Gander Outdoors Lakeville

I just received an email saying Gander Outdoors Lakeville opens Wednesday 12-13.
Door Prizes, Givaways, horse and pony show etc.

I met somebody in the parking lot today to buy something from craigslist, expecting an abandoned lot and I could barely find a spot. Employee training or something I guess. Can’t say I’m looking forward to this with too much enthusiasm, but we’ll see.

I currently work at the Gander Outdoors Corporate Office, All of the cars at the Lakeville store is for putting the finishing touches on the store before next week’s opening. I think the new store concept will ultimately be successful. I believe that people will be pleasantly surprised as long as they can differentiate the new Gander Outdoors and the Old Gander Mountain as they are not related in any way.

marcolson13 wrote:

I currently work at the Gander Outdoors Corporate Office, All of the cars at the Lakeville store is for putting the finishing touches on the store before next week’s opening. I think the new store concept will ultimately be successful. I believe that people will be pleasantly surprised as long as they can differentiate the new Gander Outdoors and the Old Gander Mountain as they are not related in any way.

Was it the old Gander Mountain owner that didn’t want Trump supporters to shop at his stores or is that your current owner?

c_w wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>marcolson13 wrote:</div>
I currently work at the Gander Outdoors Corporate Office, All of the cars at the Lakeville store is for putting the finishing touches on the store before next week’s opening. I think the new store concept will ultimately be successful. I believe that people will be pleasantly surprised as long as they can differentiate the new Gander Outdoors and the Old Gander Mountain as they are not related in any way.

Was it the old Gander Mountain owner that didn’t want Trump supporters to shop at his stores or is that your current owner?

Non issue.
They will succeed if they put quality product on the shelves at competive prices. Back that with knowledgable employee’s.

“Non issue.
They will succeed if they put quality product on the shelves at competive prices. Back that with knowledgable employee’s.”

That is the idea. Each store should have a large service area as well, so pretty much anything you buy in store can be serviced (Think archery techs etc.) Great pricing and product are supposed to be top priority. Under Camping Worlds umbrella, we also will have the Good Sam program, which I believe will be a minimal yearly membership ($25 bucks or something like that) and you will get an additional percent off anything in the store each time you shop (Again don’t quote me, but I believe this includes firearms, but one purchase could possibly make up for that small membership into Good Samaritan) There will also be exclusive promotions and deals for Good Sam members throughout the year.

I can only speak directly for my area as I am not in the other areas daily but those are the over arching themes we are shooting for.

For reference, I have been with Gander Mountain/Gander Outdoors for the last 5 years in the Corporate Office.

Anyone know of any specific sales or promotions? I looked online but couldn’t find anything specific.

marcolson13 wrote:

I currently work at the Gander Outdoors Corporate Office, All of the cars at the Lakeville store is for putting the finishing touches on the store before next week’s opening. I think the new store concept will ultimately be successful. I believe that people will be pleasantly surprised as long as they can differentiate the new Gander Outdoors and the Old Gander Mountain as they are not related in any way.

My friends and are a curious on how Gander Outdoors came up with that color blue and the text for their logo?

Gone Fishing wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>marcolson13 wrote:</div>
I currently work at the Gander Outdoors Corporate Office, All of the cars at the Lakeville store is for putting the finishing touches on the store before next week’s opening. I think the new store concept will ultimately be successful. I believe that people will be pleasantly surprised as long as they can differentiate the new Gander Outdoors and the Old Gander Mountain as they are not related in any way.

My friends and are a curious on how Gander Outdoors came up with that color blue and the text for their logo?

That’s actually a good question. I’m sure most of you know that the original logo and design was chosen in a contest that the winner was awarded $100,000 from our CEO. I’m not exactly sure how the blue color became the final color for the logo though.

c_w wrote:

Was it the old Gander Mountain owner that didn’t want Trump supporters to shop at his stores or is that your current owner?

