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January 17th, 2018, 12:10 PM
#11

Originally Posted by
dreblt
Yeah they are great at the Oshawa location!
I agree never a problem with staff or inventory.
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January 17th, 2018 12:10 PM
# ADS
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January 17th, 2018, 12:25 PM
#12
Even though there is a Sail Store in Cambridge, I still would rather drive to Cabelas' in Barrie for various reasons , very friendly and helpful clerks, prices , variety, quality and their return policy , no questions asked, replace or refund.
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January 17th, 2018, 12:44 PM
#13

Originally Posted by
delmer
The couple locations I've been to had very friendly and helpful staff.
Just one case:
Went into the location off Hwy 7 and the 400 ( York) and waited for over a hour and 20 minutes for someone to open a locked draw so they could sell me a Garmin GPS and a bunch of accessories for it. Out of the five staff I talked to no one had a key. The storage draw was behind and under the display counter. At the hour and a half mark I left drove to bass pro and bought everything I wanted for about $60 to $80 more then I would have payed at Sail. Having all the stuff and prices lower then the competition does you no good if there is no staff that can get stuff out of a draw to sell it.
Take the warning labels off. Darwin will solve the problem.
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January 17th, 2018, 03:10 PM
#14
I have purchased a couple of rifles and a shotgun @ Sail in the past 3 years or so. They used to have great service, a decent level of inventory and competitive pricing. I've found that this has changed recently - since the demise of LeBaron's just over a year ago, the pricing (it seems to me) has crept upwards, close to or at the same as Bass Pro, and/or Cabelas, for essentially the same products/line items. Their "promotions" aren't nearly as aggressive/appealing. And their website still sort of sucks - in terms of what they can sell online. One Sail associate told me that Vaughn is the only store (in Ontario, at least) which fulfills online orders, which apparently means that if Vaughn has it in stock, or can get it from the distributor, no issue. But if there is no stock at Vaughn, and the importer/distributor is out as well, you ain't going to get what you want even if there is stock at another store.
Case in point - I had a hankering to buy a new Browning X-Bolt Eclipse Varmint heavy barrel in .223, since I've started to help some various farmers clear out groundhogs and at the same time get a bit more into longer range shooting. No stock at Vaughn, no stock at Browning Canada. Cambridge showed one in stock, but Sail's policy is "no cross-store internet orders", meaning they won't sell a product in another store direct to the consumer ordering, I'd have had to drive out to Cambridge and pick it up there (about 1.5 hours each way in good weather. In winter, along the 401, through the snowbelt, that could take hours). If these were franchises, I could understand that policy since there isn't enough incentive for separate billing from a franchised/independent operation, but for corporately owned stores I for the life of me can't figure it out. It wouldn't have cost much more than a couple of extra dollars to ship it to me if I ordered it online, and the customer pays for shipping anyway, so it wouldn't have cost them anything extra.
Just seems strange to me that they'd turn down a 100% confirmed sale of an in-stock product on the off-chance that it'll sell to somebody who wanders in off the street.
I've found another online shop, which was $50 more than Sail's price but that price included shipping, so that's where I'll likely end up spending my ca$h unless I can find another retailer closer to my location who has it in-stock.
In some ways, this type of thing is also what sunk LeBaron's, who had an even worse internet presence and no ordering system to speak of. Compared to Cabelas, or Bass Pro, who I've been told will fulfill orders at the store level, I was surprised. Frankly, they should at least be able to do a store-to-store transfer.
We're not talking a $300 10/22 here, but a $1,200+ rifle. Maybe I'm asking too much, but I don't think so.
O.N.G.
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January 17th, 2018, 07:09 PM
#15
London Free press announced back in 2011 Sail was going to open in the early fall there, never did happen....
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January 17th, 2018, 09:19 PM
#16
You people do know Le Barons and Sails where or are associated ....Brother in-laws I believe ?
Glen
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January 17th, 2018, 11:51 PM
#17
Great news out today
I saw the announcements.
It's going into the area that the Costco south store is located.
Can't wait to have a major retailer, even though I would rather have a cabelas..
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January 18th, 2018, 06:21 AM
#18

Originally Posted by
MikePal
I haven't been there in awhile, haven't heard if they have.
Their website still is up...they say there closed today for inventory...what have you heard ?
My bad I misread your post in that they had closed.
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January 18th, 2018, 08:14 AM
#19
That will be good news if they do open a store down this way. We definitely are missing a store this of TO. I have a couple of choices, drive 4hrs to Cabela's north of TO or 3 hrs to cabelas in MI, but then you have to be careful of what you bring back.
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January 18th, 2018, 09:27 AM
#20

Originally Posted by
G Skinner
You people do know Le Barons and Sails where or are associated ....Brother in-laws I believe ?
Glen
Yup, absolutely knew of a relationship - something to do with the wife of the original LeBaron's owner (who later inherited/ran LeBaron's for quite a few years) being, I believe, the sister of the Sail owner/start-up. Reports of some level of acrimony between the two families. The relationship was never crystal clear, though, to anybody outside the inner LeBaron's/Sail circle.
I still stand by what my observations are/were......the relationship should have not factored into it, except that with the demise of LeBaron's there was a lower level of competition within the "mini-big-box" Hunting/Fishing/Outdoors retailers (examples: Wholesale Sports out west, LeBaron's, Sail) and with both WSS now gone and LeBaron's passing into the great hunting ground, Sail pretty much "owns" that segment, and therefore has edged closer to the American-based Big Box boys, Bass Pro/Cabelas, in both pricing, marketing, customer service and presence.
Having said that, if Sail wants to be an even larger presence, they should seriously examine their online presentation and sales policies, I believe - or eventually face LeBaron's fate of gradual irrelevance, and certainly a hindrance to a larger brick-and-mortar expansion.
Now, with BP owning Cabelas, the whole "get it all in one place" is pretty much centered on BP and Sail, or will be I believe.
O.N.G.