The news articles are trying to downplay this by starting off saying "fewer than 60 employees were laid off at BPS corporate" and then hiding the much larger part about an "average of six at retail stores" near the bottom. Eight or 9 would be a more truthful average. 700 to 800 employees, mostly management lost their jobs Friday without any warning or opportunity to transfer to the umpteen new megastores being built. They were walked out the doors immediately like criminals. A ridiculing experience. Hourly folks were given 1 months pay, management 2 months pay. What a waste of talent and experience.
Morris puts on a facade of a family man but those days are over. He has built and continues to build megastores with glass elevators, astounding lodges and hotels, breathtaking golf courses, fancy bowling alleys and restaurants, huge aquariums, visuals, and taxidermy. He recently bought out Ranger, Stratos, and Triton boats. He's worth $5 billion, but can't afford to pay his managers $35,000 a year. American Greed through and through. This is how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The customers will surely notice that the stores are no better ran now than your average Gander Mountain, Cabela's or Dick's, because they are now running the same skeleton staff. It is a known fact that BPS was generally not the cheapest place to buy, but they were known for exceptional service, selection, and knowledge. Not sure you will find any of those things anymore, so don't know why you would go there other than to show your wife or kids the fish?
The company was #402 on the Forbes 2015 best companies to work for, guess the $$$$$$$ are more important to Morris than that. BPS used to be a really special place. Now it will be just another sporting goods retailer. Maybe they will start wearing brighter colored shirts so that you will be able to find one of the few employees working there. The bathrooms will be dirty because the housekeeping staff was cut in half. The overall maintenance of the stores will be neglected as there is no longer anyone in charge of it. The in-stocks will be terrible because the few employees left will only have time to sell, not maintain their areas. And the overall happiness and motivation of the employees will diminish because they are now mostly part time without benefits making $8 an hour and are now asked to work twice as hard and twice as fast as they used to.