Colorado Vail Resorts closing 19 stores in Aspen

[Tricia]

This is huge news!
Vail Resorts has filed notices with the Colorado Department of Labor that it will be closing 19 stores in Aspen, including Aspen Sports in the Snowmass mall, which is where our good friend Jack Rafferty is a master bootfitter.
See all 19 notices here.

 

[AmyPJ]

Vail is doing something very, very wrong management-wise.

 

[Jersey Skier]

Vail is doing something very, very wrong management-wise.

While I agree with this statement with regard to the majority of Vail's moves, who knows what it costs to run these stores. Retail sucks these days.

 

[ilovepugs]

wow the typo their lawyers made is unfortunate. “Severing” not “serving” their core retail markets, eh. Can understand them wanting to focus on towns with vail-owned resorts though, and not Aspen.

 

[James]

Why does Vail own them in the first place?

 

[Jilly]

I'm confused. Vail has stores in Aspen, which is Alterra?

 

[gratedwasabi]

Glass half full, hopefully this will open up the opportunity for these spots to be non-Vail owned stores and all of these employees are able to find employment with better companies (not a high bar when comparing to Vail.)

 

[dbostedo]

Interesting that they are closing, not selling. Or perhaps that closure announcements will turn into a sale. I can't imagine someone else not wanting to fill some of these spaces.

Denver Post article, which points out that it includes Telluride locations too, and has the rationale:

Vail Resorts closing 19 retail locations in Aspen, Snowmass Village and Telluride

SSI Venture, the retail arm of Broomfield-based Vail Resorts, has informed the state that it plans to close 19 equipment rental and retail locations in Aspen, Telluride and Snowmass Village, perman…

www.denverpost.com

 

[Tricia]

I'm confused. Vail has stores in Aspen, which is Alterra?

Yes. We've known for a long time that they owned the store in the Snowmass Village.
SSL which used to be VRR (Vail Resorts Retail) gobbled up a bunch of stores all over the west, including Any Mountain chain in the Bay area out here. Those stores were all closed about 4 years ago.

 

[Tricia]

Interesting that they are closing, not selling. Or perhaps that closure announcements will turn into a sale. I can't imagine someone else not wanting to fill some of these spaces.

Denver Post article, which points out that it includes Telluride locations too, and has the rationale:

Vail Resorts closing 19 retail locations in Aspen, Snowmass Village and Telluride

SSI Venture, the retail arm of Broomfield-based Vail Resorts, has informed the state that it plans to close 19 equipment rental and retail locations in Aspen, Telluride and Snowmass Village, perman…

www.denverpost.com

If you ever worked for a Vail store, you'll find it very much in line with how they operate.

 

[SBrown]

Yes. We've known for a long time that they owned the store in the Snowmass Village.
SSL which used to be VRR (Vail REsorts Retail) gobbled up a bunch of stores all over the west, including Any Mountain chain in the Bay area out here. Those stores were all closed about 4 years ago.

And some of those leases probably predated Alterra, anyway? I don't really know, but yes, Vail owns lots of retail, more than we would guess. And while it's kinda like Pepsi and Coke, it seems things are a little too incestuous in the ski industry to be totally separated.

 

[mikel]

They had the store in center village at Copper. Not sure what happened with that lease but Copper Sports / rental is now in that location.

 

[fatbob]

Leases were up. Why gamble on a pricey renewal in a declining market where getting quality staff ( at the price you are prepared to pay them) is hard?

 

[PaganSkier]

Not all are in Aspen - I did a quick scroll and many are in Telluride. Of course Telluride is on the Full Epic (7 days or so).