Summit Hut is closing

[azbackpackr]

The Summit Hut in Tucson, in business for over 50 years, is closing. The owners (2nd owners) say they can't compete in today's market.

They are having a huge sale, needless to say.

I'm sad about this, although I haven't lived in Tucson for a long time. I did buy some good stuff there over the years. I confess, that yes, in my early years in Tucson I also shopped at Bob's Bargain Barn and Popular, but Summit Hut outlasted them. Then REI came along, but by then I had moved away.

The original owner, Dave Baker, started the business in his garage when he was 15.

[SpiderLegs]

Someone else commented that the original owner was happy keeping the Summit Hut in an aging strip mall. The new owners paid for that new expensive building and a fortune to remodel it. They should have stayed in that strip mall or some other low rent location.

Went to Sprouts next door to the Oro Valley location a few days ago. The Summit Hut left in such a hurry that they left behind thousands of dollars of store fixtures. The landlord had a lien on the front door claiming everything inside was theirs now. My guess is that there might be $4-$5000 in shelving, displays, fixtures, dressing rooms and probably warehouse shelving in the back room.

[Jim]

@SpiderLegs
My guess is that location was expensive beyond what the store could generate. It was the only location I visited in the last 11 years after originally buying clothes at the original old Speedway location which seemed fine. It was simply too far from me to justify visiting. The OV location seemed small for an outdoor store, I recall it being mostly outdoor-ish clothes and shoes (got a nice deal on the altras I wore for Whitney in July of 2022) and never had anyone in it when I was there. The old Speedway location was busy, had a lot of actual outdoor stuff and was very busy in April of 2014.

[SpiderLegs]

@Jim - Putting my otherwise useless college degree in urban planning to use. Simple market research would dictate that you don't put an outdoor shop on the same street as your major competitor who is only 4 miles away. Plus there is a running store in the same shopping center that sells trail running shoes, gels & energy bars and outdoor clothing. Most people have a clause in their leases that anyone that could be considered a competitor isn't allowed in the same complex. Again just goes to show that the owners didn't have a clue as to what they were doing.

[markthurman53]

@LosDosSloFolks
MARPATS for me, they come in two shades, desert tan or forest green, unless of coarse you are in the polar regions then they come in white. Can't buy them in the civilian stores only imitation, have to have someone with connections.

[Alston_Neal]

realizing that giant sucking sound was all of their money being removed from their wallet.

Wow, welcome to the small biz retail world.

[Nighthiker]

I bought a large rubber replica of a Colorado River toad. Stuck it outside by the front door at work right after a rainstorm. It scared the hell out of a coworker. Was assigned to HR to watch a couple of videos that were close captioned with the bouncing ball.

[tkknc]

So the speedway store also closed?
The last email I got from them said they were closing the Oracle store, but keeping the speedway store open?
I remember the seeing big wall hammock hanging in the Alvernon store window, every time I drove by.

[SpiderLegs]

So the speedway store also closed?
The last email I got from them said they were closing the Oracle store, but keeping the speedway store open?
I remember the seeing big wall hammock hanging in the Alvernon store window, every time I drove by.

Yep, I stopped by yesterday to pick at the carcass. Nothing left other than size 14+ shoes, men's pants that are 42x30, 3XL performance underwear and the like. Picked up a pair of cheap sunglasses and a couple of beer mugs.

The store had contractors in there as well tearing the store apart and the location is up for sale. New owners took a Tucson legacy business and drove it into the ground. My college degree was in urban planning with one focus on retail site selection, they failed miserably in that regard.

[azbackpackr]

@SpiderLegs
Where would you have located the main store? Is REI in a better location due to being at the mall? Malls aren't doing that well these days. I remember you saying the Oro Valley location of SH was a particularly bad idea.

A funny: the original owner used to call it the Stomach Hut, to his friends.

[Jim]

https://www.summithut.com/

https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/s ... -in-tucson

Sources, too.


Store should probably have been located somewhere with more people and more money, since Tucson isn't a wealthy town, they have more than ample competition, and they couldn't make it since they are closing. Tucson has one of the highest poverty rates in the west, it makes national news from time to time. Having an old school outdoor culture is great, but that also means cut off jeans, and making do with what works, not what is the trendy fashionable accessory to impress the vapid trail trolls who hike 1/2 a mile to be seen in the latest poly pants and brand labels.

https://mapazdashboard.arizona.edu/heal ... verty-rate says 14.4% of town lives in poverty

https://www.city-data.com/poverty/pover ... izona.html says 18.6% lives in poverty.

Not to make this about Tucson being poor, but it seems there simply wasn't the economic base to pay $70 for a pair of nylon hiking pants.

[chumley]

I bet there's a large enough population in Tucson within the necessary income demographics to support a small, high-priced specialty retailer. Getting enough of those people to shop at your store is the business challenge, not the nonexistence of those people.

I'm pretty sure everybody commenting in this thread has said that they now buy outdoor gear online. Huh.

[Jim]

Where would you move the store to, then?

[RedRoxx44]

Well, to get at the large older hiking population south of Tucson anywhere near the nearest Trader Joe's.

[SpiderLegs]

@SpiderLegs
Where would you have located the main store? Is REI in a better location due to being at the mall? Malls aren't doing that well these days. I remember you saying the Oro Valley location of SH was a particularly bad idea.

A funny: the original owner used to call it the Stomach Hut, to his friends.

Summit Hut was a destination, not a store the casual shopper popped into to see what was there. Trying to have a high end shop on Speedway that looked like an REI was a money losing proposition. Personally if I had to pick a place it would still be central Tucson but up a few miles in a lower rent area, thereby eliminating the need for an Oro Valley store. Someplace like the old thrift store on Prince & Campbell that's now a furniture store, or on Pima or Ft Lowell. If they got one of the old grocery stores with a high ceiling in that area they could have built a climbing gym to supplement the retail store.

To go off of what Jim H said, Tucson is a poor city. One of the poorest cities in the country but go north of River there's a ton of money up there. Put an outdoor shop with a unique niche that REI doesn't have within a mile or two of River & Swan and you might be able to make a go of it.

Used to work for an outdoor shop in Phoenix, a lot of our foot traffic came from people who flew in to go to the Grand Canyon and took a five minute detour from the airport. Probably got 3-5 people a day that way and more on the weekends. Those people were worth a $50-$100 sale for each person. Summit Hut wasn't getting traffic like that.