11 April 2017 (15:54 UTC-07 Tango 06) 22 Farvardin 1396/14 Rajab 1438/15 Jia Chen 4715

Independently owned ‘outdoors’ store Element Outfitters shutting down its 2nd brick-n-mortar store in Pocatello, Idaho.  But don’t blame the internet, they have a website. (elementoutfitters.com)

The original Element Outfitters, towards the south end of town, will continue to operate.  The owners say the economic situation is such that they must consolidate operations to become more efficient.

Interestingly a local news report ignorantly (perhaps lazily) blamed “e-commerce”, failing to mention that most brick-n-mortar stores also have websites that sell merchandise.

Michigan based MC Sports went bankrupt in February of this year, and is shutting down all 66 stores.

Last year the largest ‘outdoors’ chain died.  It was called Sports Authority and it too had a website.  In fact, in its bankruptcy it was revealed that not only did its brick-n-mortar sales crash, but so did its e-commerce sales.  Administrators said there was too much competition for both brick-n-mortar ops and internet ops.  By the end of 2016 Dick’s Sporting Goods took over the remaining Sports Authority operations.

In April 2016, Vestis Retail Group killed off Sports Chalet and then sold off its other outdoors ops Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob’s Stores.  They had websites too.

The owner of now dead California based clothier Wet Seal, Versa Capital Management, took over Bob’s  and Eastern Mountain Sports.  Then suddenly in February of this year (shortly after killing off Wet Seal) Versa began quietly killing off Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob’s Stores.  Versa is bankrupt and some reports say it might be sold-off to British empire based retailer Sports Direct International.

In February of this year, VF Outdoor announced it would shutdown its four years old ‘sustainable’ outdoors and  clothing product HQ in Alameda, California, killing 52 jobs by April.  One of the outdoor clothing brands associated with VF Outdoor is The North Face.  VF Outdoor is a division of North Carolina VF Contemporary Brands, which also announced it would kill off nearly 1-hundred manufacturing jobs in Los Angeles and Vernon, California, by April.

Just like with the U.S. apparel industry blaming too much competition (both on and off the internet) for its demise, so too is the related outdoors retail sector. And just like the apparel industry death spiral, the outdoors industry death spiral began under the watch of Barack Obama. 

OBAMA LEGACY: CHINA KICKS AMERICA’S ASS IN JOBS FOR AFRICA!