sierra
Well-known member
Me and Shay were in the Manchester store last week and an employee told us Manchester is next.
EMS Sold -- Again
- Thread starter ChrisB
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I guess it was early ‘99 when I started going to EMS, I’d just gotten out of the army a few months earlier and was looking for some luxuries like a stove and tent that I’d never used when hiking and backpacking. I was only 30 and still in pretty phenomenal shape so humping my large ALICE full of military gear was nothing, including my extreme cold sleeping bag or Modular Sleep System. I still have that Primus canister stove but it’s my backup now. The TNF Mountain Tent was replaced under warranty a couple years ago, though.
At the time I lived in Henniker NH and was about equidistant from the Concord and Peterborough stores. I’d never even heard of REI at the time, and beside EMS the only relatively close competition was KTP. The staff at EMS knew their stuff and never hurried you. You could still exchange or return used gear that just didn’t fit on the trail or work out, too. I’d go in a few times a year with my hiking partner and pick up stuff she needed for her birthday and Xmas (she’s Baha’i so she didn’t celebrate it, but it is about giving after all.) They used to make some rugged gear! A shell I bought her put my ECWCS parka to the test for toughness. She worked at a nursing home right across from the Peterborough store and would drop it off for zipper or Velcro replacement from time to time. You basically got the same service as you did at LL Bean.
When I got back into snowshoeing in maybe 2011 I bought her a pair as well. They were a trail walking model and after a sketchy hike (for her) on steeper terrain we went to Peterborough and they gave me full credit toward a pair of Tubbs Mountaineers for her. She HATES cold weather, but when I mentioned that even in the Henniker-Hillsborough area there are more days above 20F than below she decided I was right and that she needed to hike (snowshoe) year-round.
When her jacket was finally too worn out to keep repairing (her opinion, not EMS’) we went to look for some new stuff. This would have been 2013-14, I guess, and they had nothing like it. Everything was lightweight, very thin and fragile-looking. I can’t remember what she ended up getting; I do know that the lifetime warranty was long gone and that knowledgeable staff were more hit or miss. I stopped buying as much from them because the selection had gotten a lot more limited. In maybe 2017 we took a drive to the Reading MA REI and were blown away. Selection! There was still nothing in stock like her old EMS jacket, though.
I still buy from EMS once in a while, the softshell pants I bought last fall were awesome this past winter, I really like their Techwick stuff and the 100% merino wool shirt I bought as well. Their Feather Pack down jackets are nice (at least my 6-7 y/o models are), but a little on the basic side (no inside dump pockets.) It’s just too bad they really couldn’t compete with REI and the other big names like Backcountry and Moosejaw. They were OUR chain, not someone from away!
At the time I lived in Henniker NH and was about equidistant from the Concord and Peterborough stores. I’d never even heard of REI at the time, and beside EMS the only relatively close competition was KTP. The staff at EMS knew their stuff and never hurried you. You could still exchange or return used gear that just didn’t fit on the trail or work out, too. I’d go in a few times a year with my hiking partner and pick up stuff she needed for her birthday and Xmas (she’s Baha’i so she didn’t celebrate it, but it is about giving after all.) They used to make some rugged gear! A shell I bought her put my ECWCS parka to the test for toughness. She worked at a nursing home right across from the Peterborough store and would drop it off for zipper or Velcro replacement from time to time. You basically got the same service as you did at LL Bean.
When I got back into snowshoeing in maybe 2011 I bought her a pair as well. They were a trail walking model and after a sketchy hike (for her) on steeper terrain we went to Peterborough and they gave me full credit toward a pair of Tubbs Mountaineers for her. She HATES cold weather, but when I mentioned that even in the Henniker-Hillsborough area there are more days above 20F than below she decided I was right and that she needed to hike (snowshoe) year-round.
When her jacket was finally too worn out to keep repairing (her opinion, not EMS’) we went to look for some new stuff. This would have been 2013-14, I guess, and they had nothing like it. Everything was lightweight, very thin and fragile-looking. I can’t remember what she ended up getting; I do know that the lifetime warranty was long gone and that knowledgeable staff were more hit or miss. I stopped buying as much from them because the selection had gotten a lot more limited. In maybe 2017 we took a drive to the Reading MA REI and were blown away. Selection! There was still nothing in stock like her old EMS jacket, though.
I still buy from EMS once in a while, the softshell pants I bought last fall were awesome this past winter, I really like their Techwick stuff and the 100% merino wool shirt I bought as well. Their Feather Pack down jackets are nice (at least my 6-7 y/o models are), but a little on the basic side (no inside dump pockets.) It’s just too bad they really couldn’t compete with REI and the other big names like Backcountry and Moosejaw. They were OUR chain, not someone from away!
That may explain Albany (NY). They had been running sales there to get rid of inventory as they were preparing to move to another spot in the plaza, but then some of the signage makes it look like they are just closing completely, but no one seems to be completely sure.
Perhaps that was a late change if this loan was not able to be achieved as they anticipated.
Ken MacGray
Active member
Last I heard about the Concord, NH store was that they were going to reopen in another location within the city. But who knows. Everytime I went in there the place was devoid of customers.
peakbagger
In Rembrance , July 2024
Typical end stage activities for a struggling retailer. There is big retail real estate slump and building owners are struggling to fill empty spaces, they are going to offer low lease rates to try to fill those spaces, so a struggling retailer is going to do what they can to break a current more expensive lease and move. At some point suppliers cut off the chains credit and stop shipping new gear.
