Gander Mountain Reviews

Pros

Great discount, opportunities for advancement, and all around fun environment.

Cons

Some mixed communications from corporate.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep your head up and keep pushing you will get there eventually.

Pros

The best reason to work at Gander Mountain is to have a job when you don't have one. The next best reason is for the discounts. No other reasons.

Cons

To keep this short I direct you to the numerous other posts that pretty much hit the bulls-eye. The squelch on pay raises, aggressive expectations for squeezing customers for credit cards, summit plans, and pro plans. I feel for those who are left in the stressful environment that is in turmoil.

Advice to Senior Management

Too much dictating and not enough collaboration. Focus on your two most important assets, your customers and your front line associates. Without them and their trust, success and long term profitability will be difficult to achieve. I hope you are able to turn things around before you lose more good people. I feel for those who are left in the stressful environment that is in turmoil.

Pros

The discount is the best part of the job

Cons

Store Managers are promoted if they become friends with the DM and not on merit. They are not fired for severe policy violations. Company does not care about the employees at all!! Force way to much on too few employees. there are not enough people in the store to service the customers.

Advice to Senior Management

get a clue!!!! read the reviews on here. obviously there is a real problem here that needs to be addressed. in the 3 + years I have worked for the company it has done nothing but go down hill.

Pros

Great discounts If you are into hunting, camping, fishing, ect. My coworkers were the best part of my job, we all were one big family. Loved being able to share my passion with the customers and converse about our similar hobbies.

Cons

Take it from me.. I was assigned a specific position when hired. Time passes on and I get stuck in every other department BUT mine because due to payroll they can't afford to even schedule someone in let's say the camping department for the entire day.. Ridiculous? I say Yes. And I am not the most knowledgeable in departments outside my own so it gets very frustrating when you have a customer yelling at you because you don't know what you are talking about. Management works hard 10% of the time. I find them taking more breaks than a kit kat bar. It's very annoying to be making very little an hour and see you manager who is making way more than you sitting on their butt in the break room. Gander has their store credit card and protection plans. Everyone is given a personal goal of selling these. There's no reward or appraisal for selling these but if you don't make your goal, you will get written up. Sooner or later the entire company will be written up bc these goals are nearly imPossible to reach. I could go on, but to sum it up... DONT WORK HERE. BAD PAY, NO RAISES, COMPANY IS RUN BY GREEDY PEOPLE, EXPECTATIONS OF SALES AND DUTIES ARE IMPOSSIBLE.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase payroll because At times we have to go without people in a department. The more people you have on at one time, the more you are going to sell bc the customers want help. One person up at customer service is ridiculous. I've had people throw their items on the counter because they are sick of waiting in line. You guys are losing sales and customers every day because of this payroll issue. Your employees are the foundation so build them up strong, quit tearing them down.

Pros

You get a 20-30% discount on your purchases. You can gain some insight on how NOT to run a Company. Without businesses like Gander Mountain, as the worst possible, there would be no way to appreciate working for a really GOOD company!

Cons

Store Manager has NO leadership experience, cares NOTHING about his employees who are the ones that get him his large bonuses, which by the way employees do NOT receive. Employees are constantly prompted by the store manager to get 'metrics' i.e. credit card applications for the Gander 'Rewards' card, 'Summit Plans' which are extended warranties and 'Pro Plans' which are extended warranties for firearms(which they want you to lie to the customer selling them a warranty on firearms that have Lifetime Warranties). These 'metrics' have daily goals that are EXPECTED to be met!!! And the reason??? If goals are met guess who get a nice little BONUS??? That's right, the store manager! What about the employees? They get Nada-nitch-zilch...NOTHING!!! Oh, I might add, and if you consistently do not contribute to the 'metric' goals you are first belittled, then counseled, then terminated.....you are expendable. And by the way FORGET about your personal life....it does NOT matter! What does matter is getting the 'METRICS' aka the managers bonus... Upper management is no better as they are the ones driving the store managers to keep their 'metric' numbers up.....you see 'metrics' equal $$$, every credit card application and warranty sold Gander Mountain gets a piece of it and it adds up to BIG money!!! To hell with customer service its ALL about PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT because until last year the company was in the RED every year since 1961!!! Have fun working for these uncaring slave drivers!!!

Advice to Senior Management

Start caring more about your employees....ask them what works and what doesn't, they are the ones in the 'trenches' and know better than some corporate consultant. Get rid of your non-caring store managers who fail to realize that their employees can make them look really good or, consequently, really BAD.

