I visited a Sports Authority once. I don't remember what I was looking for, but they didn't have it, and their inventory was mainly overpriced cheap t-shirts. It was obvious the chain was on its last leg, and they were going to either sell the business or close it entirely.
I worked at sports authority right before they closed. This video is spot on! We suffered from poor management and competition from online and physical retailers. Amazon and Dicks drew in a lot of sports authority customers. Our store also focused heavily on extra protection plans. As a sales associate I would gain more hours if I sold a large amount of product insurance plans.
I worked at Best Buy back in 2009 as a cashier & they stressed that we push their protection plans & we could get little bonuses if we sold enough. I never pushed them because most were overpriced & absolute garbage & would never be needed by the customer.
@@hawkeyestiguy Since the protection plan would occur the same time as the product warranty I figured that there's no point in paying for something that you get anyways.
The only time I ever stole from a store was a small hacky sack in a jar near the checkout of a Sports Authority when I was like 7. I like to imagine this one event sent them into eventual bankruptcy.
I hate those companies so much. Video is needed. They pretty much have Government backed monopolies or duopolies on the textbook and college testing markets.
I worked at Sports Authority in 1997. I was hired because of my field of expertise which was bicycles. That was fine until after a few weeks they decided to have me float around into different departments. I knew nothing about golf or exercise equipment or just about anything else pertaining to sports. Didn't matter, they stuck me into those departments without a lick of training and expected me to fake it.
I worked in Team Sports, and Exercise back in 96 where I learned the fine art of fake it till you make it during training. I had absolutely no clue what the hell I was talking about. Tennis racket what? Street Hockey where? and a Pro Trainer Treadmill does this how? HELLLLP!!!! My team lead just telling me breathe soak in the stories of each customer as a way to sale items using their own knowledge. In time I mastered the art of nonsensical bullsh*t, and getting the customer to hang onto my every word while doing it. Took me about 6 months to master that technique before I joined the Air Force. Meanwhile the returns would be as high as the complaints about us telling them total crap kept mounting so no wonder they went under in record time. LOL.
I had the same experience. I was a bike guy (actively racing or a strong history in road racing, triathlon, mountain bike and bmx) and watersports (I swam, dove and paddled too), hired in 1996 at the Ft Lauderdale flagship store. Gradually they had me trying to sell exercise equipment (treadmills, etc), then team sports gear (football, baseball) and then golf clubs too....I had no experience in any of those. I would have been much better to leave in my corner, rather than have me cover 2/3 of the store. I had no background in any of those other sports, so I was much less effective selling there. One thing they did really well was doing all their stocking of the store in the early morning hours before the store opened. That way once the doors opened, the store staff were all 100% focused on taking care of customers. Plus a lot of the back stock was stacked high and needed lifts and ladders to access, trying to do that with shoppers in the store would be a nightmare. The only people who really didn't float far were the guys behind the gun counter.
You should do the decline of borders! I was shocked and crushed when I found out it went out of business years ago. I remember driving there to buy a book and seeing the out of business sign- no warning!
I used to live in a location where there was a Sports Authority. I later moved to a different state where there was a Dick's Sporting Goods and a Bass Pro Shops. I thought the difference was just regional differences. I never considered that the Sports Authority had gone out of business. Wow. I liked them back in the day. I didn't have any particular complaints about them.
The one by me always seemed to be real grubby and poorly maintained and always seemed to have such low quality stuff and charge too much for it. I did like getting Gatorgum from there though.
Please do The Decline of Mervyn's, The Decline of Office Depot/Office Max, The Decline of Borders Books/Waldenbooks, and The Decline of CompUSA next. I already found a video talking about Circuit City as well as videos about Ames, Bradlees, and Caldor.
@@grahamparks1645 The RUclipsr's name was Bright Sun Films, he talked about Ames, Bradlees, and Circuit City. Another RUclipsr named Post Mortar made videos about Caldor and Service Merchandise.
Down here in S. Louisiana, SA's decline hastened when they stopped carrying firearms and thinned out the Hunting sections. I worked for them for a short while. Like many corporate chain stores, they were slow to adapt to local markets. SA was heavily vested in water sports equipment l, however in the Gulf South, most boat owners fish rather than water ski.
Same in Michigan. Their selection was similar all over the country. What is popular in the south, is not the same in the north. Then the moves out of hunting, fishing and camping. They started with handguns, then long guns followed. The fishing selection was next.
@@wilsonjw42 that may depend on where the Dicks location is at though. I live in Bakersfield(More Republican voters than Dems) and the Dicks store here sells firearms so I’m sure that store has nothing to worry about
Has there been a single public retail company that was purchased by a private equity fund in the 2000's that hasn't ended in bankruptcy? That seems like the kiss of death in your videos for years now!
generally that's because the 2008 crash happens not to long after followed by Amazon/online finishing these companies off. Albertson's is the answer your looking for though.
@@colemc18 Albertsons is still around. They expanded too fast in the early 2000's by buying other companies (I used to work at Albertsons from '95-02). So, instead of going bankrupt, they sold half of the company to a private equity group that ran it for a specified period of time, and then sold or closed them (most became a Cash Saver that later went out of business due to not paying their taxes). The other half of the actual Albertsons company, about half of those stores were sold to another company. (Food Lion, I think?). When things improved for Albertsons, they bought back those stores and then even bought United Grocery Stores in Texas. The private equity group ran their version of Albertsons as "Albertsons LLC", and the actual Albertsons is "Albertsons Inc"
Academy Sports + Outdoors is one of the few examples where private equity didn't just bleed the acquired company dry. KKR bought Academy 6-7 years ago and more recently took it public.
KMART! That makes sense. All I recall of the Sports Authority near my home was the sparse and sloppily stocked shelves. It's like shopping at Ross but with no good deals
I remember my Basketball coach recommended Sports Authority for our parents to buy our practice shoes because he didn’t want us messing up the team shoes. That’s always been my impression of Sports Authority.
I bought my last pair of basketball shoes at Sports Authority. They were the only place that had reasonably priced ones. I only played once a week for 2-3 months for an hour. Not the most stylish, but I wasn't trying to spend $80-$150.
I have worked for both Sports Authority and Dick's and there was a HUGE difference. Sports authority barely even got any new items in the inventory even before the bankruptcy was announced. Management didn't care and the employee discount was 50% off! Overall it was out of date. At Dicks, it was so much more polished, got new things really often, management cared, discount was 25%, and they really cared about customer service.
I loved that employee discount! I continued working 1 day a week for like a year when I started in Law Enforcement, just to keep the discount. Bought all my friends and family stuff as well. Too bad the one I worked at never sold any guns or ammo, slowly phased out fishing as well.
