Special deals, corporate sales highlight local store’s booth
There will be loads of great booths and displays at the Louisiana Sportsman Show and Festival June 17-19 at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center. But one vendor puts on a show within the show — local sporting goods store Bowie Outfitters.
“We’ve been doing this show for a long time and when we first started, we brought a bunch of different things from the store to show folks from fishing to hunting to dog training, but we didn’t have large quantities and we pretty well sold at the regular store price,” said Lea Benoit of Bowie’s Baton Rouge location. “But in recent years, we’ve planned for this show all year long. We’ve set up lots of corporate vendors to set up booths for them within our own store area. When we go to buyer’s market, we make one order for the stores and another just for this show. It’s something special.”
Booths within Bowie’s own exhibit this year include products from Abu Garcia, Penn, Daiwa, Costa Del Mar, Falcon, 13 Fishing, Shimano, Bubba and Grundens plus much, much more, Benoit said.
And the best thing about it all?
“We’ve got a big inventory on a lot of stuff and while we usually just focus on fishing stuff when the show is earlier in the year, we will also be including hunting items like decoys, cooking equipment, crawfish pots and turkey fryers,” Benoit said. “And while everything has a good price, we’ll have selected items that are just for the show anywhere from 25 – 75 percent off regular price.”
Bowie’s has two Louisiana locations, Baton Rouge and Lake Charles, plus a store in Natchez, Miss. and one in the works in McComb, Miss.
“This is one of those shows that everybody loves to come to, not just for the products, but just to reconnect,” he said. “We are all excited about getting back out there and taking another step toward getting back to normal. I have to tell you, inventory has been a struggle with the shutdowns in the industry, problems with shipping and just finding people to work. But we’re catching up. We’ll have a lot of stuff at the show and frankly, the way things are, if you see something you have been wanting, you better grab it. We don’t know when we’ll get more.”
For the latest updates, check www.louisianasportsmanshow.com or contact the show hotline at 866.238.5639. You can also email us at showservices@louisianasportsmanshow.com.