The Winona store used to have a great army surplus section. I'd buy a duffel bag every time I walked in. You can never have enough of those good quality duffel bags. Well, guess what. They're gone for good.

Now HERE was a store! Dang I miss ordering out of the Herter's catalog!! Was like Christmas when that box would arrive on the porch. Just paging through the catalog was an inspiration for this young man back in the day.



Didn't they have just about everything . . . .

I prefer L&M Fleet by far

Muskrat, I have to agree with you 101% about Herter's, they had just about anything you even thought you might need. I've bought traps, firearms, all kinds of fishing equipment and lures, clothing, decoys, brass, bullets, you name it I've probably bought it there. That was one company that I hated to see go. Model Perfect!!

The Herter's catalog brings back memories! Last year while going through some of my dad's stuff I found an old catalog, and spent a couple of hours going through it again. Many plans were made while looking at that book.

IF I remember right they had a Herter's store In Beaver Dam. or some where In that area.

They did, Gary. And how about those Holiday gas stations? A fella could fill the tank, buy a shotgun, decoys, and a six pack of beer all before the duck opener.

I stopped at another Mill's Fleet Farm today. This one, Oakdale, MN.I only had a few minutes so only checked what I call the "firewood aisle". It was better than Brooklyn Park, but, not by much.

They had a few chains, bars, bar oil, and files. Absolutely no two cycle oil, and danged few hand tools. By hand tools, I mean the likes of axes, mauls, cant hooks, etc.

On the bright side, I found everything I needed at a Menards. Now I'll know where to go when Fleet Farm closes their doors.

Fleet Farm here in Brainerd is still going strong. I just talked to the manager of the Brainerd store a couple days ago and he seems happy with the new owners. He's been with Fleet Farm since there was only one store. It's been two years since the buyout and I can't really see anything that's changed except the logo has been updated.

I ordered my first compound bow out of a Herter's Catalog I think it was in 1975. It was a Herter's Black Mountain Hunter. Think I paid something like $65 for it. Killed a lot of deer with it up until the mid 80's; I still have that bow. Wish I had a copy of the catalog.

Plenty of them to be had here.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Herters-Catalog-Outdoors-Hunting-Fishing-Seeds-Trapping-Wauseca-Glenwood/183581201403?hash=item2abe4ad3fb:g:7EgAAOSwAbxcEId3:rk:3:pf:0

VERY true. It's so obvious, and I hear it from everybody. I've never understood why Farm & Fleet couldn"t up their game, so to speak, to try to do as good as Fleet Farm. That said, Farm & Fleet is by no means bad...it's just not nearly as good as Fleet Farm. I hope the OP isn't right about Fleet Farm across the board. As for new ownership, I haven't heard anything about that...but I did notice their logo appears to have changed recently. Hmmm...

We have a new FF here in Eau Claire. Similar to the good, older stores, but no surplus items (which I liked). The new ownership is expanding bigtime as they built a huge distribution center in Chippewa Falls.

I agree with Steven49er about L & M Fleet, which is a great store and better than any current Fleet Farm. The closest L&M to me is two hours north (Hayward), but visit Ashland and Grand Rapids when in the neighborhood.

Well Fleet Farm just built a million dollar store In Deforest. so I don't see them closing the doors anytime soon.

I would guess FF spent at least that on the new store in Eau Claire, likely in just site prep alone. A good store and glad to have them here - finally !

Fleet Farm is going to build a new store in West Bend.
They have been trying to build but the city always wanted them to build on the South side of town.
FF wants go to the west of town. This held it up for probably decades.
New store will be on west side of town.
I bought my 1st shotgun from the old West Bend store, a 870 for $135.
Had to be in the mid '70's.

Problem I see with a lot of these store is when the expand into the market. They loose that thing they had locally as a family community store. They try to make each store location the same not tailored to area.
My Father inlaw, brother inlaw, my daughter and son worked or work for Festival foods. That chain at least here locally came from the Skogen family as a local IGA. The old man my father inlaw and brother inlaw first worked for at one little store. He past the torch to the kids and they expanded to 3-4 stores here locally then switched from IGA to the festival brand went state wide. Now it seems every time they add a store around the state, which they have many of now. Some of the items we used to get here locally go away. My son used to make the festival brand brats right in the store depending on how many the store sold.. That got job out now and they order them in and are some times told how many cases they have to take. Even if they run short or have to clearance things because of to much. Lot of the manager that used to do the orders for each department at each store, are now told by corporate what they are taking or selling. They manage mostly their staffs hour and work schedule.
So maybe your FF store only got what chain saw supplies corporate wants them to have. The manager of that department in that store just throws his hands in the air, has to wait for the next truck from corporate.

My mother would say they get to big for the britches.

Mac

Based upon the reports of expansions here, I can only assume they have big plans.

Evidently, those plans don't include the firewood aisle. They must consider it a thing of the past. I guess my user name ain't a dinosaur for nothin'.

Mac, you hit the nail on the head. Many businesses are using the "one size fits all approach" more and more, which leaves out the specialty stuff we all have come to appreciate - and expect.

Regarding Festival Foods, it's unreal how the old Skogen's IGA has morphed into the Festival chain of grocery stores....and they con't to expand/grow. a huge difference from 50+ years ago, growing up in Lacrosse.

T-rex, it could be they ran out. I was told they order inventory 10-12 weeks ahead of time, and it's not easy to restock an item right away all the time. I had a similar experience looking for ice fishing gear at the end of February last year, many things were pretty picked over. We had at least a month of good ice fishing weather ahead, and a lot of their items were out of stock. It wasn't just FF though, Cabelas down the road had even less ice fishing gear.

You couldn't build much of a store for a million these days. I would guess it would take at least ten times that much to put up a new fleet farm store.