Outdoors/sporting goods retailors respond to pandemic challenges

Despite the delayed delivery times, many seasonal products such as bikes, barbeques and golf equipment have been especially popular at the store this year. Buziak said this is likely due—at least in part—to current travel restrictions in place, leading to many having to find their outdoor adventure within their home community.

“There are definitely more people doing outdoor activities, that’s for sure,” he said. “I think a lot of the people who usually go to warmer climates or take vacations have been home, so they’ve been doing outdoor activities here a lot.”

“I think everybody’s been looking forward to spring, and hopefully a little bit more baseball and some of the team sports picking up that have been put on hold from last spring and through the winter,” he added.

Battleford Bait and Tackle:

Owner of Battleford Bait and Tackle, Allen Mitchell said business has been much slower than usual, adding that he attributes a lot of that to the ongoing pandemic and continuing rise of online shopping.

Allen said over the last year business has been steady, though unspectacular. He said they are hopeful things will be able to pick up in the coming months, should restrictions improve and allow for them to begin to open up more.

“Once COVID ends and archery starts and they allow people to start shooting archery, and having tournaments, it will pick up if that happens,” he said.

Ammunition and archery are the two main sources of revenue for the establishment.

The Generals Bait and Tackle

Owner of The Generals Bait and Tackle in Meadow Lake, Dennis Baldinus said he too has noticed a shift in this year’s clientele due to the travel restrictions.

Generally a large portion of the shop’s patrons are those from nearby communities or even outside of province, making this year a bit of a struggle.

“We get lots of travel through here normally, as this is a tourist area,” he said. “We rely on tourists a lot and when they’re not here then you kind of have to look at something different.”

However, Baldinus said many of the locals who normally make their way to Saskatoon, Edmonton, Prince Albert, or Cold Lake have been sticking closer to home making for an increase in local business, which has helped offset the loss of travelers at least enough to make it through the year.

“We are finding that we’re busier with the local people, so that has been a bit of a plus for us in helping us keep our head above water,” he said. “So that’s filling the void somewhat of what we lost on the other side. It’s not quite what it should be, but it’s as good as it’s going to get.”

Baldinus added that as primarily a fishing retailor, as the name suggests, the lack of larger-scale events has also been a real detriment to business this year, though they remain hopeful for a return to more normalcy by next year.

“We have had no derbies going on and the fishing has been slow,” he said. “The end of March is the end of fishing season, and fishing is what we do mostly, as the bigger part of our business, so when you drop all the fish derbies off the map, that’s a huge hole that you usually would have.”

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1

by Martin Martinson

Outdoors/sporting goods retailors respond to pandemic challenges

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