The Outdoor retail landscape saw some significant shifts over the past weeks with changes ranging from store closures to lawsuits to name changes.
Adventure 16 recently closed two of its seven doors, with the retailers Costa Mesa, CA store shuttering on February 23 after seven years and a store in Torrance, CA closing in December after just three years. All the merchandise in both 12,000 square foot stores was absorbed by its other locations rather than liquidated, said John Mead, A-16 president & CEO.
“The reason we closed those stores is they were underperforming and in this economic environment, we cant afford to pull those couple of stores along that werent contributing to the overall profitability of the company,” he commented.
Looking towards the future of Adventure 16s remaining five stores, Mead remained hopeful. “We think once the summer comes along, people are going to get out, do our kinds of outdoor activity. Outdoor is affordable.”
Also in the outdoor specialty market, REI plans to delay the opening of its store in Tuscon, AZ until late fall 2010. The store was scheduled to open this spring. REI said that the delay was due to “developer delays.” The 28,000-square-foot, two-story space at the Tuscon Mall will represent REIs third location in the state.
On the SnowSports side of the industry, Christy Sports has asked a federal appeals court to rehear its case against Deer Valley ski complex in Utah. Christy claims that the resort violated antitrust laws by restricting Christy Sports from offering ski rentals and competing with a resort-run rental shop.
Christy Sports originally filed suit against Deer Valley in 2006 after the Park City resort barred the ski-rental company from the Deer Valley village after it had been there for 15 years. On Feb. 18, 2009, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on Feb. 18 issued its decision in favor of Deer Valley. Christy Sport's new petition claims appellate judges failed to follow precedent established by the U.S. Supreme Court.