When I was growing up, everyone went here for sports equipment since it was so cheap and everything was in one place. But it did magically disappear overnight, which was kind of sad. Reminds me of another company that you may not have talked about yet called Gander Mountain, which was all about outdoor supplies (they had MEGA huge stores). I would love to hear your take on that company since it was essentially similar to Bass Pro, Cabella, and other brands that are still around. :)
I owned a Sporting Goods store in Orlando called All Seasons Sports. It began primarily furnishing uniforms and equipment to the local high schools in central Florida and people wanted me to open a store and with a lot of help from a lot of good friends I did. It was family owned and I kept it that way offering genuine friendly customer service with little markup. Didn't make tons of Money and got by comfortably but provided good sponsorship and gifts to the children and the struggling Youth leagues. Eventually I closed the doors 2 years after Sports Authority Opened walking distance or a stones throw away 🤔 hmmm there just may have been a stone or two tossed. Love your stuff keep up a great work.
They opened, marked their prices lower than yours and forced you to close? That similar thing happened to someone I had met who opened a party store, and a few years later, Party City showed up, dropped their prices lower than the smaller store until that small store closed, then, being the only party store in the area, they jacked the prices back up
Probably went out of business because of all the redbone fishing rods That had lifetime warranties on them you would exchange every time you broke or if you found one that was broke to get a new 1. I'd be shocked if anybody actually knew what I was talking about.
I went to that store a couple times out of curiosity. The employees kind of follow you around the store, and the prices are just outrageous! ! Walmart has the same crap for half the price. Why would I shop at Sports Authority?
Yep if I'm going to an outdoor, and sports store I'd rather go to Academy which supports 2A rights, that was a big problem with Sport Authority, and now Dicks(they got rid of 95% of their 2A inventory) which pissed off a large customer base which goes to stores like this.
I was followed around at a Sports Authority store several times. Was given the "Can I help you?" garbage every time. Never saw anything of quality, so I never returned.
I remember being a kid being dragged into this store because my cousin was playing a lot of sports so for birthdays I had to pick something out from there. I never returned once I was a teen, besides walking through if it lead me to the parking lot lol.
@@GamerGuyPlus I'm in the southeastern US, and we don't have Scheels. The best pure sportings goods store we have here is Academy high on some stuff, and priced about right on other stuff. Before pandemic it was the place to go for reasonable priced .22LR Remington Bucket O' Bullets, and CCI .22LR Bulk for my pistols. It was also one of the few places local outside the gun store I could walk into, and find shells for my 28 gauge pump action, of course Pandemic, and now Biden wanting to take away everything that's not a single shot, has people in panic mode still buying up whatever they can soon as they see it.
There was a Dick's Sporting Goods store in a mall I frequented. It also had a gym chain called Pump. So naturally the sign outside the mall said (and I am NOT making this up to be vulgar): Pump Dicks
I worked at sports authority for my first job in high school… I received absolutely no training on any sports equipment and most weekends, the busiest shopping days of the week, I would be the only person working in half the store covering shoes, team sports, golf and exercise departments. Got tired of being exploited and got a job at Kohls next door. Sports Authority went out of business the next summer
I worked at The Sports Authority for 7 years and was there during the Gart Sports buy out, Gart Sports spent a lot of money changing the store look, fixtures and at the same time cutting cost like a cleaning crew that kept the stores clean. Also the stores couldn’t fix the inventory for stolen items so we would go a year out of stock of items till they had a physical inventory done.
It was insane how little the stores were inventoried especially since the POS system was responsible for reporting to corporate what needed to be ordered. Every once in a while the GM or Ops manager should have us MOS damaged items so that we could get new items, but that would only be when a giant box was filled in the receiving area.
I used to work there circa 2008-2011.....you should imagine how much shrink and theft was done at those stores. I remember at one point they starting selling the Nintendo Wii. A few days after they launched it at the store I worked at, someone ended up stealing one out of the case.
TigerDirect is still around. They closed a few of their physical locations and switched to mostly online sales. They never did have a lot of physical locations to begin with.
I think a big reason for their demise is that they were primarily a big box general sporting goods store that offered little in terms of specialty to their local markets or customer service. In other words, if your store is in an area with lots of fishing, then provide an exhaustive array of fishing gear and on staff pros. If you are located in an area known for hunting, or camping, then specialize in those markets and meet all their needs. If you're surrounded by local high schools then you should be aggressively marketing to those athletic departments as a chief provider of uniforms, gear and everything those schools may need. If you're going to give yourself a name like Sports Authority, then live up to it. Be the authority.
Because their objective is not to revive the store but to drain as much assets out as possible, accrue tons of debt to pay them back and then shut down, leavening creditors holding the bag.
When I wanted a new bike, about 15 years ago, SA was the first place I went. Not one store worker even wanted to talk to me to see why I was there. The prices were not good. Why would I want to pay more for less service? I left. Target sold me a bike that day and left a great impression that I still have all these years later. It was SA's sale to lose and boy did they.
There was a Sports Authority next to my store's (Staples) tiny shopping center. After they went out of business, the sign stayed up for years while that part of the building remained empty. They finally took the sign down and divided it into a Bevmo and a Home Goods. It sure was nice having all their parking spots for years. Now it's impossible to find parking again.
Where I grew up we had a Big 5, Sports Authority, Sport Chalet and a Dick’s. In terms of quality it went like this 1. Sport Chalet 2. Dick’s 3. Sports Authority 4. Big 5 Sport Chalet was by far the best, killer sales, great staff and a huge selection for almost every sport ranging from fighting to scuba diving to wakeboarding.
Way overpriced even days before closing down they never made a single sale or price cuts. Even as they closed and needed some.last few customers they still wanted $800 for a tennis ball...
When big retailers like this close they're not the one doing the final sales. There are companies which specialize in coming in and doing all the final sales. You'll find almost none of the original employees there unless they're doing moving/janitorial duties. The thing you have to be care of is that they'll bring in other merchandise from other stores. This is leftover stuff they couldn't sell at the last place they were closing down. Some of it might be used and not marked that way. Or if its close it'll be "irregular" meaning it wasn't made correctly some how but they'll pass it off as the regular stuff anyway.
@@edwinrodriguez534 I mainly only saw decent sales on Black Friday, and even then stuff tended only to be worth when the raffle vouchers with random gift amounts on them had 50 bucks or so to cover some of it.
@@magusxxx Totally correct about this. Hilco is a liquidator, that does a lot of these such store closing/liquidation sales. Wouldn't be surprised if there were other companies, but often these companies hire Hilco. Hence why you often see the similar 'store closing', and 'everything must go!' signs that always look the same, at so many of these store closings. Weirdly enough, Macy's doesn't seem to use Hilco, and is the only time I've seen store closing signs that didn't look like the typical store closing signs I've seen during all other store closings(i.e. Borders, Sports Authority, etc).
