The reason Sportsmans Warehouse does not have alot of merchandise on its shelves, is because they don't pay their bills to vendors or their lenders. Thats why UFA is taking over, the CEO of Sportsmans(Stu)borrowed money from them and did not pay them back. So as per agreement between Stu Utgaard and UFA they own a majority of stock and Stu has to step down. UFA is buying it from Stu for Sportsmans debt. Sportsmans was once a well stocked, reliable store, but broke down when Stu Utgaard started building to many stores too fast. He made poor judgements on where to place stores, even closing one is California 4 months after it was opened. Many of the stores were built on credit borrowed from previous stores and the inventory inside them. With Sportsmans living on credit, when the economy slipped so did Sportmans. Stu wanted to be the biggest and most profitable sporting good retailer and would not listen to anyone telling him to slow down. Sportsmans Warehouse is on credit hold with most of its vendors, thats why they don't have the product they once had. Many of the upper management at corp (not all) are out of tune with what the public actually wants, and at times they dont seem to care. They have the attitude of "sell them something else". The new owners put out a statement with News West and said they were going to keep things the same way as in the past just eliminate Stu. No layoffs or management changes for the rest of the retail chains employees was noted in that same article. But the executive who is currently running Sportsmans just let go 50 Receiving managers company wide. Right after Christmas, so Sportsmans would be taken care of during the busy shopping season. Sportsmans is still some how opening new stores like the one in Carson City, Nevada scheduled to open in April. So they get rid of some employees that have been with the company for a long time (including employees that have been there over a decade), but continue to open more stores with no discretion for the employees who just lost their jobs and their families. UFA "injected" money into Sportsmans in December to try to save some sales but it was too late. Time will tell what the future brings for Sportsmans employees and customers. I hope they start stocking their shelves and giving better customer service.
