Outdoor retailer to close all but 3 stores across US with staff slamming Dick's Sporting Goods owner

blog

OUTDOOR retailer Moosejaw has planned to shutter 11 of its 14 stores across the midwest, less than a year after it was acquired by Dick's Sporting Goods.

The three stores that will remain open are the locations in Birmingham, Missouri, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Bentonville, Arkansas.

Moosejaw's headquarters in Madison Heights, Michigan will close down along with the following locations in February, 2024:

  • Detroit, Michigan
  • Ann Arbor, Michigan
  • Grosse Pointe, Michigan
  • East Lansing, Michigan
  • Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Boulder, Colorado
  • Chicago, Illinois
  • Olathe, Kansas
  • Kansas City, Missouri
  • Moosejaw's Bike & Snow Shop in Birmingham, Michigan
  • Moosejaw's Cannonsburg Shop in Belmont, Michigan

While the reasons behind Moosejaw's mass closures are unclear, Dick's described a partial merger of the retailer and its own outdoor brand, Public Lands, which was created in 2021.

“After careful review of our outdoor specialty business, we have decided to form one team that will support the operations of Public Lands and Moosejaw," read the company statement obtained by the Detroit Free Press.

Read more on closures

"The team will be based at Public Lands’ headquarters in Pittsburgh."

“This move supports our business optimization efforts and will allow us to operate more efficiently, quickly leverage best practices across our outdoor business and drive our long-term success," Dick's said.

Moosejaw was created by longtime friends Robert Wolfe and David Jaffe in 1992 and later sold to private equity firms Parallel Investment Partners and W Capital Partners in 2007.

The firms then sold Moosejaw to Walmart in 2017 and Dick's bought it from Walmart in February 2023.

Most read in Money

A Moosejaw worker told the outlet that headquarters employees were notified of the mass closures at a companywide virtual meeting on Friday morning, the same day Dick's told the public of the closure plan.

Several employees were also laid off at the meeting and people who appeared to be police officers quickly escorted those workers out of the building, the employee told the Free Press.

“Dick’s did Moosejaw very dirty," the worker said. "They killed a Michigan brand."

While the Moosejaw stores had been losing money, sales recently picked up, according to the employee.

Many workers were shocked to hear of the mass closures as they were previously told that the company had until 2025 to meet performance targets, the worker said.

Moosejaw's website will continue to take online retail sales.

The U.S. Sun approached Dick's for comment.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEZqqupl6YvK57zKilnrFfbn53gpdwaWiln6TAprbAsGSsrJ%2Bnsm6vy6iqrqqVqHqltcKkqmg%3D