Posted on 04/16/2016 8:16:14 PM PDT by chrisinoc
Sport Chalet announced on Saturday that it is closing all of its stores and has stopped selling goods online.
"While our online store is no longer available, all Sport Chalet stores will remain open for several weeks, offering customers the opportunity to use their remaining rewards and gift cards, and to take advantage of great sales," the chain says on its website.
Michelle De Leon, a department head at the Sport Chalet in Lake Forest, said employees found out about the store closure through their general managers on Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
“I’m one of those women who loved shopping and going in all the stores just to look; but now I almost never go into a department store or a mall. It’s just too much walking,”
Me and my GF actually go to the mall. It’s called window shopping. You test/fit a product and later order it online. Sitting on your ass is more unhealthy than “walking” to the mall.
Only Dick’s SG I have ever seen was on the north side of San Antonio. Their gun dept. was pretty lame. The whole place looked mostly like a clothes store. The Bass Pro next door was much better and had a lot more customers.
I always avoided Dicks since they pussed out on semi autos after Newtown, but then I found they had a good Lodge cast iron selection so I caved some to get a couple...
I am a stock investor. It is my source of income. I have never bought Dick’s despite the fact that the stock has performed well over the years. Why? Because the few times that I’ve been to their stores I never saw anybody buying anything. Oh there were people there, just not buying. For years I have been waiting to wake up one morning and see that Dick’s has been running an accounting scam. I hate their PC politics as well.
No poster here understands grammar?
The proper phrase is “as in” not “like.”
Fungi’s point is correct.
It seems this is a stock-standard blurb in stories like this but I always wonder: didn't the employees notice the sales figures and the mostly empty stores?
I'm no clairvoyant but I've worked with and for companies that were struggling and whose end was nigh and I got the hell out well before the bitter end. I realize that jobs may be scarce and that change is difficult but staying in a burning house is more difficult and foolish to boot.
Here in Memphis area it’s Bass Pro, especially since they opened a super store with restaurant, and more downtown in the former basket ball Pyramid. Took them forever to make the deal with the stupid city dems. It’s not cheap to go.
But of course. No business could possibly be viable unless you were made aware of them beforehand.
Maybe they were just breaking even and decided they couldn’t weather $15/HR labor rates.
Dang. They are much better than sports authority.
Same reason I stopped shopping there. They went scared and stopped selling the ARs if I remember.
I prefer Big 5 over any other general sporting goods store. Although their small size precludes a large selection of items they normally have it in stock. And most of their stores sell rifles and ammunition.
Like Versus As
The root of this “like versus as” controversy is that traditionally “like’ is a preposition and “as’ is a conjunction. Nevertheless, people have been using like as if it were a conjunction (as I did) for at least 100 years, and grammarians have been raging against that use for just as long. In fact, the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage states that “probably no single question of usage has created greater controversy in recent years” than the conjunctive use of like.
In 1954, an advertising campaign for Winston cigarettes brought the debate into the public eye. Winston said their cigarettes tasted good “like a cigarette should,” and language lovers were outraged because the ad should have said, their cigarettes tasted good “as a cigarette should.”
What Are Prepositions and Conjunctions?
Let’s quickly review what a preposition is, and what a conjunction is. According to the book Woe Is I, a preposition is “a word that ‘positions’ or situates words in relation to one another.” Examples are in, around, and through. A conjunction is, simply, “a connecting word.” Common conjunctions are and, but, and or (1).When to Use Like, When to Use As
The proper way to differentiate between like and as is to use like when no verb follows (2). For example, Squiggly throws like a raccoon or Aardvark acted just like my brother. Notice that when I use like, the words that come after are generally simple. A raccoon and my brother are the objects of the preposition.
If the clause that comes next includes a verb, then you should use as. For example, Squiggly throws as if he were a raccoon or Aardvark acted just as I would expect my brother to behave. Notice that when I use as, the words that come after tend to be more complex.
You generally hear like used in everyday speech, so that helps me remember that like is the simpler word—or at least it is followed by simpler words. As sounds stuffier and is followed by a more complex clause that contains a verb.
