words_Nick DePaula
While Joe The Plumber has certainly been a constant topic of discussion (and a quite funny Halloween costume at our party on Friday night…) during this monumental 2008 Presidential Election, the struggling economy has also taken its toll on many athletic retailers throughout the nation. As department stores like Mervyn’s have struggled to stay afloat, hodgepodge athletic retail chain Big 5 Sporting Goods is the latest to see continual declines in sales and overall income returns.
Earlier today, Just-Style reported that Big 5 “has posted a 46% drop in third quarter net income.” [46% !!!] With last year’s net income for the same period at $8.4 Million, the store is reporting just $4.5 Million in Q3 income this year. Yikes. It’ll be interesting to see if and when Big 5 can recover from this current harshness in the market, as the products they’re carrying have also continually declined in quality over the five years as Dick’s and other retailers have risen in popularity. It was just over six years ago that I was often shopping at Big 5 on my mom’s budget for my new basketball shoes, and after snagging such gems as the Pippen III and Ultraflight (and arch-enemies like the Signature Player), it looks like Big 5’s better days may be behind them.
Source: Just-Style
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November 4th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
HA! I worked at Big 5 for 1.5 years. worst company to work for, EVER. glad to see they’re shotty merchandise isn’t selling. maybe they’ll stop forcing employees to wear suites, turn on the a/c once in a while in the summer (i’m in california…), and give us a bigger raise than .25 cents every six months. After each year, the state minimum wage would go up, rendering the raise we got useless.