses. Each time I ended up leaving because I would be standing there waiting to get help to open the glass cases so could try them on and none of the three employees in that area would bother to come over, even though they weren’t with other customers. Lately if I need something quick, I go to Fleet Farm. If I’m going to be buying several things, I have been going to Cabelas. It really isn’t that far down I-35.

Back when they were Burger Brothers they were the big dogs around here. Now, they are 4th rate, no better then the giant box stores we all hate.

Sad to see them fall so far, I just don’t see it turning around for them. Take your money and spend it where it’s wanted, try your little local shops. The pricing won’t be that far off and they will actually want to talk to you.

I hear your pain, but I have found the same to be true at Cableas many times. Last year, everytime I went there they were out of what I wanted. Fishing or Hunting it did not matter.

I am also a south metro shopper and I must agree here! I have been in the Lakeville Gander 4 times in the last several months and walked out flustrated everytime except once. They were out of lantern mantels in January! I will take my business elsewhere until I see dramatic changes.

Hopefully the Lakeville Gander management visits IDA!

I have to agree about the Lakeville store, I’ve had nothing but bad service there. But if I go to the one in Woodbury they’ve allways had what I’m looking for & have allways been freindly. Alot of the older employees in that store used to work at the one in Cub foods & they were a pain in the but there to. So I think some of the new employees see that & just do the same. Just my .02

Rob, I agree with you re: the Rogers Cabelas store. Owatonna is 3x as helpful and knowledgable. I realize it’s a new store, but most of the people at the Rogers store just really want to go the extra mile to provide information, options, etc. And the bargain basement….what a joke compared to the Owatonna store where prices are lower and they will cut you an extra discount most of the time.

Personally I hope Gander succeeds; would love to know what their 5 year business plan looks like. If they don’t take care of the details re: hunting & fishing equipment which is their core business, I’d certainly not be interested in buying motorized toys from them.

Pete

Cabelas in Owatonna is great. If they where to Scheels in Lakeville they may as well board up Gander, I like Scheels always helpful, not the biggest stock but they always have waht I want, thank goodness my travels take by there

Hey guys,

Im neither against Gander Mountain or pro gander mountain, but I will give my opinion. Alot of it comes from what they pay. I used to work there part time and they pay terrible. Everyone works there for the discount.(except the few full timers) You have a bunch of high school kids (no offense) working there so their parents can have a good discount. The high school kids dont have as much experience as say older folks. Im 29 and consider myself to know more than the average weekend warrior. Deffineatley not a professional on any level, but a wide variety of knowledge across the many areas of fishing. I worked there for the discount also.(which I heard has gotten worse) It makes it tough to work 40-50 hours a week at a full time job and then they expect you to work as many weekends as possible. Doesnt work out well for someone who loves the outdoors does it? Plus you have unreliable highschoolers not showing up for shifts constantly and then the pressure is on the reliable ones. So you sacrifice your time on the water for barely minimum wage and busting your a$$. If nobody has ever worked a outdoor retail store around fishing opener or deer opener needs to try it to understand it. You have people like fellow IDA’er that you would love to sit and BS to and swap stories (that is the fun part) and then you have 20 people asking you how to tie a knot or set their kid up with their first fishing outing. The training there was minimal, so unless you know what your talking about it can make for alot of unhappy customers. I finally got stressed out enough and said the discount wasnt worth it. As far as stocking goes, Lakeville gets some serious customer pressure. Especially since they closed down the bloomington store. You want to know why they are out of 6lb high vis line? Because there are 2000 people river fishing P4 and read that you need 6lb high viz line to go to Red Wing and catch 100 saugers and walleys. Every Feb-through March I would have 20 people a night ask me where our gold and glow jigs were. They read or heard from someone thats what they were bitting on LOTW. On the other hand I agree, there should be someone somewhere saying here comes spring again lets get overstocked on some gold forage minnows and 6lb high viz trilene.