Current – But like anything along these lines, you need to fact check

“WHAT’S TRUE

Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis said that consumers who “are in favor of what has been said” about the Charlottesville protests should not shop at his stores.
WHAT’S FALSE

Lemonis did not say that anyone who supports President Trump should not shop at Camping World.”

No its the new guy who said that

Not sure on specific deals but here is the timeline for the opening on Wednesday for anyone that’s interested. Since this is a fishing thread I posted Clsm’s involvement in the grand opening.

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Well, I’ll be impressed if there are replacement flasher batteries for sale in the middle of winter and minnow tanks. A few things that weren’t consistently in the store before.

marcolson13 wrote:

I currently work at the Gander Outdoors Corporate Office,

Did Camping World retain the previous buyers from Gander, or did they replace that portion of the corporate staff?

Is Lakeville the only one store opening?

Is Saint Cloud MN opening back up. Will there be a good fishing section?

mrpike1973 wrote:

Is Saint Cloud MN opening back up. Will there be a good fishing section?

Gander Outdoors: 57 locations to remain open
8/01/17 | by Christen Smith

Gander Outdoors CEO Marcus Lemonis said last month he’d saved little more than a third of the former Gander Mountain stores, closing down more than 100 locations nationwide.

“Our original goal was to initially open seventy or more stores, and while our initial list is now less than seventy, we are not willing to open stores which we do not believe have a clear path to profitability,” he said in a press release June 30.

Gander Outdoors said the final list, assuming store leases can be agreed to, includes:

1. Lake Mary, FL
2. Ocala, FL
3. Valdosta, GA
4. Newnan, GA
5. Davenport, IA
6. O’ Fallon, IL
7. Indianapolis (Castleton), IN
8. Ft Wayne, IN
9. Paducah, KY
10. Flint, MI
11. Traverse City, MI
12. Kalamazoo, MI
13. Saginaw, MI
14. Utica, MI
15. Marquette, MI
16. Port Huron, MI
17. Grand Rapids, MI
18. Hermantown (Duluth), MN
19. Forest Lake, MN
20. Lakeville, MN
21. Baxter, MN
22. Bemidji, MN
23. Hattiesburg, MS
24. Chesterfield, MO
25. Fenton, MO
26. Winston-Salem, NC
27. Fayetteville, NC
28. Greensboro, NC
29. Mooresville, NC
30. Cicero (Syracuse), NY
31. Watertown, NY
32. Kingston, NY
33. Tonawanda, NY
34. Plattsburg, NY
35. Canton, OH
36. Niles, OH
37. Williamsport, PA
38. Greensburg, PA
39. York, PA
40. Chambersburg, PA
41. N. Charleston, SC
42. Jackson, TN
43. Spring, TX
44. Tyler, TX
45. Amarillo, TX
46. Ft Worth, TX
47. Lewisville, TX
48. Roanoke, VA
49. Fredericksburg, VA
50. Waukesha, WI
51. Rothschild (Wausau), WI
52. Onalaska, WI
53. Kenosha, WI
54. DeForest (Madison), WI
55. Baraboo, WI
56. Sheboygan, WI
57. Janesville, W

Randy Wieland wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>marcolson13 wrote:</div>
I currently work at the Gander Outdoors Corporate Office,

Did Camping World retain the previous buyers from Gander, or did they replace that portion of the corporate staff?

Obviously not, didn’t you read the above where he states they are not related in any way…… But he’s been there for years.

I see the Onalaska location has a large banner up advertising job openings but I didn’t see anything about an opening date. Kind of poor management in my opinion to not be open at least before Black Friday and now to open less than two weeks before Christmas is a huge retail mistake.

Probably game over for Gander for me with that list of stores. Nothing near enough to go to regularly with that list of MN stores. The “Forest Lake” location is probably the worst outdoor retail locaion ever chosen, could the have gotten any farther from the freeway exit?

Be intersting to see if the new concept takes off and maybe in the future they’ll expand.