I was in the Portsmouth store in mid-April and was surprised ti see no Spring / Summer gear on display. It looked like they were still in deep winter mode. Made me wonder....
The Meriden CT facility is the central warehouse that dispatches trucks to all retail locations.
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akafuzzjones
Member
I still have a synthetic fill winter jacket I bought from EMS in Nashua about 20 years ago. Still going strong. I wear it as my main winter coat now. I’ve cycled through numerous replacements that were used sparingly during winter hikes. They were the experts back then. I can’t remember the last thing I bought from them - the recent staff (at least in the stores I visited) were no longer experts.
For a while now, EMS has had only two CT stores, neither close to me, so I generally hit the stores in Peterborough or North Conway when I am up that way. But there is a "Bob's" (same corporate parent) in Canton CT, not that far away from me, and I was in there today. Pretty much everything in the store is discounted anywhere from 30% and up.
They had EMS branded socks at 30% off, and EMS branded pants and shirts at 40% off.
Suspect they are desperately trying to raise cash.
I asked the cashier if I could use an EMS coupon, and she said, "no". She said that the two most frequent questions lately were that one, and "Is the store closing?" She said the answer to both questions was "no". I think she might be mis-informed and/or optimistic on that last one.
TomK
They had EMS branded socks at 30% off, and EMS branded pants and shirts at 40% off.
Suspect they are desperately trying to raise cash.
I asked the cashier if I could use an EMS coupon, and she said, "no". She said that the two most frequent questions lately were that one, and "Is the store closing?" She said the answer to both questions was "no". I think she might be mis-informed and/or optimistic on that last one.
TomK
Dana
Member
It's a pity, EMS was a great business, but I knew their management had lost their minds when they opened a store right next to Campmor in NJ. People (including me) would browse in EMS, then walk next door and purchase in Campmor. I think the store lasted about a year.
Ken MacGray
Active member
The best piece of EMS gear I have is the sleeping bag I bought from them 40 years ago.
When I lived in southern CT in the early 70s we went to the Ardrsley NY store. It was a gear goldmine and fun place to shop.
Will always be a warm place in my heart and memory for the chain.
Will always be a warm place in my heart and memory for the chain.
hikeritz
Member
I traveled that route many times (BU 1980 grad, then a return to Boston in 1983). I still have the gear from those places.
I went to my local Bob's in Middletown CT yesterday, most inventory was 30% off. Picked up some socks I needed. The place felt very much like it's going out of business. EMS and Bob's are owned by the same company based in nearby Meriden. The original Bob's in Middletown dates back to 1954; I remember shopping there (different location from their first) back in the mid 1990s. It had already been purchased by a larger company, though the venture capitol buyers came later.
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hikeritz quotes dave.m. I shopped at all three of those places, too. Some years ago, I was disappointed to go to Hilton's Tent City only to discover that it was gone. But I soon discovered that they'd relocated to just down the street from me without my having noticed. It's a much smaller space than they had before, without the atmosphere of the upper floors, but they've crammed as much as they possibly can into the available space. I'm in there often; I was browsing trekking poles there just last week. Very friendly, with a discount for frequent shoppers and occasional sales.
I'm old enough to remember when Limmers in Intervale, NH sold not only boots but tents, stoves and other miscellaneous outdoor gear. This was before EMS even existed in The MWV. Not too long after their initial Store in 1967 located in Wellsley, MA they open up EMS Climbing School in North Conway with a retail location soon to follow. That creation and competition had Limmers get out of Outdoor Retail and focus on making boots. By the way EMS Climbing School is now the oldest climbing school in Eastern America.
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Spiny Norman
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A few months ago the Concord EMS manger insisted they were just swapping places with The Paper Store however....
Is the EMS Climbing school split off from the retail stores as a standalone operation?
Is the EMS Climbing school split off from the retail stores as a standalone operation?
A few years ago a friend and I went to the N. Conway REI for the first time and I was a little surprised to see it where EMS had been, with EMS in a building only a little bigger than an Aroma Joe’s a block or 2 up the road.
Spiny Norman
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The Conway EMS is still in a shabby little building.
The EMS climbing school has a small sign over a door at the 302/16 DQ plaza. Low key.
The EMS climbing school has a small sign over a door at the 302/16 DQ plaza. Low key.
Mine are my Feather Pack down jacket and a pair of Ascent Summit gloves I got maybe 10-12 years ago. Pittard’s leather for most of the hand and a nylon wrist & gauntlet, and GTX membrane. The new style isn’t bad, but only the palm & fingers are leather with everything else being a softshell material. The only thing I like better is the nose wipe, it’s actual fleece fabric as opposed to some kind of glued-on synthetic that wiped off pretty easily. I need to figure out a way to permanently secure some fleece from a hat to the thumbs.
EMS in West Lebanon I’d advertising a big blow-out sale, which makes me think this might be the NH store on the chopping block.
https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/ar...bs-stores-eastern-mountain-sports-plans-store
https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/ar...bs-stores-eastern-mountain-sports-plans-store
