A HECKUVA SALE taking place at Gander Outdoors in Marquette. Forty percent off of everything except for guns, ammunition, and generators. Big crowds
But that exciting news may be masking the uncertainty surrounding the entire Gander Outdoors chain–69 stores in 22 states. The CEO of Camping World, which owns Gander Outdoors, was quoted in Crain’s Chicago Business earlier this month as saying that 27-37 stores in the Camping World family will be sold, closed, relocated or repurposed.
The focus of Camping World in the future, he stated, will be selling and servicing RV’s.
So where does that leave the Marquette store which, as far as we can see, doesn’t sell and service RV’s? Could it be repurposed to sell and service RV’s?
A phone call to the general manager on Thursday morning has not been returned yet.
An employee on the floor Wednesday told us, “We haven’t heard anything about closing. We’ve heard other stores may be closing but we’ve just been told we’ve got to reduce our inventory.”
The Gander Outdoors store in Rockford, Illnois recently announced it was closing and is now holding a….40% off storewide sale. Does that mean anything? We don’t know. We’ve also called the corporate headquarters for Camping World in Lincolnshire, Illinois for clarification. Waiting for an answer.
Gander Mountain in Marquette closed down in 2017 when the company filed for bankruptcy. But then Camping World subsequently won the company in an auction and reopened 69 of the stores, including Marquette’s, last year under the Gander Outdoors brand.
It was an attempt to expand Camping World beyond RV’s into outdoor sporting equipment–fishing, hunting, camping, hiking, etc. The strategy apparently didn’t take, and now Camping World is making the shift back to RV’s.
So.
As we say, there’s plenty of uncertainty, and most of the signs that we’re seeing aren’t all that promising. We’re waiting for answers.
But in the meantime, big sale!!!