Out-N-About closed??

[ignote]

Anyone know what happened, or why Out-N-About Gear closed? I just saw this link in the St. Cloud times: http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060621/BUSINESS/106210069

Their website is also down, with no explanation...

[WuShih]

What a complete suprise! I haven't been there in a few weeks and I haven't heard anything about it either. That's too bad, best shop in town. Scheels must be reeling with joy.

[ryno lite]

My brother said the shop wasn't near as cool as it used to be under the original ownership. The old ownership had cool backpacking gear and a better selection of bikes. Maybe the new owner just struggled to keep it going. I think the bike business is tough and St. Cloud has a history of good shops going out of business.

[WuShih]

I heard comments that perhaps they diversified too much, carry a lot of different gear/sports but have too little of any of it. (hence the lack of selection which I do agree with)

However, it was a great shop in regards to the workers there, I've never had a bad experience with them and they never laughed (to my face:crazy:) at my silly questions and serious lack of in depth knowledge regarding bike technology. Thanks to them I've remedied this quite a bit. I'll miss going in there.

[dostoy]

Wow, my Out-N-About water bottles are now collector's items!

Cool store - sucks that it's gone.

Saint Cloud loves its chain stores. Erik's should set up shop there.

[Trialsaddict]

Word on the street.... :eyeroll: Bankrupt. Bank owns all. Watch for a new shop... Was a good group of guys there too... Bummer.

[Trialsdave]

ONAG was by far the best shop in town. In my opninon. I would love to see the shop open up again but I would be surprised if the staff would be the same. Might have to check out Fitsharris now, but I doubt they will let me work in their shop on my bike.

[ignote]

Hm, well I was bummed that they closed, too. I didn't realize there was a change of ownership, but I did notice something had changed. I wanted to buy a bike from them this spring, but they only had one frame in stock that was my size, and in my price range at the time.

Sad, I hope the guys find a new shop. I much prefer a small, local store with a staff that is passionate about their sport.

[Beau]

Boooooooooo. That sucks. I'll agree that it has something to do with the Wal-Mart of sporting goods (Scheels). Those a-hole are taking over just like Wal-Mart does.

Hopefully another LBS will open, but I doubt it.

St. Cloud is a tough town for bike shops.