The gun counter had a one hour wait and the phone calls that were coming in were being asked to leave a message for later callback, which, historically, was unlikely to occur. Meanwhile the manager of that department sat in the back office looking over social media and texting his girlfriend. Another easy photo to take. He didn't even flinch as I moved a chair out of the way to take the photo.
The Fishing department has no employees. None. All questions regarding anything fishing related are answered with "I don't know" or the classic "let me get the manager"
Lastly, a photo of the tent sale last summer. If you look closely at the top left you'll see the five foot in diameter balloon I sent up into the stratosphere. This was the largest sale that store has ever had and the general manager, conveniently, took the entire week off. He never even saw that tent.
Of course, these are clever photos outlining the problems found throughout the retail industry. What's the real situation regarding Gander Mountain's bankruptcy? As I saw it play out over its last couple years was the result of rapid growth that failed to bring in new customers in a saturated market. The holiday shopping season of 2015 was unsuccessful, and the inventory of march 2016 revealed higher than expected shrink numbers. Leadership responded by firing a VP's and regional managers leading to a mass firing of store managers and department mangers. The process was carried out with shocking speed. The 2016 holiday season became another flop and bad inventory numbers followed as well.
A company that once had a beating heart full of great people with beaming smiles. One that began in 1960 as a ski slope in Wisconsin. The focus had shifted from selling outdoor products to selling apparel with stiff metrics on credit card applications. It will live on in my heart forever. I'm really going to miss having coffee in the camping closet with such close friends.
