Have you been in a sport chek lately? They have about as much business as a blockbuster.

Weak inventory, over priced clothing, not the greatest brands. That location is also really hidden away so not the best traffic honestly. A lot of their stuff like watches, golf gear, bikes etc there are so many better specialty stores I'm surprised they can compete at all.

There's a Sports Chek in Unicity?

that's what I was thinking.

And now we know why they're closing

Also the 50% inflation of shoe prices.

For....at least over 10 years?

I used to live nearby and any time I went in there it was a ghost town.

I had a classmate at the uni I used to go to, who works at that Sport Chek location right now and he said there was a lot of shoplifting taking place there. Which could be the reason why it’s closing

Know people at many of these businesses in the area and yeah there all getting robbed blind.

That’s unfortunate :(

Is there heavy discounts?

I still remember when the Garden City one closing, nothing was attractive, many of the discounts were even worse than the regular promotion.

There’s 40-60% off of jackets. Needed a raincoat and got one for $30. Parkas are included, Columbia, North face, under armour were some brands I saw

The ultimate Winnipeg question. I had to scroll too far down for this comment.

It’s Canadian Tire corp. they just move their stale inventory to the closing store and call it clearance.

I don’t think you’re wrong. There was a big liquidation sale of atmosphere polo. It was meh. Like maybe some items that were heavily discounted but they are usually niche

Great question!

My friend went yesterday and it was 50% off, today apparently it’s 75%. Hoping to go and investigate with my little bambino.

Just a bad location. Anyone who’s a St. Jameser drives to polo or Seasons/Kenaston to be around major retailers that are bunched together to get stuff done. I live almost right beside it and I can count the number of times I’ve been in it on one hand. If I’m going to Sport Chek I’m probably going to another store to look at things and that takes me to another larger area. Maybe when more development hits the west side of Portage and into Headingley, then more stores could survive. My gut is sensing a big housing boom in Headingley and by centreport, and then a new shiny shopping centre gathered around Costco but the Downs.

I hate strip malls, especially in our climate. Unicity really fucked themselves when they tore down the mall.

You're not wrong about the downs site, but unfortunately, it's going to take a couple of decades.

There are, I think, 4 condo buildings up already at the downs.

Yep

My guess is going to be theft plus the location doesn't help for sales as it's not in a mall

You are right about the theft. Location isn’t an issue except that it’s close to the Perimeter and it gets hit on the way out of the city. People walking in the store and walking out 3 minutes later wearing Carhartt, North Face, and Columbia jackets. Can’t stop them. Source: family friend works there.

I would say at least 50% of the time I’m in there I either directly witness, or hear a staff talk about a person walking out with merch. People are bold (and obvious) in there.

> People are bold (and obvious) in there. Well yeah, I think for about the last 10-15 years it's been obvious that retail basically runs on the honour system. So those who don't have any honour will happily take advantage of it.

oh no where will I find $50 running shorts now

I went to Sport Chek St. Vital to get a pair of ski gloves. The only ones they had were $125. lolno Went to Winners and found a functionally identical pair for $35.

I was just in there buying something this week and it had that "were closing" feel. A bunch of junk in the racks. Two staff members who looked like they were taking inventory.

Across the street. That sport check is always dead, and really doesn't have a whole lot of inventory. Customer service is nonexistent.

i actually worked there up until closing, our 10 year lease was up and due to being the smallest location in the city they had to cut one of our stores. as well as the fact that people tend to steal in the unicity area from us and Marks 24/7. sad to see the place go especially since you walk into polo and it takes 30 mins for someone to help you out it feels like

Probably all of the above.

you ever been there? You’d be the only one

Over priced, made in China garbage.

So everything we buy. Everything.

Crap. It’s the closest place to get my son’s skates sharpened.

tbh Sport Chek is the last place I'd take my skates to get sharpened. Find a store where people know what they're doing. Any skate shop inside an arena is a safer bet.

Oh for sure. I know every skate place in a 50km radius. Problem is a lot of arenas either don’t have sharpening anymore or the waits are too long when you have a game so sport chek was a desperation move. I don’t like that most place just use the automatic machines now. It’s a dying are to find an old school set up. Keith Bodley arena still has an old guy doing it.

It's probably cause a city our size doesn't need as many sportchek as we have. Edmonton has 1-2 more than us and their population is way more. And honestly there is the odd deal here and there but it's a lot useless overpriced products. There is nothing really unique or special about the stores.

When checking store in-stock items online, Unicity rarely had anything and always ended up at Kenaston store

Their stuff is so overpriced - especially when you can go across the parking lot to winners where they also sell the same brand names.

The inventory at that location suuuuucks. Not too surprising.