Gart Sports used to be Gart Brothers. Their "Sports Castle" was awesome. They had an annual "SNIAGRAB: BARGAINS Spelled Backwards" sale. We rented skis, poles and boots from Gart Brothers for me four times while I was in 5th grade for the school sponsored trips to Copper Mountain.
SNIAGRAB was big thing here in Colorado. I was sad when they turned into Sports Authority. But its good to know that they bought SA. It was just dumb of them to want to expand. Did they honestly think that market for sporting equipment would be the same in every state? Maybe if they sold firearms it would be similar but I can't imagine the NY outdoor was similar to CO.
@@sydneyferon They are doing pretty meh at the moment last I checked. It's a really neat place, but pricing is definitely killing them versus the online market to some extent. They've tried to adjust that recently, but it might be too little too late.
Has anyone thought about the fact that the key to these types of stores failing in this time period was the same thing--building a company for nothing more than profit while neglecting to build up a company foundation.....something that used to be done decades before. Greed was the only reason stores like SA and others like them temporarily existed.
I work part time at a Dick's Sporting Goods, and we have a poster in the break room showing the past, present, and future successes of the Dick's chain. And on the corner of the poster, it shows hurdle jumpers jumping over a tombstone. The tombstone has Sports Authority's logo on it.
The one by me has been an empty shell of what it once was and there has been no mention if someone's interested or if its ever gonna be occupied. Its probably already going for its 6th year like that
I never went to Sports Authority, but this video reminds me of Steve and Barry's, a clothing chain that was mostly centered in malls and was best known for their college-themed products. They folded in 2009 in the wake of the recession, and I think they're deserving of a video as well.
I liked Steve & Barry;s, I still have Froot Loops and Corn Flakes T-shirts from them, still holding up well. IIRC there were some financial shenanigans that led to their failure.
I’m a day late but this was uploaded on my birthday! Although, I never knew the true state of Sports Authority, I used be a pretty faithful customer until recently.
Fates of my former local Sports Authority stores: Exton - Now a Sierra King of Prussia - Now a Lidl Lancaster - Now a Burlington North Wales - Now a HomeSense Warrington - Now a T.J.Maxx Lansdale - Torn down a replaced with a Home Depot Whitehall - Now a Gabe's Easton - Now a Burlington Abington - Now a Michaels
This was a good video!!! I use to live in Colorado and I worked at Big 5 sporting goods and while working there I remember the day Sports Authority went out of business and it was big deal considering it was our competition. What I never knew until this video was that it was possibly a Gart store at one time (hell I didn’t even know Gart existed until this vid). Because Sports Authority was the name of Denver’s stadium I always thought Sports Authority started out there. This was very interesting.
Gee, what a rough situation. Wow. I remember when I played football, back in high school, going in there. It was pretty cool, and well, a product of it's time. Without innovation, it went the way of the Dodo.
Now I know why the store disappeared years ago that I sometimes went to after the gym since it was literally next door. I thought that was the perfect place to have a sporting goods store.
Near where I currently live, there's a plaza that once had JoAnne Fabrics, Michaels, *and* A.C. Moore, and the Michael's and A.C. Moore were right next to each other! Now, the A.C. Moore is gone, which was pretty inevitable considering that Michaels sold most (if not all) of the same craft stuff and then some. I don't personally shop for art supplies much, though, so I wouldn't know where would be the best place to go aside from local businesses.
I worked at a michaels for about 2 weeks in 2011 or so. We didn’t get much training…I unloaded trucks, stocked product and also worked the floor and the till. It wasn’t that bad except that work started at 3 am sometimes I got tired of waking up at 3 freezing my butt off in the winter pretty quick as a teenager and figured I had better options. They still get a bit of my money since my daughter loves to buy craft supplies there.
@@embercoral I live in Cary, NC and also have all three of those stores near each other. Two of them in the same plaza, and the other a block away. Either a strange coincidence, or we're in the same city.
went to a new york sports club that had a sports authority in the same strip mall. store came in clutch. definitely miss it. but now both stores are gone
Company Man, I would like to see an in-depth T mobile video from you, as I think that you are quite talented in the ways of explaining the history of companies in a way that anyone can understand. Please consider my recammendation and reply to this comment if it is something you would be interested in. Thank you for what you do.
This was the first job I ever had. I was there until the downfall. Then I transitioned into another downward spiraling company, Best Buy. Eventually I just worked for my university and graduated. The point is, Amazon is killing everyone.
I remember having a fantastic Sports Authority near my house. I visited often, and there really has never been a comparable replacement since it closed.
would love to see you do a video on Sports Basement - a (currently) california-only chain that’s quite possibly the best sporting goods / outdoors store i’ve ever been to, and a chain that, however small for now, seems to be perpetually thriving and expanding at a time when so many other retail chains are doing the opposite.
I think Dicks just was more interactive. It’s a sports megastore with sports going on inside that was enough to get people to walk in the door and ultimately steal competition
I think I shopped there only a few times during their 13-ish year existence in my hometown. For the most part a lot of sports equipment was bought through more general stores like Target, Walmart or clothing stores.
I used to buy two things from Sports Authority, New Balance shoes and guns. I bought my first revolver, my first shotgun, and my first.22 mag rifle in the 90's. Still have them. As for the shoes....they don't last that long!!!
Honestly I remember most of this but I still laughed when I heard the word Kmart. Trouble ahead for sure. BTW, for reasons I don't even recall, Herman's was my favorite such store of them all.
according to Sports Authority wiki page, they are coming back but we don't know if they will have any stores or just be online only.The only reason I knew about this company was because of Denver Broncos stadium.
It's interesting you say Sports Authority had good prices because from what I remember we rarely shopped there because everything seemed like it was overpriced.
Yeah, that must've been in the later years where a lot of their "equipment" was recreational at best. They had this weird habit of getting rid of certain departments/product lines if the company as a whole didn't sell well, sometimes at the expense of states that actually produced numbers in that department. Polar opposite would be getting items well after the trend ends...like when Razor scooters were selling like hot cakes, but Sports Authority got them when the demand wasn't there, so we sat on those for awhile.
I know it's kind of a regional brand but id love a video on Academy Sports + Outdoors. They went public last year and they seem to be doing well. They always seem to have more customers than a dicks as well
I got a $100 sports authority gift card from my aunt for Christmas like a month before they went outta business. I was gonna buy a new bat with it Edit: okay maybe not a MONTH before they closed but it felt like it
I find it surprising how many Gart Sports were out my way that were also converted to Sports Authority. Even here in Cheyenne Wyoming at my Frontier Mall, what once was Sports Authority started as Gart!
