Disappointing shopping stop

[fishinchicks]

I was hauling some seed beans for my husband today, and happened to be driving by the Gander Mtn in Mankato. Since I was being such a good wife, I thought I might as well stop by and have a little fun. (It was a 7 hour round trip, so I needed to stretch anyway.) The young guy that asked if I needed help had no idea what I was talking about when I asked him if they had any chatterbait. He pointed me to a spinnerbait, which I already had. He hadn't even heard of the manufacturer.

I did come home with a couple of new lures and a couple bags of Mister Twister Exudes. If the opener doesn't get here soon, I will have enough plastics to last me for the next 10 years!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Bummer--- I would have tried to talk to another worker. I have found at times that Gander employees seem to roll over quite a bit. And at times seem less trained. I have however ran into a few very helpfull people at Gander as well.

[fishinchicks]

If I wasn't under a time limit, I might have searched out another employee. The only other one that I saw was helping another guy, and I didn't have time to wait. The beans I was hauling were supposed to get planted today.

[Slyster]

Exact same thing for me in Blaine! They had never heard of 'chatterbiats'.. I just couldn't believe it. Never found them either.. but I'm sure they were there somewhere.

[st.crioxfishin]

Same thing happened to me. I looked around after ask ing and didn't see them though.

[RobertELee]

Thats too bad. Mainly because in their newspaper ad that came out today they are advertising them. You would think that the employees should know exactly where it is and what they are. Good luck in your search.

[katoguy]

Hmmm. I picked a couple up at Gander here in Kato about 2 weeks ago. They only had 1 color at the time.

[TimC]

Probably doesn't help you MN guys much but the Gander in Geneva, IL just got 200 chatterbaits in yesterday. You may want to hit your local shops again as it seems like a new shipment just went out.

[fishinchicks]

Too bad I won't be that way for awhile. Hubby got a semi to pick up the other beans, so now I don't have an excuse to go that way again. My next choice would be the Gander in Maple Grove, or Cabelas in Rogers. Mom always likes when I come to visit her in Plymouth!

[HawgTide]

I've never met a person in Gander, Cabelas or Dick's that had any real serious knowledge about Bass fishing. You'll find the occasional experts on Graphs or Transducers maybe, but unless you run into Deitz at Cabelas, your better off just looking for yourself.

Gander in Maple Grove was out of Chatterbaits last week, as was Cabelas in Rogers and Dick's in Minnetonka.

[Ralph Wiggum]

GM in Maple Grove was out of stock? Imagine that! That place rarely has anything I need.

[JPSavage]

I have found the Cabelas staff in Owatonna to be knowledgeable and helpfull regarding bass fishing, can;t say the same about Gander or Dick's.

[OnTheWater]

It's too bad that you weren't able to get the help you needed. In Gander's defense, I have to say that everyone who is working is usually very knowledgable in many areas of fishing. It is hard to expect every associate to know everything and anything about fishing, that would be ridiculous. Fishing is simply way to huge of sport, and it would be impossible to be an expert in everything. I'm sure that if you talk to more than one person you will find someone to help you out with whatever it may be. As for the chatterbaits, they are brand new, and for the most part, relatatively unheard of to most people. These baits are in short supply all over the country, so I can imagine that most stores will sell out very fast. If the chatterbaits are gone, look for gambler swim blades. They are nearly identical, and Gander should have these also.

[sightfisher]

Chatterbaits are hit or miss right now. Any store may get 100-200 in and be out the next day. Rad Lures has teamed up with Musky Innovations but is still unable to keep up with the current high demand.

[fishinchicks]

My thinking on the whole experience was, if this is such a hot lure, wouldn't the store clerk - who was working the lure area - at least have heard of it? Even though there are a lot of lures there, it isn't so big that you wouldn't know what you carry. If you are in charge of stocking shelves, you should have a vague idea. They didn't have anything like it in the musky lure area either, to show the clerk what I was talking about.

I wasn't disappoined that they were out of the lure, I would have bought one if they had one, but that wasn't the main reason I went in. Kind of like a candy store visit for me, only I don't have to do a calorie count at the end.

[hanson]

IMO... the worker at GM should have known what they were and where they were. How to fish them might be a question you wouldn't want to ask, but having a little product knowledge is pretty darn simple.

"Excuse me sir, Where do you keep your Rapalas?" Should be a question that every person working in that store should be able to answer. If they don't know, better go find a different job.

As for new products, that is something the department manager should let every worker in that department know about when they come on duty. "BTW... The chatterbaits are now on the endcap by the bass plastics. They are new and we are expecting lots of interest in them." Its not that hard.

If you think finding new bass tackle is frustrating, you should try asking these guys about catfishing stuff. Yikes!

[OnTheWater]

I guess I am a little biased on this thread, but I do very much agree that product knowledge is very important. Like hanson said, the manager should have had all the employees aware of the chatterbaits, since they are expected to be a big seller. However, from experience I can tell you that it is near impossible for employees to know of every lure in the joint, especially in a big box store like gander.

[JPSavage]

I can tell you from having worked at a sporting goods store that after a short learning period I could tell you virtually every product for sale in the store......I have little patience when employees don't have an answer on an item.....If not, they surely can quickly ask someone that does know.....Just plain simple poor customer service practices.....IMO

[hanson]

Quote:

---

I can tell you from having worked at a sporting goods store that after a short learning period I could tell you virtually every product for sale in the store......

---

That is exactly what I'm talking about. I spent a small part of my life working in the wallcoverings (paint) department at Menards. Lots of exciting stuff in that department but I knew exactly where everything was, what was on sale, what was out of stock, and how to use most everything, and I was part-time. It didn't take that long to learn either.

Now if you were to put me in the fishing department at Gander Mt., I already know where everything is and what it is for and have never worked there. Funny thing is, when I got that part-time summer job at Menards, I had applied to the Minnetonka Gander Mt as well and never even received a phone call from them. Guess I just don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to fishing.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Quote:

---

Guess I just don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to fishing.

---

At least you can admit it

[Captain B.R.K]

I worked at a GM for awhile and what really irritated me the most was my co-workers (at the time) would just throw talk in the wind to customers that really need help and sent them on their way with garbage.

If I didn't know what I knew, I would expect those workers at GM to know what they sold. But like Dietz said, GM has some turn over and the company doesn't put money into training their employee's very well.

That's why we have this site to help our homework process a little easier

[MNBassin2006]

I went to the minnetonka gm a few years back to buy a trolling motor. Went in and talked to some sales people and got to talking fishing....of course. I had just landed a 6.3lb bass and told them. They asked if it was in MN, and when I said yes....they said "no you didn't." Taken aback, I replied "actually, yes I did." No you didn't was the reply. I walked up to the front desk and asked for the manager and told him I was taking my business elsewhere b/c of his people and proceeded to go to galyans and buy a tm