I'm the fishing manager at the Riverdale Sportsman's, but don't tell the company, I am also good friends with a couple of Cabelas managers in other states. LOL
All of us in the industry are being hit hard. I hear the question at least a dozen times a day "are you going out of business?".
My normal answer is 'no more than Walmart' when they ran out of toilet paper. The same thing that caused the toilet paper to run out has caused fishing, hunting, kayaks, canoes, LIFE JACKETS, and on and on and on to run out. Yes, it is COVID-19. People are doing outdoors things at a rate never seen before.
I tell people that we in the industry sit on a three legged stool. Remove one leg and you are pretty unstable. Remove two and you pretty much can't stay up. Remove all three and you are flat on your behind.
Leg one was the fact that we brilliant Americans have 70% plus of our fishing, hunting, camping, etc., made overseas, especially China. SW, and our competitors, have no control over that. China got the COVID-19 first and production stopped. Even other companies that make most of the product in the US, like Berkley PowerBait, still get components/ingredients from other sources overseas. Leg one broke.
Leg two was the fact that when product is shipped, it goes by, oh ya, "ship". The ports they go to when the product is made in Asia are Washington, Oregon, and California. Anyone watching the news knows that those three states are pretty much not allowing anyone to work. Ships are being unloaded slowly at best, and the product is staged in local Warehouses that are also pretty much not being worked. Leg two broke.
Leg three, if it even mattered, is the number of people buying outdoor sports product. Our fishing sales are off the charts, way way above normal. Cases in point is PowerBait. I was out, so very out, so I got company permission to order on their credit card some for Memorial Day, way over our cost, and sale price, just to have something for the Holiday. It was sold out in a few hours, lost money doing it, but we wanted to serve our customers for what we thought would be a very short outage. We were out for several weeks after that but we got a huge Pallet of PowerBait, and several direct ships. We got enough to last a normal summer and then some, but it sold so fast we had to put a 4 jar per customer limit. We are out again, but hoping to get more soon.
Just please don't ask me when, my prediction methods are not working. I and my wife traveled the Northern part of the State, and we found some, small shipments here, small shipments there, and I have directed my customers to competitors when I could. How about sinkers? Same story, I am not sure that there is any to buy in the state. We were out for a long time, got a huge shipment and filled our pegs, and it was all gone in a little more than a week. Every direct shipment, every shipment from our Distribution Center, we hope, we hope hard. I told my customers where I saw sinkers as well, but was told by one competitor to STOP. 47 customers asked about PFD's/life jackets on Friday. Normally have over 600 in the store, but I have not been able to get more than 8 or 10 each week for over a month. No buyer, no planner, no manufacture could have planned for this increase in sales.
Each of those legs by themselves would have made any of our stores look sick, empty, bare, but with all three legs broken we are just trying to find a way to right ourselves.
Feel free to check out all of the competitors. I could give you the list, but many of you can check out your local store and confirm what I am saying.
I will say this much, plans are in the works for SW to step up to the plate, which means the other Brands are doing the same. WE ALL get freight in, and we all get different freight in each shipment. Maybe we will get sinkers this shipment, maybe one of our competitors will, but odds are that someone will get some, and when they do, they will be sold out fast.
This has been a year from He!!. I have been verbally assaulted for being out, called a liar, called lazy and told we had it in the back room, and I could go on. My competitors are the same, and I feel for them. Many competitors were shopping in my store when they ran out, as I did theirs. Now we all just complain to each other.
To answer the question, the problem is not limited to Sportsman's Warehouse, or to our competitors in Utah. It is coast to coast, North to South. Just when we think we see the light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel seems to get longer.
But, we at Sportsman's will continue to offer the best customer service possible, with what we have to provide. I expect that the other Brands are trying to do the same. I am told that COVID-19 will end, someway, somehow, and I look forward to that day. But, please note, it will not go away quickly, and the shelves will not get stocked quickly either. But, we will stock the shelves as fast as we possibly can.
I beg of you, please be kind to my employees when you visit, and be kind to the employees of my competitors as well. We are all doing what we can as fast as we can. And as for Riverdale, I would take offense if you did not say hi if you come in. Ask for Steve; if I don't have what you need, I can at lest complain about it with you.
Now, get out their and social distance. Is it not interesting that most fishing rods are over 6' long, the suggested distance. It must be a sign.
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