I started shopping at Sports Authority right before it announced it was shutting down, it was decent however they didn't have that much diversity in their stock.
@@jpman2173 the sports authority in my area was pretty identical to the selection of products as academy I think the problem sports authority had was they opened too many stores and switched ownerships too many times while they were in debt
i remember going to discovery zone when i was a kid. i was just young enough to enjoy it. my mom would make me look after my little brother and his friends mostly lol.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
My buddy managed one, that probably played a roll in their demise lol.
Lmfao wow
That's pretty funny
I laughed out loud at this. please keep commenting.
@@realsleepi lmaooooo
😂
Holy crap I forgot sports authority ever existed, this unlocked a new memory.
Right? I used to shop there often
Same 😳
I visited a Sports Authority once. I don't remember what I was looking for, but they didn't have it, and their inventory was mainly overpriced cheap t-shirts. It was obvious the chain was on its last leg, and they were going to either sell the business or close it entirely.
You born in like the mid 2000's or something?
What about sport chalet
I worked at sports authority right before they closed. This video is spot on! We suffered from poor management and competition from online and physical retailers. Amazon and Dicks drew in a lot of sports authority customers. Our store also focused heavily on extra protection plans. As a sales associate I would gain more hours if I sold a large amount of product insurance plans.
Customers don't like being asked if they want warranties or other protection plans.
I worked at Best Buy back in 2009 as a cashier & they stressed that we push their protection plans & we could get little bonuses if we sold enough. I never pushed them because most were overpriced & absolute garbage & would never be needed by the customer.
@@R32R38 Maybe not, but if you don't and it breaks a few years down the line, they will sure also complain that no one ever offered them one.
@@hawkeyestiguy Since the protection plan would occur the same time as the product warranty I figured that there's no point in paying for something that you get anyways.
@@LOTR_BTTF not true as those plans never cover what the issue is. Consumers HATE them.
The only time I ever stole from a store was a small hacky sack in a jar near the checkout of a Sports Authority when I was like 7. I like to imagine this one event sent them into eventual bankruptcy.
Dammit man, you killed the whole thing and left us with Dick's. :D
Gotta appreciate how committed this man is to his channel
How about a series on testing companies - Pearson, College Board
Yes please!
and 'why they're hated'
@@ethanma3916 I hate pearson with a burning passion
I hate those companies so much. Video is needed. They pretty much have Government backed monopolies or duopolies on the textbook and college testing markets.
@@jr2_93 same here, I also hate Top Hat as well
I worked at Sports Authority in 1997. I was hired because of my field of expertise which was bicycles. That was fine until after a few weeks they decided to have me float around into different departments. I knew nothing about golf or exercise equipment or just about anything else pertaining to sports. Didn't matter, they stuck me into those departments without a lick of training and expected me to fake it.
I worked in Team Sports, and Exercise back in 96 where I learned the fine art of fake it till you make it during training. I had absolutely no clue what the hell I was talking about. Tennis racket what? Street Hockey where? and a Pro Trainer Treadmill does this how? HELLLLP!!!! My team lead just telling me breathe soak in the stories of each customer as a way to sale items using their own knowledge. In time I mastered the art of nonsensical bullsh*t, and getting the customer to hang onto my every word while doing it. Took me about 6 months to master that technique before I joined the Air Force. Meanwhile the returns would be as high as the complaints about us telling them total crap kept mounting so no wonder they went under in record time. LOL.
@@hennagan99 So I wasn't the only one. Cool! Now I don't feel like a total loser.
That's typical of any retail store
I had the same experience. I was a bike guy (actively racing or a strong history in road racing, triathlon, mountain bike and bmx) and watersports (I swam, dove and paddled too), hired in 1996 at the Ft Lauderdale flagship store. Gradually they had me trying to sell exercise equipment (treadmills, etc), then team sports gear (football, baseball) and then golf clubs too....I had no experience in any of those. I would have been much better to leave in my corner, rather than have me cover 2/3 of the store. I had no background in any of those other sports, so I was much less effective selling there.
One thing they did really well was doing all their stocking of the store in the early morning hours before the store opened. That way once the doors opened, the store staff were all 100% focused on taking care of customers. Plus a lot of the back stock was stacked high and needed lifts and ladders to access, trying to do that with shoppers in the store would be a nightmare.
The only people who really didn't float far were the guys behind the gun counter.
I've noticed that Home Depot does this a lot too. They'll put a paint guy in the garden section or a lumber guy in the appliance section.
Sports authority was the Borders of sports stores while Dicks is the Barnes & Nobles
what does that mean?
@@LouBinetti Two large competitors in the same industry. One succeeded (Dick's, Barnes), one eventually failed (SA, Borders).
That's funny because sports authority and borders used to be owned by kmart at one point
@@LouBinetti the shitty one survived
That reminds me, the Criterion movie 1/2 off sale ends at B&N this weekend.
You should do the decline of borders! I was shocked and crushed when I found out it went out of business years ago. I remember driving there to buy a book and seeing the out of business sign- no warning!
I still miss Borders.
Yes Borders
Same. We got it replaced with BAM and it’s just not the same. And I’m not holding my breath for when that shuts down.
I used to live in a location where there was a Sports Authority. I later moved to a different state where there was a Dick's Sporting Goods and a Bass Pro Shops. I thought the difference was just regional differences. I never considered that the Sports Authority had gone out of business. Wow. I liked them back in the day. I didn't have any particular complaints about them.
Do you think company man would make a vid on bass pro shop ? I have one nearby its huge
@@fallentenno2297 ive been to the one in Memphis that’s a pyramid
@@TheBlackAztec3 it wasn't meant for the bass pro shop. It was an arena.
@@marley1995 Yea I know Im just saying it was a big bass pro shop when I went there that was years ago though, so im not sure if it’s still there
Thank you for your anonymity too many people advertise where they're from and that can't do anything good
The one by me always seemed to be real grubby and poorly maintained and always seemed to have such low quality stuff and charge too much for it. I did like getting Gatorgum from there though.
You must live near me... Lol
And anything K-Mart touched literally failed.
Same
Please do The Decline of Mervyn's, The Decline of Office Depot/Office Max, The Decline of Borders Books/Waldenbooks, and The Decline of CompUSA next. I already found a video talking about Circuit City as well as videos about Ames, Bradlees, and Caldor.
Ooh I’d be interested in links to videos about Ames & Bradlees
@@grahamparks1645 A user named TheBrightSun or something, I don’t remember the name, made a video about those
Walmart is essentially the answer to why so many department stores failed in the 90s. Could throw in Service Merchandise too.
