?? Mark's Favourites: Retailtainment and the WOW Factor

There's a lot to be said about the potential of experiential retail, immersive environments, and retailtainment, yet few stores really deliver an indisputable wow factor.?

US-based retailer Scheels breaks that trend as they accelerate opening enormous, fun-filled sports stores across the USA.?

Tens of thousands showed up for the Arizona grand opening, with some even camping overnight to enjoy the latest Scheels sporting extravaganza at Macerich’s Chandler Fashion Center in downtown Chandler. It’s likely few had seen anything like it before.?

While shopping for a wide range of sporting goods, customers could also take a $1 ride on the central, 12-car, 13.7m. Ferris wheel, or perhaps watch scuba divers feed 600 fish in a 1,500 sq m saltwater aquarium.?

Because everything Scheels does, it does big.?

Its incredible rise to a 32-strong megastore chain focused primarily in the US Mid West has been a slow burn. The company tracks its roots to a three-acre potato field where German immigrant Frederick A. Scheel used the $300 he earned from his first harvest in 1902 as a down payment on the original Scheels, a small hardware store in Sabin, Minnesota.?

Over the years, Scheels opened in surrounding communities, including Fargo in 1930, where its corporate offices are still located. Eventually, they added their sports lines. The company, which remains employee-owned and family-run, counts the founder's great-grandson Steve D. Scheel as the chair, and great-great-grandson Steve M. Scheel as CEO, overseeing Scheels' 10,000 associates.?

Scheels has, in effect, become a next-generation anchor. In Arizona, the store debuted in a spot vacated by department store Nordstrom but at an enormous 23,200 sq m, it is actually 9,300 sq m larger than the anchor it replaced and features a wide variety of family-oriented entertainment including the Ferris wheel, aquarium, a wildlife mountain, Fuzziwig’s Candy Shop, Ginna’s Café, arcade games, and sports simulators, plus 75 sports-zoned stores.?

Scheels typically expands at a rate of two or three stores a year and announced its second All Sports store for Texas, scheduled to open in the autumn of 2026 in Cedar Park. Construction will begin early next year at CedarView, a large mixed-use development near the H-E-B Center, soon to be home to Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM), a convention center, and a hotel. The 22,300 sq m Scheels will serve as the second core anchor in the development alongside NFM.??

“Scheels is a one-of-a-kind destination retail experience that showcases not only an incredible selection of the best brands but also the best in customer service,” said NFM Chief Strategy and Development Officer Jeff Lind. “They truly offer a unique experience in the area of sporting goods and so much more.”??

Upon opening, the store will be the Scheels' 35th location, with 32 existing stores and two others scheduled to open in Meridian, Idaho, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.