My personal opinion is that Cabela’s is over priced. 3/4 of their stuff is catalog ordered and they dont even carry it and Gander cant legally put out a catalog. Gander will price match most competitors. Cabellas very rarely will. I usually hit up Gander and then the Mans Mall (Fleet farm) If those two dont have it an online store will. Reed’s is a great alternative. Fast shipping and outstanding prices.

O.K. – Im off my soapbox. I by know means wanted to right a book or make it sound like Im complaining. Just wanted to give my opinion and share my experience.

Your Gander experience is not unique to your area. The one here ( Janesville WI ) is a total crap shoot as to whether they will have the stuff you want or not.Talking common stuff here. When I go there I go in knowing odds are they won’t have 2 or 3 of the 5 items I want.

A friend of mine went there a few weeks ago to get a few reels spooled up. Easy right? Well after 45 mins of waiting/getting the run around they told him Sorry,they did’nt have anyone who knew how run the spooling machine they have. Needless to say my friend was PISSED!
To make a long story short, he contacted GMs corporate HQ and voiced his complaints. Within 24 hours he had 3 responses. In the end GMHQ said THEY would MAKE SURE sombody was trained to run that spooler machine and to take his spools to that store and they would spool them up at no charge, they also sent him a $25 gift card to cover his gas PLUS said they would give him a discount on some electronics he was looking to buy for his new boat (my old one).

Bottom line is,call GMs HQ and voice your complaints.Going that route sure paid off for my friend.

Seriously you want change?

http://gandermountain.iwrsurvey.com/Secret/GanderMountainIWR/ Fill it out, let them know.

They can’t of won’t change unless they know about the poor service. Trust me, if you file a complaint, it won’t go unnoticed.

I myself find help a little hard to get at times too, I’ve talked to people at corporate about it, they only way thing will change is if the complaints start comming in.

All in all help seems to be harder to get during an “off season” right now I’m sure they are not doing a whole lot of business in fishing, is that an excuse, certainly not.

This goes for any Gander store.

I work in the fishing dept at the woodbury store its nice to see some comments on how were doing let me know if u have any suggestions for products we dont have in that you are looking for we would be more than happy to order it in if we dont carry it

I haven’t gotten good service at the Woodbury Gander either.

There is a SportsMen’s Warehouse just three blocks from the Woodbury Gander. Every time I’ve been in SportsMen’s Warehouse they have had product I couldn’t find anywhere else and there have always been helpful/knowledgeable staff available.

You want a bad Gander Mtn, go to the Davenport, IA store. Do not get me wrong they have nice people there and I belive the fishing dept. is in better shape than ever now, but…. I used to work there part time, I thought it would be fun. It really was not. Each Gander store dept has a level designation. The jist is fishing dept at store A is level 5, hunting dept is level 3, apparel is level 4. Store B might have different levels of depts. The levels are based on size and amount of stock. The Davenport store is the smallest store in the chain, but they claim it has one of, if not the largest profits. The store room is so small that even if they had something in stock in the back room, it took hours to find. No rhyme or reason to storage except most of the fishing stuff was at least half way close to each other. I have not worked there for 4 or 5 years and there is merchandise on the sales floor that did not have a price on it when I worked there and still does not. When we had the FLW Walleye tourney here a lot of the anglers stopped in for the basics. You should have heard them grumble. I still shop there, but it is not even close to one stop shopping. Until they can rectify some of this we will still be ordering a lot from Bass Pro, Cabelas, Tacklewarehouse.com, etc.. Davenport, IA layes at the junction of I-80 and I-74. It is rumored the Bass Pro and Cabeles have both been here doing market studies, etc., I really hope one of them will build here. Gander and a small Dick’s is all we really have here as far as big name shops. We are blessed to have K&K Hardware and Croegaerts Great Outdoors here. They are ma and pa type shops but carry a lot of good product. If they do not have it, they both try to find it for you.