@@maxpowr90 A RUclipsr named Post Mortar already covered Service Merchandise.
@@grahamparks1645 The RUclipsr's name was Bright Sun Films, he talked about Ames, Bradlees, and Circuit City. Another RUclipsr named Post Mortar made videos about Caldor and Service Merchandise.
Oh, wow!!! Sports Authority is GONE?!!! I didn’t even know this!🤷🏽♂️
Dick’s overshadowed them
Same here. I was looking for one here in my area in Texas but I only see Dick's and Academy.
@@Movypro23 Michael Scott enters the chat…
I was thinking the same thing lol
They're gone man! They're gone!
Down here in S. Louisiana, SA's decline hastened when they stopped carrying firearms and thinned out the Hunting sections. I worked for them for a short while. Like many corporate chain stores, they were slow to adapt to local markets. SA was heavily vested in water sports equipment l, however in the Gulf South, most boat owners fish rather than water ski.
Same thing here in central Florida
Dick's took a hard anti-gun stance, so their time is coming.
Same in Michigan. Their selection was similar all over the country. What is popular in the south, is not the same in the north. Then the moves out of hunting, fishing and camping. They started with handguns, then long guns followed. The fishing selection was next.
@@wilsonjw42 that may depend on where the Dicks location is at though. I live in Bakersfield(More Republican voters than Dems) and the Dicks store here sells firearms so I’m sure that store has nothing to worry about
Yea you can thank Rosie O’Donnell for that but same thing happened here in jersey
"Private Equity Firm" is always bad news...
And it usually comes in conjunction with "Leveraged Buyout".
@@nitehawk86 IIRC the only company covered so far that survived this one-two punch is Dennys.
They're never truly private. Smh
"The buyout was, in some part, leveraged"
Has there been a single public retail company that was purchased by a private equity fund in the 2000's that hasn't ended in bankruptcy? That seems like the kiss of death in your videos for years now!
generally that's because the 2008 crash happens not to long after followed by Amazon/online finishing these companies off. Albertson's is the answer your looking for though.
Having any affiliation with Kmart seems to be a kiss of death. Think about Borders Group and Office Depot/OfficeMax
@@colemc18 Albertsons is still around. They expanded too fast in the early 2000's by buying other companies (I used to work at Albertsons from '95-02). So, instead of going bankrupt, they sold half of the company to a private equity group that ran it for a specified period of time, and then sold or closed them (most became a Cash Saver that later went out of business due to not paying their taxes).
The other half of the actual Albertsons company, about half of those stores were sold to another company. (Food Lion, I think?). When things improved for Albertsons, they bought back those stores and then even bought United Grocery Stores in Texas.
The private equity group ran their version of Albertsons as "Albertsons LLC", and the actual Albertsons is "Albertsons Inc"
Academy Sports + Outdoors is one of the few examples where private equity didn't just bleed the acquired company dry. KKR bought Academy 6-7 years ago and more recently took it public.
Denny's?
KMART! That makes sense. All I recall of the Sports Authority near my home was the sparse and sloppily stocked shelves. It's like shopping at Ross but with no good deals
Out of every comment yours had to pop up in the section and spoiled it before I could press play
has he done a ross video?
You hit it right on the head of the nail. Ross always looks like a bomb went off in there.
Been to Ross once, crappy store.
So true !!!!
I rarely bought anything from Sports Authority. Their selection seemed outdated and overpriced, especially with basketball shoes.
I remember my Basketball coach recommended Sports Authority for our parents to buy our practice shoes because he didn’t want us messing up the team shoes. That’s always been my impression of Sports Authority.
I bought my last pair of basketball shoes at Sports Authority. They were the only place that had reasonably priced ones. I only played once a week for 2-3 months for an hour. Not the most stylish, but I wasn't trying to spend $80-$150.
I have worked for both Sports Authority and Dick's and there was a HUGE difference. Sports authority barely even got any new items in the inventory even before the bankruptcy was announced. Management didn't care and the employee discount was 50% off! Overall it was out of date. At Dicks, it was so much more polished, got new things really often, management cared, discount was 25%, and they really cared about customer service.
I loved that employee discount! I continued working 1 day a week for like a year when I started in Law Enforcement, just to keep the discount. Bought all my friends and family stuff as well. Too bad the one I worked at never sold any guns or ammo, slowly phased out fishing as well.
When I was growing up, everyone went here for sports equipment since it was so cheap and everything was in one place. But it did magically disappear overnight, which was kind of sad. Reminds me of another company that you may not have talked about yet called Gander Mountain, which was all about outdoor supplies (they had MEGA huge stores). I would love to hear your take on that company since it was essentially similar to Bass Pro, Cabella, and other brands that are still around. :)
I owned a Sporting Goods store in Orlando called All Seasons Sports. It began primarily furnishing uniforms and equipment to the local high schools in central Florida and people wanted me to open a store and with a lot of help from a lot of good friends I did.
It was family owned and I kept it that way offering genuine friendly customer service with little markup.
Didn't make tons of Money and got by comfortably but provided good sponsorship and gifts to the children and the struggling Youth leagues.
Eventually I closed the doors 2 years after Sports Authority Opened walking distance or a stones throw away 🤔 hmmm there just may have been a stone or two tossed. Love your stuff keep up a great work.
They opened, marked their prices lower than yours and forced you to close? That similar thing happened to someone I had met who opened a party store, and a few years later, Party City showed up, dropped their prices lower than the smaller store until that small store closed, then, being the only party store in the area, they jacked the prices back up
@@kalstonii
Capitalism at its finest... More like Darwinism
Probably went out of business because of all the redbone fishing rods That had lifetime warranties on them you would exchange every time you broke or if you found one that was broke to get a new 1. I'd be shocked if anybody actually knew what I was talking about.
😂
@@LloydAlmighty lol I’m the 69th liked person
How could that probably be the reason they went out of business if you’d be shocked if anyone knew what you were talking about
I've still got a couple of the Redbone rods.
Put me on more game I love these loop holes 🙏🏽😂
I went to that store a couple times out of curiosity. The employees kind of follow you around the store, and the prices are just outrageous! ! Walmart has the same crap for half the price. Why would I shop at Sports Authority?
Yep if I'm going to an outdoor, and sports store I'd rather go to Academy which supports 2A rights, that was a big problem with Sport Authority, and now Dicks(they got rid of 95% of their 2A inventory) which pissed off a large customer base which goes to stores like this.
I was followed around at a Sports Authority store several times. Was given the "Can I help you?" garbage every time. Never saw anything of quality, so I never returned.
