North 40 Outfitters opening new store in Mead

North 40 Outfitters is hosting a grand opening on Wednesday for its newest store, which the company is calling its “flagship location.”

The 113,000-square-foot store at 14411 N. Newport Highway will replace the longtime, and now closed, location farther north. The Mead store is even bigger than the 90,000-square-foot store it opened on the West Plains in 2021.

“This location marks a significant milestone in North 40’s commitment to serving the farm, ranch, and outdoor communities of the Inland Northwest,” the company wrote in a news release.

The new store opens at 7 a.m. Wednesday. The larger store includes a garden center, an indoor archery lane and West Slope Coffee inside the fly shop.

“It’s a bold step forward for us and a major milestone for Spokane’s northern corridor,” marketing director Denise Schnider said.

She noted that the indoor archery lane allows hunters to shoot their bows inside the store.

“We added an interactive feature. We have some videos. You can select a species and the shooter can use the interactive video” to shoot at the targets, she said.

The coffee shop is also a new twist to the store that sells everything from pet supplies, to farm equipment to work clothes, for all ages.

“The previous Mead store didn’t have a fly shop. The new location will have a dedicated fly shop,” she said.

Inside the fly shop is West Slope Coffee, which uses beans from Evans Brothers Coffee based in Sandpoint.

“So, we are pretty excited about that,” Schnider said. “It’s kind of a newer concept for the hospitality aspect.”

The Mead store, which will need to hire about 30 more employees to augment those coming over from the previous location, will also feature photo wraps on the walls highlighting local scenery from the Spokane area.

“It’s important to us. It’s where we live, too,” Schnider said.

Based in Great Falls, Montana, North 40 Outfitters has 12 brick-and-mortar locations, including a newly remodeled store on East Trent Avenue, Coeur d’Alene, Ponderay and the aforementioned store at 9646 W. U.S. Highway 2.

The new Mead store, which is part of the North 40 Retail Center, was developed in conjunction with Chris Bell and Dave Black of NAI Black.

It’s expected to become a cornerstone of new construction planned for the area, including residential neighborhoods, health care facilities and commercial developments.

“The (North South) freeway will change the way people move through Spokane,” Bell, managing broker at NAI Black, said in the news release. “North 40 will sit at the gateway to growth – driving new commerce, housing, and retail opportunities for decades to come.”

Black, CEO of the commercial real estate company, said the new store should attract even more businesses to the area.

“North 40 represents the type of high-quality, community-minded investment we want to see in North Spokane,” Black said in the release.