The Like Versus As Controversy
Whether you abide by this rule or not probably depends on how much of a grammar stickler you are. It’s common to hear sentences like this: It’s like I’m looking at my twin. And as a result, many people don’t know it’s wrong. In one survey, 21 percent of professional writers and editors said they found such constructions acceptable in casual speech. On the other hand, only 6 percent thought the construction would be OK in formal writing (3).
I have to admit that after reading entries in four usage guides (3,4,5,6), I felt a bit brow beaten about the whole topic. Even as like is becoming more entrenched in everyday use, professional grammarians are absolutely resolved that this is a trend worth fighting. Many language experts seem fully prepared to rail against it with all their might, and some of the comments were quite vicious.
So my advice is don’t do it—don’t use like as a conjunction, especially in writing, unless you are ready for the full force of rampaging grammarians to rain down on you (which is not what I’m generally going for in the advice I give you).
Here are more examples of correct sentences to help you remember the rule:
My cousin looks like Batman.
My neighbor yelled like a banshee.
It’s as if my cousin thinks he is Batman.
My neighbor yelled as though he had seen a banshee.
As if Versus As Though
A final note is that there is no discernible difference between as if and as though. Some sources say that as if is often used for less likely scenarios—my cousin being Batman—and as though for more likely scenarios—my neighbor is a maniac—but this isn’t a definitive rule.
A quick reminder about my audiobook, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing, a one-hour downloadable audiobook covering 24 different topics. You can buy the book for only $4.95 at iTunes and Audible.com.
References
1.
O’Connor, P. Woe Is I: The Grammarphobes Guide to Better English in Plain English. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003.
2. Lynch, J. The Guide to Grammar and Style. andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/l.html (accessed April 9, 2007).
3. Morris, W. and Morris, M. Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage. Second edition. New York: Harper & Rowe, 1985, p. 52.
4. Burchfield, R. W, ed. The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage. Third edition. New York: Oxford, 1996, p. 458.
5. Garner, B.A. Garner’s Modern American Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 496.
6. “Use and misuse of ‘like.’” The Chicago Manual of Style Online, 16th edition. Section 5.181. The University of Chicago Press. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/ch05/ch05_sec181.html?para= (accessed September 2, 2013).
An earlier version of this article originally ran April 13, 2007.
- See more at: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/like-versus-as?page=1#sthash.5qtmoMzz.dpuf
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I guess it's Big 5 vs. Dick's.
Gotta be rough running a small business in Cali, isn’t it?
Damn near impossible up here in the boonies, with a $7.50 minimum wage, no water tax, no speedrail tax, no Moonbeam bureaucracy and vindictive anti-business bent.
Yes, but it eats up so much time!
To buy the non-essential things I’ve bought online in just the past week, I’d have to travel to a pet store, a place to buy electronics, a fabric or crafts store (and none in my area would have had what I wanted), and a bookstore (which again would probably not have my item.)
I’m sure it’s different for younger people, especially young women who like to try on clothes, etc. I enjoy going into the store for groceries; but otherwise, I’d rather spend that driving/walking time in the woods, or with a book.
-JT
I wish that were the case with me: it seems like nothing’s ‘out of sight’ on Amazon!
I have to seriously restrain myself; you’ve no idea how many things I never knew I needed until they showed up as ‘suggestions’ online ;-)
-JT
I gave up buying from Dicks. They, by corporate policy, refused to sell me a long gun because I was not a resident of the state the store was in. No legal reason, just policy.
Yeah; I still have that pair of skis and bindings I bought from them in the fall of 73 or 74, don’t remember which now.
Saved up my money from the fire season (Chilao Hotshot, probably fought fire in your backyard) and that was my first purchase ever of modern ski equipment.
They had good knowledgeable people and the best equipment available at the time.
Hot Shot to Marine Corps, back to Hot Shot, then into construction, now retired to Northern Ca.
As they say “the time, where do it go”.
I don't have that problem. It doesn't help retail stores though. It makes the problem even worse.
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