Lacey Wholesale Sports Closing

[carp2]

Lacey Wholesale Sports will be closing around the 8th of March. Already starting to reduce prices of some items.

[River Jim]

Hey maybe Jim Scott and Pat Frasier could be on hand for a couple days to sign autographs....I think WDFW should make an appearence....You know shake hands...met the people they are screwing....Hand out brochures how bad hatchery fish are on damed up rivers...How they are going to single handedly save the resource from the dreaded hatchery scourge.........RJ out.

[River Jim]

This is sad...very frustrating and I feel sorry for the folks who are being layed off....God bless you and your families and I pray you will find emploment in short order.....Stay strong.......RJ out.

[uhlern]

Kinda wierd they would go out of business when they just bought GI Joes.

I read somewhere that Sportsmans Warehouse was buying back the Federal way Wholesale sports location. I would think that would go for the lacey store as well.

[eggster]

That sucks. Theyre way better than cabelas imo.

[ClearCreek]

Info from another board on Wholesale Sports stores:

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=443417

Could it just be going back to a Sportsmen Warehouse?

ClearCreek

[eswan]

Wow, that's a major bummer. Although I have started buying bulk from sportco and oe a while ago

[codliveroil]

RJ sometimes you jump on the band wagon at thwe wrong time , Some one posted just a short time ago they would be bought back By SW , Pat Frazier wasn't there , Which doesn't make hime any better , Just wasn't in the modst of that one ,

[Antlershed]

Just talked to somebody who works at the Lacey location. Sportsman's Warehouse bought them out and let all of the employees go.

[The Peddler]

The Wholesale Sports stores in WA, OR, ID, and MT (fourteen locations total) have been bought-back by Sportsmen's Warehouse. These were all formerly Sportsmen's Warehouse stores. UFA, the parent company to Wholesale Sports, made a bid to purchase Sportsman's about 5 years-ago when Sportsman's was in bankruptcy. UFA didn't like what they found during the discovery process, and took ownership of the 14 stores as they were the collateral for the down-payment. Long/Short, Sportsman's has made it out of bankruptcy, they have new owners, and they're on a growth initiative.

There are four Wholesale Sports locations that will close; Lacey, Burlington, and Spokane, WA plus Coeur d'Alene. This creates a void in the Thurston County sporting goods market, now basically leaving only Cabela's. Don't forget Fred Meyer though, they've drastically improved their sporting goods departments in many stores; Tumwater for example. Does it rival a Wholesale/Sportsman's? No, but it is a pretty good option for a lot of what we need. The Sunbirds stores in Yelm and Chehalis are very good as well.

[GregE]

Lacey Wholesale Sports will be closing around the 8th of March. Already starting to reduce prices of some items.

Rats......

[The Peddler]

Just talked to somebody who works at the Lacey location. Sportsman's Warehouse bought them out and let all of the employees go.

As-is the case with nearly any major acquisition, employees will be asked to re-apply for a job, if they'd like to stay. In this case, they'd have to go to another store.

[troutslayer]

Sunbird in Chehalis is great. I'd assume the Yelm store is just as good. On a related note, does anyone here remember when there were small, family owned bait and tackle shops? Gone with the wind.....

[Chum Man]

as much as i don't want to lose another sporting goods store, wholesale in lacey has sucked since they were bought from sportsman's, and was mediocre since they opened. in my opinion, it's a management thing, because the federal way store has always been better by leaps and bounds.

pretty bad when i can't even get a spool of line, or pack of hooks, because they've been sold out for months and not restocked. same goes for their hunting supplies, and their clothing selection has always been awful(nothing like finding something you want...but they only have 2, one in S and the other in XXXL). at least cabelas keeps things in stock, though they usually don't stock exactly what i'm wanting. i find myself going to sportco a couple times a year and stocking up instead most of the time.

it sure would be nice to have some local mom-n-pop stores around, but i just don't see it happening in this area. fishing's just too lousy to support it. tumwater sports was the last local shop, and they're gone. i don't mind paying a little more at places like that, but their prices were around twice as much as anywhere else, so it doesn't surprise me that they went out of business.

fred meyers used to have a great fishing tackle department...15 years ago. it's a joke now. same with walmart, when they opened in lacey they had 3 whole aisles of fishing gear, but it's down to 1 now and it's mostly junk that i'd never think of buying.

[epk11]

The federal way one is better but not by much, the buyers are the reason there going out of business. they buy 80% bass stuff and how many people fish for bass in the PNW? not very many compared to the salmon, steelhead, kokanee, Sturgeon, and bottomfish anglers. I would know I use to work there and stock shelves everyday and all i would do is mark down all the bass gear and that was 80% of the inventory.

[River Jim]

Cabeleas won't last either....Hunting in this state sucks and so does the fishing....RJ out.

[gasman4043]

Cabeleas won't last either....Hunting in this state sucks and so does the fishing....RJ out.

You have'nt been to Cabela's lately have you....alot of shoppers.

[Bigtrks]

I hadn't been to lacey in along time . I stopped last month and I got the same story that made me stop in the first place !! Sorry we will have more next week

[wilderness109]

the one up here in burlington is supposedly closing too.

[MOFO]

Are you surprised of more closures of sporting goods stores? Lets face it, the rivers are closing early and there are less and less fish! A few short years ago, I would still be fishing the Puyallup and Carbon and heading to Sportco a couple times a week...no more!
Currently I am fishing less and spending less at the stores.
Really getting turned off by the management skills (or lack of) WDFW. Am wondering if things are ever going to turn for the better. Not asking to much, other than perhaps what it was 4/5 years ago.
Very disturbing!
Moe

[River Jim]

MOFO

Me too, fishing less and less...I'd rather be fising on the Cowlitz right this very minute but my sources say stay home...I don't mind spending the money on a decent fishery...however cost being what they are today, just going to take a boat ride is way to expensive.....RJ out.

[Clockwork]

regarding the federal way location i couldnt tell any difference in customer service, selection or anything when they were sportmans warehouse vs wholesale sports. same store, same products, same layout, same everything.

i am not a big cabelas shopper but i am amazed the sportsmans warehouse in lacey lasted this long after the cabelas installment.

[kydikabbit]

So folks are expecting a fairly small community like Olympia/Tumwater/Lacey to support not 1, but 2 large sporting goods stores? When there is ony 1 in Tacoma, 1 in Seattle, 1 in Everett, etc... I never figured both would make it.

Before they were even open for business, I recall asking some of the Sportsman's Warehouse management how they were going to compete with Cabelas. They laughed and said they were going to kick Cabelas butt. Me thinks they were wrong and got their butt kicked.

Personally, I would trade both of them for a Bob's Sporting Goods (your bait sucks and your boat's ugly!). I'll keep looking at Cabelas first, and then driving up to Sportco when Cabelas doesn't have it, just like I did yesterday.

[fishslave]

I don't want to know how much my hubby spent at Cabela's in the last year.

I refuse to go there on weekends anymore. It's as bad as going to one of the malls at Christmas. Not very many customers leaving empty handed either. Maybe it's all those "preppers"!

We've bought some tackle and a few boat related items, but mostly we bought hunting, clothing, cooking/curing/smoking related stuff.

[GregE]

Went there today- all "Wholesale Sports" brand items are 50%$ off. NOt much else- some red tagged items are still the same price.