Scheels Opens 250,00 Square Foot Store in Phoenix

[ClownLoach]

Dick's doesn't do much in Reno. They have their store at the mall, it gets some traffic off of the mall but that is it. They haven't tried to open any other locations in the area. Sports Authority previously had 3 locations in the area (including one in the same mall) and we had a lot less population back then than we do now. But we didn't have Scheel's.

Dicks just announced they're one of the replacements for the Sears at Brea Mall, along with a Lifetime Fitness and Din Tai Fung. So they're definitely still opening new California stores. Doesn't say anything about it being a relocation, and the Yorba Linda store is one of the few acquired Chick's that got a (very expensive) full remodel to the Dicks format. Nearly all the other CA acquisitions got a light remodel but still had low drop ceilings and bland woodwork decor before they eventually were relocated elsewhere. Ironically I was just thinking if Scheels ever wanted to come to California, Brea Mall would have been a perfect place to start.

I'd like to see Scheels open in CA, I think they could throw 2-3 stores in the state. But I don't know if it will happen. The Reno Sparks Scheels will not even deliver products in their store vans (fitness, bikes, other large items they can deliver) to CA. This actually costs them a number of high dollar sales from Tahoe/Truckee customers.

Let's face it, the main issue is gun sales which are difficult in California. But Bass Pro has been able to make it work, I'm seeing a lot of growth in another gun focused chain called Sportsman's Warehouse which is taking over old office supply size stores, a couple have opened along I-15 in Riverside county. I'm sure Scheels could make it work. Hobby Lobby has managed to make California one of their top grossing markets in less than a decade.

As far as the deliveries are concerned, it seems like California's old standard of "no tax on CA deliveries as long as you have no CA facilities" doesn't really hold up anymore and Scheels might not want the paperwork or dealings with the CA FTB; I'm not sure if the law changed when they made the infamous deal with the devil Amazon which enabled them to build warehouses everywhere and assemble a delivery driver army... Hard to believe that not too long ago there were no Amazon facilities at all in CA... I remember ordering a large TV and it was delivered to my LA County apartment by a crew from Phoenix who had been dispatched at 3am and still had to drive all the way back that night... The overtime must have been crazy.

[storewanderer]

Let's face it, the main issue is gun sales which are difficult in California. But Bass Pro has been able to make it work, I'm seeing a lot of growth in another gun focused chain called Sportsman's Warehouse which is taking over old office supply size stores, a couple have opened along I-15 in Riverside county. I'm sure Scheels could make it work. Hobby Lobby has managed to make California one of their top grossing markets in less than a decade.

As far as the deliveries are concerned, it seems like California's old standard of "no tax on CA deliveries as long as you have no CA facilities" doesn't really hold up anymore and Scheels might not want the paperwork or dealings with the CA FTB; I'm not sure if the law changed when they made the infamous deal with the devil Amazon which enabled them to build warehouses everywhere and assemble a delivery driver army... Hard to believe that not too long ago there were no Amazon facilities at all in CA... I remember ordering a large TV and it was delivered to my LA County apartment by a crew from Phoenix who had been dispatched at 3am and still had to drive all the way back that night... The overtime must have been crazy.

Scheel's is not nearly as dependent on gun sales as Cabelas is. Their gun department/operation was quite slow up until gun sales took off in recent years and it has gotten busier. Those first years Scheels was open in Sparks it was not unusual to see the gun department empty or just with 1-2 customers even when the rest of the store was busy. This isn't the case anymore, but that gun department still isn't nearly as busy as the Cabelas gun department. I actually think you could open a Scheel's with no guns at all and it would still be very successful.

Sportsman's Warehouse had a pending merger with Bass Pro/Cabalas but it got called off, FTC concerns or something. Sportsman's Warehouse has been in business in Reno for many years (before Scheels and Cabela's) and started as a Utah based chain then went bankrupt and sold some stores off to some Canadian chain, and I don't know who owns them now.