what is GOING ON AT GANDER MOUNTIAN?

I was in Rochester this week and stopped at Gander.. EVERY DEPTH FINDER WAS ON SALE. .and they had stripped away almost every display model.. and while they had 9 bazillion combo’s to buy, they had less then no rods to look at to buy individually..

they had No selection of shirts. In the past I have bought a ton of Gander’s golf shirts because they fit me.. 3xl tall. Now they had one of a size with the biggest being xl.

I asked were their Oxford shirts were.. the kid who looked like the only worker in the store, except for the check out girl, had no idea what an oxford shirt was..

it looked like they were going to ship out a ton of plastics to another store in the cities..

is Gander in trouble again.. or still? what’s the story guys..

oh and some one here must know the scoop..

tell us..

Who cares, Gander blows……

Still….

New CEO, Mark Baker left, is now selling fertilizer and now the Gander empire is slowly sliding away

sounds like I should get in there and use up my gift cards soon before I get stuck with them like Sportsmans Warehouse.

Last I heard Gander was going private. Not sure if this happened yet or is still going to happen but like most retail stores these days they can not afford to have any carry over to next season so they are not stocking as many items.

I was in the roch. store 3 weeks ago and they would only let me use one card a day.Was my last trip over there.

Rochesters Gander Mountain has never been anything to brag about (old and new location) I did have a buddy that bought one of the depth finders that was on sale, but I just could not get myself to go into that store.

dont worry guys the one down here in janesville isnt any better. they are always out of all the ice jigs and almost any ice fishing accessories. whenever you need to find something they dont have it but when you arent looking for it they have it. they almost never have anything in stock either. to bad there the only outdoors store around my area that i dont have to drive along ways to get to.

gander sucks go to the mans mall fleet farm

FF That’s why I’m never found at Gander.

The biggest problem with Gander is there complete lack of customer service. The Maplewood store used to be bad now Woodbury is it.

I was in Gander Mountain in St. Cloud a couple days ago and everything in there seemed pretty normal. I would think there business has had a little boost here since Sportsmans Warehouse is now gone. I visit Gander, Scheels, and FF about equal amount times. The one thing I do like about Gander is I can usually get in there and out very quickly as it usually isn’t real busy.

Whats going on is….. gander sucks !!!!

I miss sportsmans!!!

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I miss sportsmans!!!

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Me too
My wallet doesn’t thou..

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gander sucks go to the mans mall fleet farm

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Fleet farm in osseo or brooklyn park, looks like it was robbed…no ice fishing stuff whatsoever……gander in maple grove is having a huge sale buy 5 get 5 free going on…also was well stocked with ice fishing stuff as well as getting ready for summer fishing..

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Rangerski “Who cares, Gander blows…… ”

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It took me well over a year…but I finally did get it Rangerski!

Guys/gals – we all need to be a little more understanding to ALL the stores carrying less stock and blowing it out before season end. The cost of operations and carrying product is extremely exspensive. Also to make matters much worse, most banks have called in or reduced major lines of credit. This isn’t just big box stores, its everywhere and in almost every segment of every industry. This poor economy has impacted every retailer – regardless of size. Its just much more visible with the larger opperations.

Now, we all have our opinions of many of the big stores and we are entitled to them. I just would hate to think that customers would be slamming me over something that was WAY out of my control.

Like many stores, January is probably Gander’s inventory month. It’s also the time that they start preparing to change over their merchandise to spring and summer items so there will be empty shelves during the transition.

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sounds like I should get in there and use up my gift cards soon before I get stuck with them like Sportsmans Warehouse.

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X2

Gander might have it’s problems but it is a Mn. store that employs your nieghbors and if your Mom and Pop store hasn’t got what you want they might.There is good and bad about every place but my money goes to Gander not Carbellas.

Lots of the sporting good stores I have been in are cutting back on items , but fleet & farm in beaver dam has not at all .

Gander has had these problems since I’ve lived here(10 yrs). As a former employee, I got to see/deal first hand with the lack of leadership. I mean at the very top.

