The Flagstaff Scout Shop, Northern Arizona’s supplier of youth scouting gear, is closing down effective May 11. While this marks the end of the store located at 2224 East Cedar Avenue, Flagstaff Sports Exchange (19 West Aspen Avenue) will acquire most of the inventory and continue selling equipment ranging from uniforms and camping supplies to literature, patches and badges.
The Flagstaff Scout Shop dates back years, when Flagstaff had its own locally operated Boy Scouts of America (BSA) council. Because of financial issues, the group merged with the council in Phoenix to form the Grand Canyon Council. The new council set up shop in Phoenix and the old Flagstaff office thus closed. However, the BSA-run Flagstaff shop remained in operation in the Northland.
According to Andy Price, current scout executive of the Grand Canyon Council, the shop inevitably suffered economic problems because it wasn’t selling enough product to match the costs of operation (cost of goods, rent and labor). Price said, “There’s very little margin in scout uniforms and related supplies. You can’t be like a Nordstrom that has a higher margin and so can afford to sell fewer items to cover costs. Instead, you have to be like a Walmart, which has a smaller margin and so has to sell a lot more items to make it work. And Northern Arizona just doesn’t have enough sales to make it work.”
Price says the store has lost some $60,000 per year in recent times. This was a major factor in closing, but a second nail-in-the-coffin reason relates to last year’s withdrawal of the LDS church as partners with BSA. Price explains that for years the church in the United States has used BSA-developed programs in their youth development efforts. But in most of the rest of the world they use a church-developed program. Reportedly, they wanted everyone to follow the same program, which meant no longer participating in BSA. This significant reduction in the number of youth in BSA would further reduce sales at the Flagstaff Scout Shop, Price said. He explained, “Frankly, they probably should have shut down the store a few years ago, but they kept trying to make it work. But we just can’t afford to operate something that has lost $60,000 per year and would lose even more in the future.”
Public reaction to the closing, says Price, has been mixed. “When the councils merged, some said Flagstaff didn’t get the love. So these people view this as another example of Phoenix not supporting Flagstaff. But it’s an economic decision and a lot of the scout parents and scout leaders said, ‘We get it.’ While we’re a not-for-profit, we’ve still got to think like a business and operate like one.”
Some of the negative reaction may be assuaged by the fact that the scouting merchandise will still be available locally. Flagstaff Sports Exchange owner Katey Lou Peterson was thrilled to be one of several local businesses to receive a call from the Grand Canyon Council in mid-April, asking about her interest in picking up the BSA distributorship. To her, this seemed like an ideal match because she has a lot of experience with scouts, often hiring them because, as she puts it, “They have been shown the value of integrity and honesty and morality, qualities that are especially important for a small business owner like me who has to be able to trust them, since I literally give them keys to the place.”
After considering the other shops around town, the Grand Canyon Council chose Peterson’s store as the new distributor. She expects to have the inventory on shelves by the second or third week of May. FBN
By Kevin Schindler, FBN