Internet was out again, and it was 18*F outside, so I decided to take a road trip up to Dick’s Sporting Goods to see if they had any 100-gram butane tanks for my camping stove. Once there, I was stunned at the lack of variety for the things they carried. I tend to blame these kinds of issues on those little store inventory guns you see at Walmart, grocery stores, and other large stores. The automatic inventory and data of what is selling and what is not allows the store to “streamline” their products and only stock what seems to be selling. This usually screws the most people over by removing all variety from their selection.
This is reason #1 why I have blacklisted Dick’s Sporting Goods from my shopping list.
Out of curiosity, I ended up meandering through their bicycle section (I refuse to call it a cycling section). Surprisingly enough, they sell two or three brands of cycling clothes in a very limited supply. I guess it wouldn’t be bad if you were in dire need…
Their bicycle handling and selection was as much of a joke as Walmart’s though. Mostly children’s bikes, cruisers and overweight mountain bikes kept their selection too depressing to really delve into. Here are some photos:
This was their most expensive bike, and it was allegedly on clearance. It’s some kind of slick tire based hybrid mountain bike meant for women. It weighed a ton; like really, it weighed like forty pounds. Pretty disappointing.
Even though Dick’s has its own little “bike shop” with a park tool stand and all, it really seems their bike department minimum wage lackeys don’t give a damn about their product. At 3:00, on a Friday, their department was a mess. Bike supplies (locks, tubes, etc) in disarray; products just tossed around. Disappointing.
The bike displays were just as bad. There were many instances where you saw bikes tipped on their side leaning on others, possibly marring the paint on one another.
I’m sure that these bikes on the second tier that are leaning on other bikes post a significant safety hazard. What if they slipped and unlikely fell on a passerby? Shame on you Dick’s Sporting Goods. Dissapointing.
I eventually found my camping stove fuel and darted right to the cash registers. They had a decent selection of performance munchies at the candystand, and I have wanted to try Clif Shot Blocks for a long while; they were priced at $3.00, so I skipped them and got the Gu Chomps instead. BAD FUCKING IDEA.
If you are a normal reader of the site, you know I don’t use profanity very often. I’m sure this instance truly isn’t the correct time to use it, but these Gu Chomps were terrible. They tasted like malted brown sugar with a touch of strawberry yeast. Maybe these were meant for horses or livestock… not humans… They were just ugh… I Don’t even want to talk about them anymore…
All in all, Dick’s Sporting Goods was about as disappointing as trying to find something useful and well made from the Dollar Store. Either things were overpriced, did not apply to me, or were just run of the mill stuff that isn’t really good at anything at all. I also left wondering how underarmour sells for as much as it does…
Oh! I even had a random encounter with Lance Armstrong at Dick’s Sporting Goods! 🙂
Summary: Don’t go to Dick’s Sporting Goods unless you know they have what you need and then get out ASAP.
WV Cycling 
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