I remember being a kid being dragged into this store because my cousin was playing a lot of sports so for birthdays I had to pick something out from there. I never returned once I was a teen, besides walking through if it lead me to the parking lot lol.
@@GamerGuyPlus I'm in the southeastern US, and we don't have Scheels. The best pure sportings goods store we have here is Academy high on some stuff, and priced about right on other stuff. Before pandemic it was the place to go for reasonable priced .22LR Remington Bucket O' Bullets, and CCI .22LR Bulk for my pistols. It was also one of the few places local outside the gun store I could walk into, and find shells for my 28 gauge pump action, of course Pandemic, and now Biden wanting to take away everything that's not a single shot, has people in panic mode still buying up whatever they can soon as they see it.
That is the way I feel about Dick's. I go to a Big 5 sporting goods store if I need anything.
There was a Dick's Sporting Goods store in a mall I frequented. It also had a gym chain called Pump.
So naturally the sign outside the mall said (and I am NOT making this up to be vulgar):
Pump
Dicks
😂😂😂
There is an IHOP on Cox road near me
Better than “Dicks Pump”
I laughed so hard I slammed my face on my cereal lol
Sounds like a exotic shop lol
@@lauralee7146😂. Literal LOL 💀 😂
I worked at sports authority for my first job in high school… I received absolutely no training on any sports equipment and most weekends, the busiest shopping days of the week, I would be the only person working in half the store covering shoes, team sports, golf and exercise departments. Got tired of being exploited and got a job at Kohls next door. Sports Authority went out of business the next summer
I worked at The Sports Authority for 7 years and was there during the Gart Sports buy out, Gart Sports spent a lot of money changing the store look, fixtures and at the same time cutting cost like a cleaning crew that kept the stores clean. Also the stores couldn’t fix the inventory for stolen items so we would go a year out of stock of items till they had a physical inventory done.
A year out of stock is pretty much a dirge song for any company.
It was insane how little the stores were inventoried especially since the POS system was responsible for reporting to corporate what needed to be ordered. Every once in a while the GM or Ops manager should have us MOS damaged items so that we could get new items, but that would only be when a giant box was filled in the receiving area.
I used to work there circa 2008-2011.....you should imagine how much shrink and theft was done at those stores. I remember at one point they starting selling the Nintendo Wii. A few days after they launched it at the store I worked at, someone ended up stealing one out of the case.
I loved that store. It was next door to CompUSA..... WHICH YOU SHOULD DO NEXT !!!!!! CompUSA / Tiger Direct !
Never even heard of them
I second this
💯 definitely need a vid on comp usa
They still have those
TigerDirect is still around. They closed a few of their physical locations and switched to mostly online sales. They never did have a lot of physical locations to begin with.
I think you forgot about the Nike and UnderArmor v Sports Authority lawsuit that happened just before the bankruptcy.
I never heard of sports authority but when company man drops a video i must watch
I think a big reason for their demise is that they were primarily a big box general sporting goods store that offered little in terms of specialty to their local markets or customer service. In other words, if your store is in an area with lots of fishing, then provide an exhaustive array of fishing gear and on staff pros. If you are located in an area known for hunting, or camping, then specialize in those markets and meet all their needs. If you're surrounded by local high schools then you should be aggressively marketing to those athletic departments as a chief provider of uniforms, gear and everything those schools may need. If you're going to give yourself a name like Sports Authority, then live up to it. Be the authority.
Why does it seem like every single failing business was purchased by a private equity fund?
That's what they do best
they have the capital and resources. a lot of them see it as a way to diversify as well.
Because their objective is not to revive the store but to drain as much assets out as possible, accrue tons of debt to pay them back and then shut down, leavening creditors holding the bag.
@@williammyers269 essentially kicking a dead horse and milking every last cent out of the company
Check out the people that normally run these private equity firms. There's a pattern there.
You should do the rise and fall of Ronco in light of Ron Popeil's death.
I think you should just set it and forget it.
When I wanted a new bike, about 15 years ago, SA was the first place I went. Not one store worker even wanted to talk to me to see why I was there. The prices were not good. Why would I want to pay more for less service? I left. Target sold me a bike that day and left a great impression that I still have all these years later. It was SA's sale to lose and boy did they.
There was a Sports Authority next to my store's (Staples) tiny shopping center. After they went out of business, the sign stayed up for years while that part of the building remained empty. They finally took the sign down and divided it into a Bevmo and a Home Goods. It sure was nice having all their parking spots for years. Now it's impossible to find parking again.
Omg, my sports authority near me also turned into a home goods as well!!
Love your videos man. Well researched, always asking us to do our part in coming to our own conclusions, respectful of all parties involved.
I hope
One day you can talk about Hastings. That store defined my childhood finding good games at discount prices! And books too🤣
You know it’s bad when Kmart gets involved smh
LITERALLY LMAO
Yes
We love you Company Man, always putting out interesting videos!
i actually get excited when i see that youve posted a new video. im not even sick/annoyed by your intro music yet..
and thats saying alot lol
Had to watch this as it's where I got 90% of my gear back in the 90s. Love your content - keep up the great work!
That Rockstar comparison is spot on. I remember my uncle shopping there as a kid
Same but my brother's got some of their sports gear there.
My town got our Sports Authority in 2015-16 it closed in 2019-2020
what? They closed in 2016 but they closed in 2020?
I remember going to Sports Authority as a kid and loving it, but then all of a sudden they had a huge clearance sale and were gone soon after
Where I grew up we had a Big 5, Sports Authority, Sport Chalet and a Dick’s.
In terms of quality it went like this
1. Sport Chalet
2. Dick’s
3. Sports Authority
4. Big 5
Sport Chalet was by far the best, killer sales, great staff and a huge selection for almost every sport ranging from fighting to scuba diving to wakeboarding.
blows my mind how their best years were with Kmart
Way overpriced even days before closing down they never made a single sale or price cuts. Even as they closed and needed some.last few customers they still wanted $800 for a tennis ball...
Fake news. I was getting sales left and right for anything I could lay my eyes on
@@kevs2good133 maybe where you lived it was like that, but not in Puerto Rico at least
When big retailers like this close they're not the one doing the final sales. There are companies which specialize in coming in and doing all the final sales. You'll find almost none of the original employees there unless they're doing moving/janitorial duties. The thing you have to be care of is that they'll bring in other merchandise from other stores. This is leftover stuff they couldn't sell at the last place they were closing down. Some of it might be used and not marked that way. Or if its close it'll be "irregular" meaning it wasn't made correctly some how but they'll pass it off as the regular stuff anyway.
