Dick's Sporting Goods Resisting Smaller Locations In Urban Areas Due To High Rent

Dick's Sporting Goods has "looked at opening its first location in Manhattan," but company Chair & CEO Ed Stack hinted that it was "unlikely to follow through because high rent prices would undermine the store's profitability," according to Chris Fleisher of the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW. At the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference in N.Y. yesterday, Stack said that Dick's "wants to be closer to its customers but it isn't going to pay high city rents or shrink the size of its stores to do it." Stack: "The rents in New York City make us a little uncomfortable." Fleisher notes Target, Kohl's and Lowe's are among the retailers that have "rolled out smaller concept stores as they look to cut costs amid competition from online sales, and move into dense urban centers where there are more customers." Dick's has "experimented with a smaller concept" in Chicago. But Stack said that the larger 50,000-square-foot store model "would dominate its expansion plans" (PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 9/8).