Pros

Job descriptions are very straight forward as long as you are not a manager/supervisor.

Cons

What you do as manager/supervisor depends on what the topic of the week is from weekly meetings. The objective changes from week to week depending on how the district manager or regional manager feels that week. And, it depends on if the CEO came to your store and spent 15 then judges your entire store based on how your worst department looks.

Advice to Senior Management

Tasking or Customer service? Make up your mind! Not all stores have the same traffic so they may not look as pretty as stores with little to no traffic. It is a retail store, not a factory production line. If you add tasking objectives, then you must add labor hours as well. Hire a shipping/receiving team that does just merchandising. Stop putting the massive burden on the managers, supervisors, and employees then expect them to do all of this while there are customers in the store, then gripe about it not being done or customer complaints. Stop treating your employees like crap as if they are simply expendable assets with no personal life. Reevaluate your district managers especailly in the south. When your employees try to communicate issues to you and there is a common theme LISTEN to them and come up with a solution, do not just say, "We are tired of your excuses."

Pros

Gander Mountain has a pretty good benefit package for full time employees. The people that you work with, like many companies make the job fun.

Cons

In the last year Gander Mountain has become more of a place where you sell insurance or credit cards. We are pushed to sell summit plans or insurance on the items we sell, telling the customers we are protecting them from manufactures defects. If a customer is purchasing a firearm there is a firearm protection plan that they should surely purchase for $29.99 to cover any manufacturers defects, as if the manufacturer wouldn't cover it. We are also pushed to make customers to sign up for the Gander Mountain credit card. In times like these the last thing most people need is a high intrest credit card. The big catch is they get rewards vouchers that they can use at Gander Mountain (Oh Boy).Corprate changes there mind on which direction we are going like i change my underwear, daily. I wish I could be more positive but I can't. At the store level the turn over rate is so high,I'll bet besides the few full time people we have there isn't anyone here that has more than 6 months under their belt. The last time anyone seen a pay increase was at least 2 years ago. Also we get the opportunity to work 9:00 am to 9:00 pm on Thanksgiving day. Now theres a company that cares about their employees. And for a pat on the back for a good job done, we have had 1 Christmas party in the last 5 years. I could go on and on but I think you get the picture. Writing this makes me feel worse that I did before I decided to tell someone. Sorry

Advice to Senior Management

Base camp or management should have to work in the stores for an extended peroid of time, so they understand whats going on.The sentence below asks if I approve of the way David Pratt is leading Gander Mountain. David Pratt doesn't care what i think. He wants to make money and I don't blame him. I want him to make money also. Wouldn't mind making a little myself, unfortunately Gander Mountain probably isn't the place to do it.

Pros

Sharing experience with similar people....learning more about my interest of hunting....self growth...of course the discounts.

Cons

Not receiving incentives that corporate has in place (found on trailhead)...being ignored from management...repeatedly lied to

Advice to Senior Management

Take care of your employees and you might see improved performance...stores should never know about visits from DM.

Pros

...I got to make some good friends while I worked there, and met some interesting people who had good work ethics and values, and were fired.

Cons

Where do I start? Gander treats all it's employees like monkeys, regardless of how much experience or training you've had. I started there with 20 years experience in warehouse logistics and shipping/receiving, and after 5 years, was still a bottom rung employee. There is no room for advancement, as all management and middle management jobs are direct hire 'off the street' people. These managers are inept and inexperienced, and any attempt by employees with more experience to direct them is met with backlash and scorn or complete ignorance.
Communication between management and employees is almost non-existent. Important changes to job functions are left out of the daily start-up meetings in lieu of the motivational 'let's go guys' speeches. Such changes come as a total surprise and are communicated only AFTER several mistakes are made under the new "system."
Multiple managers with experience and knowledge were subsequently fired shortly after the inception of our new CEO, or made to feel so useless and incompetent that they quickly found other jobs, some taking pay cuts or loss of status just to get away from the company.
A hard day's work is rewarded with more work and scorn. Several employees, myself included, were hand-picked based on performance alone to be the Gander Mountain/Overton's audit team, which demanded of us extra overtime, extra work, more attention that is normally required of the job. This team was personally responsible for every single product that would be shipped to the new warehouse to complete online ordering, a new direction for Gander Mountain.
Upon completion of this task, which took several weeks and many hours of overtime, Gander was able to open up it's first 'online' store, with confidence that they could fulfill any order of offered product because we personally checked single item with 100% accuracy. The four employees who comprised this team were never given so much as a thank you, other than a general "good job" to ALL employees, most of whom not only did not work anywhere NEAR the project, but also complained that we were being shown "favoritism" by being selected to be on the team.
The manager who headed up the project was demoted, lost her shift preference and was held up in several meeting to explain why she had our personal phone numbers, etc...
Gander Mountain Distribution is a great place to work if you want some easy money. They pay well based on years worked there and nothing else. Experience and commitment mean nothing to them. A hard-working and diligent employee makes exactly the same money as the laziest and inept with the same amount of years.
Several times had I complained about employees who would LITERALLY stand or sit around and talk for, no exaggeration, 2 hours at a time, in full view of management while I was trying to perform a job that required two people. No attempt was made by management to correct the issue, ever.
If I sound bitter, I am. I am a person who believes that hard work and dedication pay off in the end, and Gander Mountain was a waste of five years of my life.
Now that I have finally quit (taking a pay cut) I am already ahead of where I was there after 5 years and I have only been with my current employer for a month.
I honestly believe it's only a matter of time before Gander Mountain, INC is a part of Cabella's or Bass Pro. There is no way that a company as terribly managed as this one can stay afloat for long.