@@edwinrodriguez534 I mainly only saw decent sales on Black Friday, and even then stuff tended only to be worth when the raffle vouchers with random gift amounts on them had 50 bucks or so to cover some of it.
@@magusxxx Totally correct about this. Hilco is a liquidator, that does a lot of these such store closing/liquidation sales. Wouldn't be surprised if there were other companies, but often these companies hire Hilco. Hence why you often see the similar 'store closing', and 'everything must go!' signs that always look the same, at so many of these store closings. Weirdly enough, Macy's doesn't seem to use Hilco, and is the only time I've seen store closing signs that didn't look like the typical store closing signs I've seen during all other store closings(i.e. Borders, Sports Authority, etc).
Gart Sports used to be Gart Brothers. Their "Sports Castle" was awesome. They had an annual "SNIAGRAB: BARGAINS Spelled Backwards" sale. We rented skis, poles and boots from Gart Brothers for me four times while I was in 5th grade for the school sponsored trips to Copper Mountain.
SNIAGRAB was big thing here in Colorado. I was sad when they turned into Sports Authority. But its good to know that they bought SA. It was just dumb of them to want to expand. Did they honestly think that market for sporting equipment would be the same in every state? Maybe if they sold firearms it would be similar but I can't imagine the NY outdoor was similar to CO.
Speaking of speciality stores, you've got to do a Guitar Center one!
There almost gone…give it some time
How are they doing?
He did like a year or two ago
Yes please! I need to know more!!!
@@sydneyferon They are doing pretty meh at the moment last I checked. It's a really neat place, but pricing is definitely killing them versus the online market to some extent. They've tried to adjust that recently, but it might be too little too late.
Has anyone thought about the fact that the key to these types of stores failing in this time period was the same thing--building a company for nothing more than profit while neglecting to build up a company foundation.....something that used to be done decades before.
Greed was the only reason stores like SA and others like them temporarily existed.
I work part time at a Dick's Sporting Goods, and we have a poster in the break room showing the past, present, and future successes of the Dick's chain. And on the corner of the poster, it shows hurdle jumpers jumping over a tombstone. The tombstone has Sports Authority's logo on it.
That's cold 😂
Wow
😂
Used to have a Sports Authority close to my house, but now it's a Dick's Sporting goods. The cycle continues.
The sports authority in my city got turned into a Burlington coat factory
The one by me is a Round 1 arcade now
@@cameronszachta3116 And the one in Riverdale still has no permanent tenant, they will still have a Halloween store at least once more!
Same the one by me is a dicks now
The one by me has been an empty shell of what it once was and there has been no mention if someone's interested or if its ever gonna be occupied. Its probably already going for its 6th year like that
I never went to Sports Authority, but this video reminds me of Steve and Barry's, a clothing chain that was mostly centered in malls and was best known for their college-themed products. They folded in 2009 in the wake of the recession, and I think they're deserving of a video as well.
I liked Steve & Barry;s, I still have Froot Loops and Corn Flakes T-shirts from them, still holding up well. IIRC there were some financial shenanigans that led to their failure.
I totally forgot about that chain
They also had the Starberry shoes that were like $15 bucks.
Nothing like that...
Great idea
I’m a day late but this was uploaded on my birthday! Although, I never knew the true state of Sports Authority, I used be a pretty faithful customer until recently.
I miss Sports Authority! This was the place where we ALL wanted to work as a high school teenager!!
Fates of my former local Sports Authority stores:
Exton - Now a Sierra
King of Prussia - Now a Lidl
Lancaster - Now a Burlington
North Wales - Now a HomeSense
Warrington - Now a T.J.Maxx
Lansdale - Torn down a replaced with a Home Depot
Whitehall - Now a Gabe's
Easton - Now a Burlington
Abington - Now a Michaels
I worked at the Dick’s across the street from the Whitehall store, and would be sent there to comparison shop, and was always amazed how empty it was.
What? Kmart made renovations to their stores? I thought they hadn’t been changed since 1991
They are so full of it, I’m still waiting for those renovations because every KMART I’ve been into looks like it’s from the 80s
That was the plan. But they kept losing money and market share.
When george Wrigley died the didn’t bury him they stuck him the underside of a KMart lunch counter ba da boom
@@Hogtownboy1 he’s buried in one of the little caesars
@@nslouka90 my mistake
Talking about sport business, I think you should talk about the decline of Sport Chalet too.
Went out of business the same year it turns out
Anytime these videos mention Private Equity Firm you know it is the death knell for the company featured in the video.
There was a Sports Authority right by my house! I had no idea it went out of business!
This was a good video!!! I use to live in Colorado and I worked at Big 5 sporting goods and while working there I remember the day Sports Authority went out of business and it was big deal considering it was our competition. What I never knew until this video was that it was possibly a Gart store at one time (hell I didn’t even know Gart existed until this vid). Because Sports Authority was the name of Denver’s stadium I always thought Sports Authority started out there. This was very interesting.
The closest Sports Authority in my area (Citrus Heights) got turned into an Old Navy…I never went to the store much
Was it by the target? Or near the neighborhood Walmart and Home Depot on Madison? I’ve only been in sac for a few years
I've seen it before
You shopped at sports authority instead of sport chalet?
@@jfdesignsinc.innovationsid1583 It was
I live in Miami and the same thing happened lol
Gee, what a rough situation. Wow. I remember when I played football, back in high school, going in there. It was pretty cool, and well, a product of it's time. Without innovation, it went the way of the Dodo.
Only thing I remember when I was a kid about this place was playing in various rooms like the half-tennis court and basketball rooms
I remember buying some of their display cases when they were closing the store near my apartment in 1998.
Who remembers Sniagrab that Gart's used to do? And also the cool store that was on Broadway in Denver?
Now I know why the store disappeared years ago that I sometimes went to after the gym since it was literally next door. I thought that was the perfect place to have a sporting goods store.
The Sports Authority near me had closed and to this day the building is still for lease.
Can you do Micheals, I really can’t recommend them for art supplies. The one in my area doesn’t have trained enough staff.
Agree, Micheals is more of a crafts store. For art supplies, it's best to go to a local, independent store since they take it more seriously.
My local Michaels just closed :/
(There's still others in the general area, but still)
Near where I currently live, there's a plaza that once had JoAnne Fabrics, Michaels, *and* A.C. Moore, and the Michael's and A.C. Moore were right next to each other! Now, the A.C. Moore is gone, which was pretty inevitable considering that Michaels sold most (if not all) of the same craft stuff and then some.
I don't personally shop for art supplies much, though, so I wouldn't know where would be the best place to go aside from local businesses.
