Howdy folks, welcome back! A few months ago in February, Dick’s Sporting Good’s announced they were planning on expanding a new concept to Houston with Dick’s Warehouse Sale. The location opened in Friendswood on February 17, 2021. According to the original press release, which has since been deleted by Dick’s, the stores were intended to be “temporary pop-up shop” experiences, with discounts up to 70%. I had known about the new store for quite some time, but hadn’t made the time to visit. I happened to be in the area taking other photos, not planning on covering this store but decided to quickly stop by. While they heavily delivered on the pop-up style shopping experience, the discounts were nowhere near as showing. While the lack of low prices wasn’t much of a surprise for Dick’s, the store was located in a former Babies ‘R Us building and had a few tricks up it sleeve. One of them was what brought me to the store so unexpectedly. It was already going out of business! After only being open for a few months, this Warehouse Sale was already in the process of shutting down. While Google does still list the business as open, Dick’s own website has removed their listing for the store. The next surprise would be how little Dick’s covered up the remnants of Babies ‘R Us. While I wouldn’t expect anything major to be done, this was like shopping at Spirit Halloween! The final surprise, is that it seems it actually wasn’t closing. Despite being sold out of shoes, staff were out and about building up displays that had obviously only recently been broken down.
After briefly speaking with employees, it seemed that the Dick’s would make it just past Christmas. The displays being put up were simply to help off load clothing instead of shoes, which are obviously a fast seller in a clearance situation. Due to its delisting, leaving only one other store in Texas, I’m pretty sure Dick’s has closed by now, and Google simply hasn’t been updated. It was an interesting concept, and something I’m glad that I got to check out, but not anywhere I’d ever find myself back again except out of curiosity. Who knows what will happen to this space, Ollie’s doesn’t seem to be in a building mood anywhere in the U.S. much less Texas. For the time being, though, it’s probably going to continue to sit vacant. As while the Dick’s Warehouse Sale may have been a bit more popular than anticipated, it was no smash hit.
I remember seeing this Dick’s Warehouse Sale opening up a while back. It was strange seeing a Dick’s Sporting Goods clearance store so close to one of their main stores, but I suppose such things aren’t unprecedented. The store itself is quite strange as the remaining BRU decor clearly is mismatched with what one expects from a Dick’s Sporting Goods. It seems that even Spirit Halloween does more, but this is a clearance store so I suppose the expectations have to be pretty low. Anyway, successful or not, it’s an interesting case of retail recycling and I’m glad you were able to capture it.