Sad situation, the state of outdoor retail. No more Sportsman’s Warehouse, Gander down to a handful of stores, Cabela’s builds the outdoor store equivilent of a Seven Eleven in Woodbury. Hard times.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Probably game over for Gander for me with that list of stores. Nothing near enough to go to regularly with that list of MN stores. The “Forest Lake” location is probably the worst outdoor retail locaion ever chosen, could the have gotten any farther from the freeway exit?

I’ve always thought the same thing but you have to imagine that the overall operating cost has to low in order for them to consider reopening it. Likewise it had to be profitable for GM while it was open.

That’s good for me because the Blaine store was about equal distance for me.

c_w wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Randy Wieland wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>marcolson13 wrote:</div>
I currently work at the Gander Outdoors Corporate Office,

Did Camping World retain the previous buyers from Gander, or did they replace that portion of the corporate staff?

Obviously not, didn’t you read the above where he states they are not related in any way…… But he’s been there for years.

There was a large number of staff that was retained from Gander mountain, which now are employed by Gander outdoors. Just because the businesses are not related, doesn’t mean that the majority of staff has changed

Sorry watching football.

I will try be as transparent as I can be and answer all those questions.

1. Pete- all new inventory and I believe an emphasis on bringing back live bait in locations.

2. Randy- A Decent amount of the Merchandising team was retained but do not have the restrictions of the former owners. Additionally that store list from 8/1 has probably changed 20 times since then. The idea is for about 60 locations in the next year.

3. Tom- Lakeville will be the only location opening right now but more will follow.

4.mrpike- I don’t know final locations 100% as that list changes all the time. Gander Outdoors Facebook will update

5. Jld- with the buyout, a Liquidation company/companies teamed up and bought every piece of Gander Mountain inventory. They had control of the buildings, pricing, until a certain date. We are buying product from scratch, revamping stores and negotiating leases, this takes time. Hence the store opening timing.

Like I said I will be as transparent as possible but some really good changes are being made so I hope everyone gives it a chance as like I said the ownership and executive team is 100% turned over.

Also please forgive grammar and spelling, doing all of this from my phone

I would have been willing to check it out, but without the Eden prairie location, I probably won’t.

marcolson13 wrote:

I believe that people will be pleasantly surprised as long as they can differentiate the new Gander Outdoors and the Old Gander Mountain as they are not related in any way.

Then why did they keep the name Gander?

jld wrote:

I see the Onalaska location has a large banner up advertising job openings but I didn’t see anything about an opening date. Kind of poor management in my opinion to not be open at least before Black Friday and now to open less than two weeks before Christmas is a huge retail mistake.

I heard this one will open after New year.This area is seriously lacking in decent fishing stuff,have to go to Winona to get stuff.

The old location had much better selection than the current one.Plus live bait for those that use it.

I went to Fleet Farm on Saturday to pick up some more line. Of course they had every other line available but the one I wanted was sold out. I looked across 35 and saw all the cars so I thought I would swing in and see if Gander Outdoors had the line and if they would be caring live bait. I finally found a place to park and walked into the store. The place was a mad house of people training and workers trying to finish everything up. I only got 6’ into the door before I was met by a manager. I looked at him and said “you don’t look to be open yet?” and before he could ask me to leave I turned around and left. All I will say is I stopped going to that location when it was GM because they stopped stocking live bait. HINT HINT

Just got another email. 3:00 today. Santa will be there!

From what I have read, this is gonna be a “camping” store… much worse than what all were belly aching about the Old GM… too much overpriced clothes, shoes… not enough fishing/shooting. Camping World is also owned by the same guy, who said if you agree with Trump that people who wear masks and perform/promote violence during protests, no matter their affiliation, are all thugs. Here I come FF !!!

I was at the Lakeville store at 2:45. PACKED!
I only went to the Fishing Dept. It’s pretty much what you would expect, all the bread and butter stuff. The Electronics Dept was much better than the old Gander.

and TUMA they have minnows!

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