Gander Mountain Frustration

[FlatsNBay]

What do you all think about the store lay out for Gander Mountain stores? I was shopping in the Orlando area for finese worms and I must say it was very frustrating! They were not all located in one spot in the store and were spread out everywhere! Some were on end caps, some were on and island, some were on other islands and some were on other aisles. The Zoom finese worms were actually in 3 diferent locations! It was very hard to compare manufacturers and colors. It is like that for everything in the store! I complained to the store manager a few months ago, yet nothing has been changed. To me shopping should be an easy experience instead of work! Any others feel the same way? Going back to my local shop or Dicks.

[OutdoorFrontiers]

Unfortunately FnB, complaining to the store manager will get you no where.  A good friend of mine is the store manager for the Gander in Wausau, Wisconsin.  I brought up the same complaint to him one day.

His response was, "Steve, there's nothing I can do about it.  Everything is "planned" by the guys at the corporate office."  So if your local Gander manager agreed with you and moved things to a more logical location, he could very well get in trouble and lose his job!  I ran into the same problem when I managed a Radio Shack store.  I HAD to set up the store according to the "PlanOGram" sent each month from corporate.  Well, my store was in a town well known for crime, so I made some adjustments.  Even though I was losing almost $2,000 in product a month due to shoplifting, I was forced by the District Manager to set up a huge stack of boom boxes (this was in the 80's) near the door.

I didn't last long there, and I know your guy down there has the same issues.

Steve

[ChrisAW]

Unfortunately FnB, complaining to the store manager will get you no where.  A good friend of mine is the store manager for the Gander in Wausau, Wisconsin.  I brought up the same complaint to him one day.

His response was, "Steve, there's nothing I can do about it.  Everything is "planned" by the guys at the corporate office."  So if your local Gander manager agreed with you and moved things to a more logical location, he could very well get in trouble and lose his job!  I ran into the same problem when I managed a Radio Shack store.  I HAD to set up the store according to the "PlanOGram" sent each month from corporate.  Well, my store was in a town well known for crime, so I made some adjustments.  Even though I was losing almost $2,000 in product a month due to shoplifting, I was forced by the District Manager to set up a huge stack of boom boxes (this was in the 80's) near the door.

I didn't last long there, and I know your guy down there has the same issues.

Steve

X2, I currently work the fishing counter at the Gander Mtn in Flint, MI, and this is the exact reason. Some stores have it worse than others.


There could be a few reasons why they are spread all over though. Sometimes, some products are "One time orders" that they don't actually have a place set in an isle for, so they might put them on an end cap or in a speed table in the isle. Another reason is that they could be discontinued items for that store, which are items that no longer have a place in an isle's planogram and must be moved somewhere to make room for the new items that took their place. They aren't considered clearance just yet, but often get marked down to try and get rid of them.

Like, we have a table of Zoom "assorted worms" That consist of trick worms, ribbon tails, goby's, craws, lizards, tubes, flukes, and curl tail worms. We actually have some of these items in the planogram, like the tubes, flukes, and lizards, but since they were a one time order they can't be placed with the rest of the items, mainly because those "assorted" baits all share the one same UPC, while each color, size, and type of bait normally have their own UPC.

We also have an endcap of discontinued SK Perfect Plastics (Basicly a one time order as well) that are on an end cap opposite corner of our bait section from the other perfect plastics that have a place set near the main isle.


My best advice, when you go into a Gander you've never been into, just straight ask the associate for help. Believe me, most of us aren't working there for the money, we're working there because we enjoy it! I know no ones likes to do this, but thats what we're there for. We talk to hundred of other fisherman a week, and lots of those guys share some tips on what fish may be biting for them during whatever conditions and all that good stuff. If that associate doesn't seem to want to help, and I'm not kidding, talk to a manager and complain about that associate. Working retail is a pain as it is, I can't stand working with people who aren't willing to do their job. If the manager doesn't do anything, word still usually gets around and most of the other employee's will rip on them enough to get them to straighten up their act a bit.

[FlatsNBay]

Thanks guys for the insight and honesty. I will unfortunately shop elsewhere since I like the ease of shopping for like items all in one spot. After all, when I shop for cereal it's all on one ailse instead of spreadout all over the grocery store. I wish Gander did the same but you can't stop "progress" I guess. I do appreciate Chris and his willingness to help the customer. Sports Authority did something similar about 10 years ago with their store layout and then their fishing department dwindled to next to nothing. I now drive past 2 Sports Authorities to get to other places.

[Canesfan]

"My" Sports Authority discontinued fishing gear altogether a couple of years ago.  I assume they still don't have any but really don't shop there so don't even know.

[tim4081]

A few years ago I interviewed for a Store Manager position with Gander and spent alot of time researching them before deciding to go elsewhere.  As with alot of retailers they have different size/formats of stores and as such they often have to make many adjustments to their assortments and layouts based upon the square footage available.  We have two Ganders about  an hour from here and both, while different in  size, are very well organized and product is easy to find.  The interesting thing is that although the two stores are only about 15 miles apart, their assortments of tackle vary quite a bit.  One carries a much larger assortment of salmon and steelhead tackle while the other has a little more focus on the bassfisherman.

[tim4081]

To add another thought....my local Dicks, while they have a decent assortment, is horrible at maintaining their fishing department.  While the store is only a block from where I work, I will only shop there as a last resort.  The last time I went in there to look for some hooks it took me 15 minutes to find the ones I wanted just because no one had straightened them out and put them in order.  I honestly think they just set it up in late winter and never touch it again other than to pick the stuff up off the bottom of the counters and hang it on any old peg hook thats handy.  Explains why they never seem very busy there.

[wvbassangler]

Don't forget they move everything around about every month just to mess with regular customers...    so true about all the decisions are made at corporate headquarters.