I worked at a michaels for about 2 weeks in 2011 or so. We didn’t get much training…I unloaded trucks, stocked product and also worked the floor and the till. It wasn’t that bad except that work started at 3 am sometimes
I got tired of waking up at 3 freezing my butt off in the winter pretty quick as a teenager and figured I had better options.
They still get a bit of my money since my daughter loves to buy craft supplies there.
@@embercoral I live in Cary, NC and also have all three of those stores near each other. Two of them in the same plaza, and the other a block away. Either a strange coincidence, or we're in the same city.
The old Sports Authority building is still here in-town. Once a Dicks Sporting Goods opened up accords the street it was all over
went to a new york sports club that had a sports authority in the same strip mall. store came in clutch. definitely miss it. but now both stores are gone
Company Man, I would like to see an in-depth T mobile video from you, as I think that you are quite talented in the ways of explaining the history of companies in a way that anyone can understand. Please consider my recammendation and reply to this comment if it is something you would be interested in. Thank you for what you do.
:)
T-Mobile can easily be a bigger than you know episode! Look up: Deutsche Telekom
I know but he did AT&T so what the hell right?
"Where do you buy sporting goods?"
I don't.
This was the first job I ever had. I was there until the downfall. Then I transitioned into another downward spiraling company, Best Buy. Eventually I just worked for my university and graduated. The point is, Amazon is killing everyone.
And yet jeff goes to space
The Best Buy HQ is in my city (Minneapolis) and we have so many here, its crazy...They're all empty and never have stock lol
@@MrShellyj The store in Augusta, Maine is hardly ever busy (maybe Black Friday through Christmas) and doesn't carry much stock either.
Here in Maryland, Best Buy is just a walk in advertisement for Amazon. People come to look at the product and just buy online
@@deehall7371 Showroom.
I remember having a fantastic Sports Authority near my house. I visited often, and there really has never been a comparable replacement since it closed.
would love to see you do a video on Sports Basement - a (currently) california-only chain that’s quite possibly the best sporting goods / outdoors store i’ve ever been to, and a chain that, however small for now, seems to be perpetually thriving and expanding at a time when so many other retail chains are doing the opposite.
Had no idea they were gone that’s how often I shop at that store!
I think Dicks just was more interactive. It’s a sports megastore with sports going on inside that was enough to get people to walk in the door and ultimately steal competition
I feel like I've heard of this company but as a non-sports person, it was never really on my radar.
Same
I think I shopped there only a few times during their 13-ish year existence in my hometown. For the most part a lot of sports equipment was bought through more general stores like Target, Walmart or clothing stores.
I miss Garts Sniagrab ski sales. Bargains spelled backwards.
I used to buy two things from Sports Authority, New Balance shoes and guns. I bought my first revolver, my first shotgun, and my first.22 mag rifle in the 90's. Still have them. As for the shoes....they don't last that long!!!
They had a damn good array of guns.
Honestly I remember most of this but I still laughed when I heard the word Kmart. Trouble ahead for sure.
BTW, for reasons I don't even recall, Herman's was my favorite such store of them all.
according to Sports Authority wiki page, they are coming back but we don't know if they will have any stores or just be online only.The only reason I knew about this company was because of Denver Broncos stadium.
It's interesting you say Sports Authority had good prices because from what I remember we rarely shopped there because everything seemed like it was overpriced.
Lol went to Sports Authority. I knew they were in trouble when they didn't have a fishing section.
Yeah, that must've been in the later years where a lot of their "equipment" was recreational at best. They had this weird habit of getting rid of certain departments/product lines if the company as a whole didn't sell well, sometimes at the expense of states that actually produced numbers in that department. Polar opposite would be getting items well after the trend ends...like when Razor scooters were selling like hot cakes, but Sports Authority got them when the demand wasn't there, so we sat on those for awhile.
I know it's kind of a regional brand but id love a video on Academy Sports + Outdoors. They went public last year and they seem to be doing well. They always seem to have more customers than a dicks as well
Yes! There is one near me and that's where I go for everything sports. There is a dick's across the street lol.
I got a $100 sports authority gift card from my aunt for Christmas like a month before they went outta business. I was gonna buy a new bat with it
Edit: okay maybe not a MONTH before they closed but it felt like it
Did you get your bat in another store?
@@robovac3557 yes at dicks it was a demarini Cat 6
@@coolsmokey5255 Nice.
When I worked there in 2013 you could see the ship taking on water. Got out while I could.
I find it surprising how many Gart Sports were out my way that were also converted to Sports Authority. Even here in Cheyenne Wyoming at my Frontier Mall, what once was Sports Authority started as Gart!
I started shopping at Sports Authority right before it announced it was shutting down, it was decent however they didn't have that much diversity in their stock.
Next video should be on Academy Sports and Outdoors or Dicks Sporting Goods
I can honestly say I don't think I'd ever heard of Sports Authority before today.
I think I’ve only heard about it on undercover boss
in my town there’s still a sports authority sign but the sports authority has been closed for years the sign is just still there for some reason
I miss Sports Authority. We had that and Modell’s to get my street hockey equipment. Now both are gone. The passage of time is a tough pill to swallow
Channel has come full circle starting with KMart & now Sports Authority, should definitely do a video on Dick's Sporting Goods
Yeah - a "Why They're Successful" video on that.
i'd absolutely LOVE to see a vid on Service Merchandise
@@weston407 Recollection Road had a video on Service Merchandise
Hey you should do a video on Publix. Very big down in Florida.
YES please do Publix! Where shopping is a pleasure
@@1HitBlunder Yeah I just went in an hour ago to buy bananas after work and ended up spending $137.
I wonder if Academy Sports plays a part in this
What I like about Academy is that they don't just sell sporting equipment or goods, but also lifestyle - from brand new BBQ pit to shot guns.
@@jpman2173 the sports authority in my area was pretty identical to the selection of products as academy I think the problem sports authority had was they opened too many stores and switched ownerships too many times while they were in debt
@@ebeneZr True. It's not always a good thing when stores or businesses open outpacing everything. They got too ambitious, imo.
Moved to Fresno, CA area in mid 2000s and was surprised to see two Sport Authority stores across the street from each other. Never got that one.
This was very well researched and presented, I definitely learned a lot. This is a sad tale for sure.
How about Discovery Zone? They went bust after just 9 years. Of course today they'd practically be considered a biohazard just for existing! 😀
Wtf is discovery zone?
@@DjJokerr Like a whole place of Chuck E Cheese ball pits and slides. Look at the Wikipedia article for it. Can't put a link here or YT will block it.
i remember going to discovery zone when i was a kid. i was just young enough to enjoy it. my mom would make me look after my little brother and his friends mostly lol.
@@djhaloeight Yeah it was pretty much how it went. Being both a babysitter and babysittee at the same time LOL