Not All Gander Mountain Stores Will Close

[I-10east]

The new owner of Gander Mountain Marcus Lemonis tweeted out that he's gonna keep around 70 (out of 126) of the most profitable stores open. More info in the links below. Hopefully the Jax locale or at least the St Aug (plan B) locations will be saved.   

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2017/05/07/gander-mountain-closing-not-so-fast-says-new-owner-marcus-lemonis/101402750/

https://twitter.com/marcuslemonis/status/861223786648969218

[peestandingup]

Was gonna go but saw this. https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/69s5ny/wasted_time_gander_mountain_liquidation_sale/

Doesn't look like much of a liquidation.

[Snaketoz]

I can't believe Gander Mountain stayed open as long as it did.  The store in North Jax has to be one of the worst ran stores ever.  It had so much potential.  On entering the store it was like a wonderland of products.  A utopia for the sportsman.  After being in the store for a few minutes, the wonder quickly leaves.  There were very few people there who could actually help you.  If you were able to corral a clerk, their attitude was "why are you bothering me?"  If you called ahead to check on the availability of a product and the person on the phone said the product was in stock, the product wouldn't be available when you arrived.  They would even say things like "you are mistaken, nobody here told you that."  Sometimes the cashiers were down right hostile.  I wish we could have a store like Gander here that was better managed.  Maybe Marcus can turn them around, but they have a long way to go.  Reminds me a lot of Sears.

[I-10east]

Jax made the 'safe' list! St Aug didnt.

https://twitter.com/marcuslemonis/status/861688957091885056

[I-10east]

IMO St Augustine's location choice is atrocious! It's tucked back there behind an auto sales lot like an afterthought; The mall is the main focal point. Even though it's near I 95, it has poor visibility, and with no signage on SR16. They should've built it on SR16. I honestly cannot think of a poorer location choice for a store. It really doesn't surprise me that it's on the cut list, because many people probably don't know it exists.

[Snaketoz]

It looks like Camping World will take over some of the stores, including Jacksonville's.  Good news-better management.  Have dealt with Camping World online and was always pleased with them.

[PeeJayEss]

I was surprised to see the Liquidation signs on the store last weekend. I went in and the liquidation pricing wasn't even as good as a decent sale. Apparently, the liquidator put up signs on all the stores, even though some are staying open. A little weird.

[riverside_mail]

From what I've read elsewhere, a liquidating company bought up the remaining inventory and Lemonis bought the rest. So regardless of whether the store is closing or not, the inventory must be sold off.

[I-10east]

I was surprised to see the Liquidation signs on the store last weekend. I went in and the liquidation pricing wasn't even as good as a decent sale.

Right now it's pretty early on, and the sales are around 20ish percent. I can imagine that the sales will get better as time goes on.

[I-10east]

What in the world is going on? First Jax's Gander Mtn was on the 'safe' list, and now it's on the chopping block! WTF?? Lemonis is all over the place...Look at his twitter within the last 3 days, and see the flip flopping... BTW St Aug is on the 'undecided list' (because it's unlisted). Go figure...

https://twitter.com/marcuslemonis/status/862869624941150208

[I-10east]

Probably something with the landlord deal that went bad. Still, I wouldn't have made a preliminary 'safe list' if there was any doubt.

[BridgeTroll]

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/retail-apocalypse-everything-need-know/

Chart: Retail Apocalypse 2017

The steady rise of online retail sales should have surprised no one.

Back in 2000, less than 1% of retail sales came from e-commerce. However, online sales have climbed each and every year since then, even through the Great Recession. By 2009, e-commerce made up about 4.0% of total retail sales, and today the latest number we have is 8.3%.



Here's another knowledge bomb: it's going to keep growing for the foreseeable future. Huge surprise, right?

SIGNS OF A RECKONING

Retailers eye their competition relentlessly, and the sector also has notoriously thin margins.

The big retailers must have seen the "retail apocalypse" coming. The question is: what did they do about it?

Well, companies like Sears failed the shift to digital altogether – in fact, it is even widely speculated that the former behemoth might file for bankruptcy later this year.

The majority of other companies, on the other hand, are trying to combine "clicks and bricks" into a cohesive strategy. This sounds good in theory, but for established and sprawling brick and mortar retailers with excessive overhead costs, such tactics may not be enough to ward off this powerful secular trend. Target, for example, has had impressive growth in online sales, but they still only make up just 5% of total sales. As a result, the company's robustness is also in doubt.

Wal-Mart took another route, which could potentially be the smartest one. The company hedged their bets by buying Jet.com, which was one of the fastest growing online retailers at the time. Later, they followed up by buying an online shoe retailer to help fill a perceived gap in footwear. Recent reports have surfaced, saying that these acquisitions are leading to staff shakeups, as the company re-orients its focus.

After all, going online is not just a tactic to boost sales in the new era of retailing. It has to be a mindset, and one that is central to the company's strategy. Hopefully Wal-mart gets that, otherwise they will also be in trouble as well.

APOCALYPSE NOW

In the midst of all of this is what is described as the "retail apocalypse".

There are two main metrics that are pretty black and white:

Number of Bankruptcies: We're not even one-third through 2017, and we already have about as many retail bankruptcies as the previous year's total. If they continue at the current pace, we could see over 50 retailers bankrupt by the end of the year.

Number of Store Closings: So far we've seen roughly 3,000 store closings announced in 2017, and Credit Suisse estimates that could hit 8,600 by the end of the year. That would easily surpass 2008's total, which was 6,200 closings, to be the worst year in recent memory.

Here's some of the companies that have already filed for bankruptcy:

Gordmans Stores
Gander Mountain
Radioshack (again)
HHGregg
BCBG Max Azria
Eastern Outfitters
Wet Seal
The Limited
Vanity Shop of Grand Forks
Payless Inc.
MC Sports
And here are the store closings occurring as a result of the retail apocalypse:

[PeeJayEss]

That box graphic isn't misleading at all...

The E-commerce percentage graph seems to tell a lot of the story. It's hardly an apocalypse when 90+% of retail sales are conducted in brick-and-mortars, particularly at this stage of e-commerce ubiquity. Seems to indicate the retail sector is over-saturated and over-extended in real estate. Half of these stores (Kmart, Sears, JCP, Radioshack, all the super-specialized clothiers) the writing has been on the wall for at least a decade, and the failing of the companies is not due to e-commerce. Payless appears to be way over-saturated, and seriously, who goes to the Crocs store?!

[I-10east]

Someone on twitter said is there any hope for Jax's Gander Mtn, and is the landlord willing to negotiate at all? Lemonis replied "Not on a level that makes sense" and that he will help the workers find jobs at Camping World, Gander in St Aug, and Sweet Pete's. So Jax's Gander obviously was planning to stay until the deal went sour. 

[river4340]

Looks like Jacksonville's store will close.

http://jacksonville.com/business/real-estate/2017-05-15/jacksonville-s-gander-mountain-likely-close-st-augustine-s-remain