I find the same true here in La Crosse most of the time. I think it must be a management issue. The place looks like a rummage sale is going on (and not just during season change) – boxes in aisles, items on shelves with no pricing, empty spots or my biggest pet peave mismarked on the shelf. More than once I have left items at the checkout that rang up different than what they were marked. If I have time I’ll run to Gander in Prairie or Fleet Farm in Winona but most of the time just patronize our local bait stores. It sure is a shame being the only big store in town. Ok I feel better now.

I myself have gotton tired of going in for one or two ad items, just to discover they are out and “come back when they come in” with a smile on their face. Usually I’m driving through and will never come back again. I’m not sure if Gander has the same regulations, but most large corp. stores use secret shoppers, secret phone callers, and customer surveys to evaluate the performance of customer service. For instance, several negative responses got the manager where my wife works moved. They recieved a bonus based on customer focus after a “better manager” got them back on track. So long story short, don’t discount your input, this is a way to start a change. Plus I hate yelling at high school kids who have nothing to do with the fact that something is empty on the shelves.

I am not a big fan of the cabelas in Rogers. I went there last spring looking for worm jigs and of course they didn’t have them, but the employee said “yeah, we need to get some of those” so I stopped in later in summer when I was passing by and guess what, they still didn’t have any. If you’re looking for any crankbait ever made, or lead head jigs, go to cabelas in Rogers. Otherwise, you might want to check elsewhere. But let’s face it, no store can carry everything all of us want at any given time, so get what you can at local stores and find the rest on the web.
just my 2 cents

Chomps,

Gander does use secret shoppers, or they did 4-5 years ago. I had one that was excellent, then i had another that the customer said I failed at miserably. I did the best I could, but to be honest, it was a part time gig. Hard to “dedicated” for $5.25 an hour. I was there for the discount and enjoyed most facets of the job. However, there were times when I just couldn’t make someone happy.

The product issues do date back to when I worked there. At the time, we didn’t have all these super stores, so it was a challenge to keep everything in stock. Now, I don’t know what their excuses are…. I see the same at Cabelas in Rogers, not to the extent I did at Gander, but Cableas is pretty limited on certain items.

Quote:

---

Seriously you want change?

http://gandermountain.iwrsurvey.com/Secret/GanderMountainIWR/ Fill it out, let them know.

---

I did this with a fishfinder this spring. They said they had a 520 there, and when I went to pick it up, I was told it had to be shipped to another store, and I could not have one. I then asked if there was another unit locally I could get and was told no.

I wrote a complaint to their corporate HQ and received a response within one day. I got 3 different calls from the store manager, fishing dept manager, and corporate HQ. They had a new unit there within two days, and they gave me a discount.

So go complain. It does help.

Yeah, I won’t be going back to the Cabelas in Rogers anytime soon. I got a mailer about a sale so we went up there to get a new trolling rod/reel. We usually go to Owatonna but the fiancé wanted to go to Albertville (sometimes you just have to compromise) To make a very long story short, they claimed not to know of any sale. When I got home I check to make sure it wasn’t just an online sale and it wasn’t. I had to order it out of the sales mailer and pay the extra shipping. I suppose at the end of the day it is my fault that I didn’t bring the flyer with to show them what sales they had going on.

No complaints at all about the Owatonna store.

Large retail stores are similar to fast food in many respects. I think the food is better at the mom and pop shops…when I can find them. The small shops have THE fishing info for the area your going to fish. The guys like Dean at Everts, Bob at Bob Moores Bait and Tackle, Mike Smith at HOF and Jim at Jimmy’s all know that everyone needs to have a smile on their face when walking out of their stores. Their dinner counts on it!

One other option to try is Sportsman’s Warehouse in Woodbury if you want items that aren’t found at the stores that have the current up to the minute fishing info.

I’ve never been to the one in Coon Rapids, but the guys at the Woodbury store are on the ball, at least when I’ve been there. Just take a right instead of turning left to Gander.

