Klein's All Sports Meets Defeat

NEW YORK MILLS, NY-At the beginning of this week, Klein’s All Sports notified employees that it is going out of business, shuttering its 12 stores. In a statement, Andrew Klein, CEO, said, “Unfortunately, we’re not able to continue based on difficulty with financing and market conditions.”

In a telephone interview with GSR, spokeswoman Samantha Leggat elaborated on the conditions, which included, she said, “deep-discount department stores selling at prices that were almost impossible to beat, and discount online outlets. This was not a quick or light decision,” she said. “It’s been under consideration for some time now.”

Calling the announcement to go out of business “an extremely difficult decision and a sad day,” Klein said in his statement, “the sale of inventory in all 12 stores will continue until all inventory has been completely sold off.” Until then, the current staff will be retained.

Managers of two malls where the 56-year-old regional sporting goods retailer has stores confirm that it has been conducting clearance sales for the past two weeks and that clerks were telling customers goods cannot be returned. The managers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they received “official” notice through a general press release today, Dec. 15, but had not spoken with Klein’s management.

Neal Klein, Andrew’s father, founded the company in 1948 and, according to the statement, was instrumental in growing the retail stores. Two are in Massachusetts and the other 10 are in New York state, primarily in Northern towns. In March 2002, Klein’s store in Ithaca, NY moved from the Pyramid Mall to a 12,000-sf portion of a former A&P grocery unit at nearby Triphammer Mall, doubling its previous space.

The manager of one of the company’s Massachusetts-mall locations told GSR, “we had some inkling it would close, because of the recent sales activity.” He said there was no direct, full-line sporting goods store in his mall, but there is an EMS unit in the center of his property and a Dick’s Sporting Goods store within five miles.