Gart Bros. To Open 2 Stores Here Sporting Goods Chain Scouting Sites In Valley, On N. Division

A Colorado sporting goods retailer plans to build two 45,000-square-foot stores in Spokane County in 1997.

“It’s in our current real estate plan,” said Doug Morton, president of Gart Bros. Sporting Goods Co. “We’d plan on opening in the spring of ‘97 or fall.”

Gart, a 60-store chain, sells full lines of hunting, fishing, camping, skiing, snowboarding and team sports equipment. Morton said his company wants to build free-standing stores in the Spokane Valley and on North Division.

“It’s underserved,” Morton said of Spokane’s sporting goods market. “We think it’s going to be a great market for us.”

Spokane does not have a full-line sporting goods store the size of Gart, which is labeled a category-killer by some in the industry. A category killer is a store that offers so much merchandise at low prices that it destroys competition.

“Spokane doesn’t have a true category killer in the sporting goods sector,” said John Morrow, of Situs Realty Group, a commercial real estate company. “From that standpoint, the market is probably viewed as untapped.”

Some sporting goods retailers say the arrival of Gart and other stores like it will hurt consumers in the long run.

“The consumers are going to think it’s great until they want service or they want a product and there isn’t going to be anyone left to do it,” said Steve Warwick, who owns four sporting goods stores in Spokane, Moscow and Pullman. “It’s going to be an over-retailed community and nothing good ever comes of that.”

Other retailers said not all sporting goods stores would be affected by Gart.

“What they’ll do to this market is have a big impact on the middle guys and not the specialty retailers,” said Mike King, co-owner of Loulou’s Sport Shop, which has three locations in Spokane and North Idaho.

King said Gart would have the biggest impact on retailers such as Big 5, a full-line chain sporting goods store with three locations in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. Big 5’s average store size is 10,000 square feet.

Gart is negotiating with developers and has not settled on sites, Morton said, adding that the company’s arrival in Spokane is a “logical progression.”

The company has stores in Idaho in Lewiston and Moscow, and a store in Kennewick, Wash. Two months ago, it opened a 35,000-square-foot store in Missoula. The company has no plans for Coeur d’Alene or Post Falls, Morton said.

“If we do something on I-90, it’ll be in the Spokane Valley,” Morton said. “Coeur d’Alene looks a little small for us.”

, DataTimes