Scheels Gearing Up for Grand Opening

The 220,000-square-foot outdoors retailer Scheels is opening its first Utah store on Sep. 29 in Sandy. They offered a sneak peek of the store and what it hopes to bring to the state.

Scheels has hired about 450 people, with plans to hire more than 500 total. Fifty of those were transferred from out of state and the rest are locals, said Karen Jones, store leader for the Sandy location.

Jones declined to say how much the store cost to build, but added that all the subcontractors were hired locally.

The store features a 65-foot Ferris wheel, 16,000-gallon saltwater aquarium, café, wildlife mountain and various sports and outdoors games, like a mini bowling alley and arcade-type shooting games. Only one other Scheels has an aquarium and four others have Ferris wheels.

Tobie Harrell, assistant store leader, said Scheels had been looking into coming to Utah for about a decade and feels the state is a good fit for the four-seasons approach the store has.

Harrell said the store wants to be a one-stop place for people to come for any outdoor needs. Not only do they sell a wide variety of products and merchandise from archery to jeans and national and local teams, but they have a rental and repairs area servicing things like bicycles, gloves, skates, rackets and more. The store even has a tailoring area.

While Utah already has many outdoors stores, Jones said she is confident Scheels will fit in well. “This is a bigger market than anywhere we’ve ever been.” She said they’ve had similar amounts of competition in other markets, and added she thinks there’s room for everyone to thrive in the Utah market.