Looking back now, there was a Mpls region manager who would come through every once in a while. Everyone was deathly scared of this this guy. He was the grim reaper apparently. I sure wish I could remember his name or would have had the guts to tell him what I honestly felt. However, I needed that $7.00/hr job pretty bad at the time. I’m guessing it wouldn’t have mattered, but I think they need to hear what guys on the front line had to say. What customers did and didn’t like etc…

I miss working there, it was great talking fishing all the time, but don’t miss the BS part of retail.

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The biggest problem with Gander is there complete lack of customer service. The Maplewood store used to be bad now Woodbury is it.

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you dont go to gander for CS… thats what sheels and cabelas is for. gander is good when you know what you need and where that is in the store. if you need to shop/ask questions/compare products/etc go to another store.

I wonder if the Rochester store is closing or what.. The LaCrosse store wasn’t much better, but I know the manager who was there last summer was a guy who really cared about the store and its customers.. I know that for a fact..

I just wonder what is up with them.. it just doesn’t look good.. much less great..

Ya my best friends dad was the general manager in the Blaine store, he was telling me how business was going basically no where. Neither up or down and corporate was expecting better from like every gen and he basically had to walk away from the job because it was beginning to take up too much time. Gander is gonna be there, its just not really going up in business or down.

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I was in Gander Mountain in St. Cloud a couple days ago and everything in there seemed pretty normal. I would think there business has had a little boost here since Sportsmans Warehouse is now gone. I visit Gander, Scheels, and FF about equal amount times. The one thing I do like about Gander is I can usually get in there and out very quickly as it usually isn’t real busy.

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Ditto Mallard. I go to Gander when I can. I work 1 block from Mills Fleet, but going in there, is a hassle. Standing in line behind some dude, with 8 bags of horse feed and then the old “Is this for Farm use ?” yep… more paperwork I went into Gander on saturday, lots of Ice Fishing stuff…. too much Got what I needed, in and out in less than 5 minutes. Parked right outside the door

big G

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I got to see/deal first hand with the lack of leadership. I mean at the very top.

I think they need to hear what guys on the front line had to say. What customers did and didn’t like etc…

I miss working there, it was great talking fishing all the time, but don’t miss the BS part of retail.

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Gander will be around for a long time. Leadership has changed a lot over the past years and it makes it tough for any company to change the CEO several times and still expand by nearly 300% within 6 years. Add in their re-entrance into the catalog and internet arena (albeit it needs to be improved from its now entry level status) and overall you see that Gander is a company with extreme growing pains.

And yes, Gander can and probably will do better in the customer service arena as I know a few top-notch guys and gals there. What I hear is that there are big changes in the works regarding service and knowledge at the stores. But it will take time to see it I am sure.

Being a business analyst, I presume that Gander is going private so they can take care of their large long-term dept which has built up from such a large and quick expansion of stores. I hear that their expansion of stores is halted for the next year and I have not heard of any proposed re-locations or closures.

Gander’s fiscal year starts in Feb. as it does with most retailers that are publicly traded. So this is year end for them and inventory positions are probably looking kind of scarce as it overlaps season changes as well. Keep in mind that inventory positions at year end are also what creditors are looking at for next years credit limits. This is also why some of your best deals are found at retailers in January as well.

I hope Gander stops its store expansions and focuses on being customer centric. They have tons of potential in this area, it just needs to be executed properly. Which unfortunately requires true leadership to get there.

I too use to work for them. As a matter of fact I’ve worked for them 3 or 4 different times over the last 20 or so years. I started working for them when it was holiday sports stores. I think the quality of the management and customer service has fallen off a little more each time that I’ve went back and worked for them. I believe that the main problem they have is how fast they over expanded when the economy was good. Now in a poor economy they don’t have enought sales to support all the locations. hopefully if they close a few stores they can focus more on the quality and service in those remaining. yet another example of corporate greed and the push for the $. Lot’s of businesses are guilty of this. Lets hope they can start to remember that is is customers who pay their checks and start to refocus the attention on them!!!! Ok I’ve babbled on enough. Time to go spend some money on fishing gear.!!!!!

All the guys who have been going to the big box stores for years rather than than supporting the local shops with more than bait purchases are now reaping what they have sown.