Bottom line is that no matter how hard the Ganders, Cabela’s or Sportsmans Warehouses try, it’s impossable to beat the personal service of the little guy.

Oh! I forgot to mention they are site sponsors!

The new gander in EP is nice. Most of the guys working in the fishing department fish alot of tournamenats. They are well stock. Some of you guy are right in how to make changes by calling or E-mailing HQ.

Don’t get me worng I shop everywhere, I always try and buy from the mom and pa shops, but I’ve ran across just as many problems there too.

I for one really like having all these big stores and refuse to let them treat me poorly, in almost all cases, tactful complaints work wonders. I like shopping at the big stores, I like the big selection they offer, and often times a trip to cabela’s is so much easier than trying to order little misc. parts online, I also like browsing looking at things in person.

Not to say there isn’t places that won’t get my business again, or places that haven’t damaged “Customer relations” with me, Best Buy being one of them, I only shop there is I absolutely need to, do to some problems I had with them several years back.

Yes Gander Does secret shoppers, infact that’s basically what the link is, and the stores are judged by it, trust me the complaints do not go unnoticed. Gander really is a much smaller company than you think, they keep up on the Customer service.

BTW Lakeville does carry oxygenators, probably easiest found in the bait shop, haven’t check their supply this year, but I know that had them no so long ago, I’d venture the guess whoever you talked to didn’t know anything about them.

I have never had much for service at the Lakeville Gander. The kids don’t know much, and the older guys would rather BS with each other than take care of customers. You can’t really blame the kids, they simply haven’t been around long enough to know the biz. But the poor service from the older guys is unacceptable.

I stopped at the Eden Prairie Gander grand opening weekend. Place was so busy I barely found a parking spot. The EP store is twice as good as the Lakeville store. One helluva nice reel display. The place was packed, but the help was right there to take care of business. I was really impressed with the place. One minor bad point, no bulk skirts. Not enough to drive me away. I now have no reason to visit the Lakeville store any more.

Hey I stopped by and they 6# test Trilene XL in stock, , they where out of stock on a reel I was looking for

Can you say Cabelas.com

I don’t know what I was thinking but we stopped in to get our fishing license last night. We were back in the fishing area so we went to the bait area and rang the bell for service. Nobody came to help. So we decided to go to the front of the store. As we walked out of the bait shop, two employees were sitting there discussing their fishing styles. Went to the front of the store and got to wait for 10 minutes because they had two people behind the counter doing both CS and checkouts. I can’t be too mad because I was the idiot to stop in there. I should have gone to Fleet Farm instead.

I will second and third the comments about Sportsmans Warehouse in Woodbury. I have also had good luck at Gander in Woodbury as far as products go, but I will say that the people at Sportsmans are a lot more insightful when it comes to specifics. Then again, with a website like this, I can just get the insight here and then go search for the product!!

Quote:

---

Yeah, I won’t be going back to the Cabelas in Rogers anytime soon. I got a mailer about a sale so we went up there to get a new trolling rod/reel. We usually go to Owatonna but the fiancé wanted to go to Albertville (sometimes you just have to compromise) To make a very long story short, they claimed not to know of any sale. When I got home I check to make sure it wasn’t just an online sale and it wasn’t. I had to order it out of the sales mailer and pay the extra shipping. I suppose at the end of the day it is my fault that I didn’t bring the flyer with to show them what sales they had going on.

No complaints at all about the Owatonna store.

---

I work in the fishing department in Rogers and I believe you were looking for the Daiwa Accudepth on a Cabela’s depthmaster rod. Those combos sold out as quick as they came in and I appologize for any incovienence(sp). We try very hard to give the best service we can and there are alot of us who give the same service as any mom and pop store. With that said, we also have 100 times the business as most mom and pop stores. Thats no excuse for what happend to you and I hope you can give us another chance. PM me if you need to find something and I will do my best to find it. Thanks