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It probably doesn't help that this is the age of online shopping and Gander's website is basically a digital dumpster fire. If they are going to restructure they should start by canning everyone associated with it and start over.
Gander, Cabela's, even Bass Pro... really wouldn't bother me if they all went under. They now have only 3 basic categories of products: 1) Chinese-made junk, 2) Ridiculously over-priced, 3) Permanently out-of-stock.
That's not what I'm talking about at all, the few times I've had to order off the website my orders showed up just fine and all that. My issue is that they are light years behind pretty much everyone else in their website design and inventory management. One of the main reasons I end up on a retailers web site is to check prices and on hand inventory for my local store. Everybody from Farm & Fleet to Walmart I can pop on and see the full range of product and what is on hand in a matter of seconds. If the local store doesn't have it, I just place an order and get it delivered or shipped to store. The Gander website is so bad that as far as I can tell most of the products they sell in the stores you can't even buy online. Example: Go on the Gander sight and do a search for "Northland". See anything(s) missing? Go to Cabelas and click the link to their Ice fishing section and browse around a bit, then go to Gander and do the same. There is a boatload of money they leave on the table by simply not having the products available for online purchase or ship to store.
I can imagine the struggles that brick & mortar stores face. The rent in a mall is probably outrageous, plus staffing costs. With online, they just need people to pull the items off the warehouse shelves and box them up. That keeps costs down.I remember the days when the people that worked in a store were knowledgeable about their products. Now they mostly just hire people that can look things up on a computer. Have you gone to an auto parts store lately? I don't think very many of them could even change their own oil.
There was a time when a parts store employee could also raise a family and own a house. They were knowledgeable, and cared about being up to speed with the industry. When you pay someone $11.00, that knowledge moves into different areas...
I did a search for Northland on the home page and had no issues fining them though.....
They should be called a "sporting fashion" store. 10 times the space devoted to Under Armor and Columbia than actual "sporting Goods". Is a real hunting and fishing store actually fiscally impossible?
The margin on clothes and shoes is upwards of 300%. Fishing electronics...20%.
Pulling ice fishing gear off the shelf for spring time fishing in early February has to be dumbazz women running the show but I guess they need more room for over priced clothing