Advice to Senior Management

Clean house. Fire all the upper management and most of the middle management. Allow your employees to take "ownership" of the company, get them involved in the daily operations and stop hiring the college-educated to fill positions that would be better served by EXPERIENCED employees.
Gander was a great place to work 5 years ago, when good performance was rewarded and bad was 'directed' or simply fired. When a company creates a gap between employee and manager by telling the managers not to get 'friendly' with the employees, it simply sends a message to the employees that they are not cared for. If an employee doesn't feel like his management cares, then why would they themselves care?
This is the direction you are pointing the company. It's a downward spiral that will end with yet another empty warehouse in Lebanon. I'm glad I got out when I did.

Pros

Ok discount on regular priced items. Fellow employees are great.

Cons

Total confusion and mis-direction from management (if they stay more than 6 months) and Corporate.
Corporate controls inventories and products with no checks and balances so of course the system (antiquated and nonsensical programs) is never right and the store gets audited or merchandise loss or way overstocked on products that don't sell so backstock is overloaded.
Equipment (computers, iRads, RF Guns,cleaning equipment, Mannequins, ugly green ill fitting vests, etc) is NOT replaced when non-functional - "make do" is the corporate attitude.
Corporate even controls the building temperature - Minnesota turns on the heat when THEY are cold, not paying any attention to the temperatures in their stores making it very uncomfortable to work in the unbreathable vests and customers won't stay to shop as it's too hot!
Credit Cards, Summits and ProPlans - customers see no advantage in any of these yet the employee/store management is rated on these items.
No way to feedback to management at all. Guaranteed to lose your job if you even try to get past your district manager. If you contact corporate with money savings ideas (wasted space in boxes on weekly truck shipments) they give it to the district manager who reprimands the store manager who then reprimands the person. Nothing changes.
Too many great employees leave the company because of management - Corporate's attitude is "There are more people looking for a job, why make changes or try to keep someone, hire someone else". People are learning that Gander Mountain is NOT a place you want to work if you have a work ethic and care about a job well done.

Advice to Senior Management

This is not the 40's where people will take all kinds of mistreatment and continue to do a good job for you. Wake up!! You are rapidly going through the work base and getting a horrid reputation in the market place. If the employees are unhappy working for you, do you really think they'll step back into the store to shop there?
It takes one person telling 10 of their friends how Gander Mountain rips people off with the pricing and the margins, who then tell 10 of their friends, etc to ruin a business. Word of mouth can make or break a business and Gander is losing reputation quickly in the market. Customers are telling the employees how much nicer the competitor stores are and how much happier the employees seem. If the customer notices the way the employees are being treated, do you really think they will continue to shop?
Look at your shipping process (weekly trucks). Many large boxes contain only 1 item (t-shirts are a favorite). I saw one shipment come in and 16 large boxes came in for one department that contained 1 item each (one even had one single lure, not a box of lure, 1 single pack). Want to save money do you can pay your employees better or buy better equipment? Control your shipping!!
Lastly - check into how the store employees reach the top shelves in the store. Most use a standard 10 -20 foot aluminum ladder - this is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Well, it was fun airing all this out but after reviewing past posts I can tell nothing will change. Good luck anyone still working there!! I'm moving on.