Field & Stream store opening at Old Mill
The exterior of the new Field & Stream store located in the Old Mill in South Strabane Township Tuesday afternoon. The store is currently open with the grand opening on Friday.
Chase McClain, brand activation manager for Field & Stream, stands in front of a wildlife display at the entrance to new Field and Stream store located in the Old Mill in South Strabane Township Tuesday afternoon. The store is currently open with the grand opening Friday.
The great outdoors, Chase McClain said, has moved indoors.
“It’s an experience that’s as close to the outdoors as you can get within four walls,” the Canonsburg resident said Tuesday, as he led a media tour of the vast Field & Stream store that is opening in the Old Mill project in South Strabane Township.
Actually, the one-story, 50,000-square-foot store has commenced operations, starting with a soft opening Monday that will continue until the grand opening Friday morning.
Findlay Township-based Dick’s Sporting Goods owns Field & Stream, which specializes in – according to McClain – “hunting, fishing, camping, paddling and general outdoors.”
The store will be an anchor in the 104-acre retail development, on the site of the Foundry project, which collapsed – figuratively and almost literally – from subsidence issues more than six years ago.
Field & Stream is the fifth business operating in the Old Mill. Max & Erma’s restaurant, the only holdover from the Foundry, functions near the front of the development, virtually adjacent to Olive Garden, which opened in December 2012. Classroom Connection, an education materials store, opened July 21, Noodles & Co. debuted in August and Imperial Cleaners has opened.
This is the third Field & Stream store to open in Pennsylvania and sixth nationally. The first was launched in Cranberry Township in August 2013, followed by Crescent Springs, Ky., last October and Erie in mid-June. Two others debuted Friday, in Columbus and Cary, N.C.
Four others, McClain said, are targeted to open by year’s end: in Altoona, Rochester, N.Y., Horseheads, N.Y., and Miamisburg, Ohio.
Customers entering and walking about the South Strabane store encounter displays of bears, wolves and other outdoors creatures, intimidating in their realism yet beautiful in a surreal way.
Roughly, the left side is devoted to hunting, the right side to fly fishing, paddle sports and camping. There is a 20-yard archery range near the entrance, a smaller range as well, and for hunters in the market for a tree stand, there is a demo center where hunters can try them out.
Among the zillions of items are firearms, bows, boots for all purposes, camouflage apparel, workwear, casual wear, kayaks, canoes, sleeping bags, tents and a fishing gear area seemingly the size of Claysville.
There are no boats, but there are boat motors.
“You’re not going to come here and not find what you need,” McClain said.
The grand opening weekend will be preceded Thursday with the Field & Stream Hunt, Cast & Pitch Youth Challenge. From 4 to 7 p.m., youth ages 6 to 15 will compete in archery, casting and tent building, with prizes going to those with the best combined score in each age category.
Friday’s ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 10 a.m., following a 9:45 a.m. musical performance by Ruff Creek. Steelers defensive lineman Brett Keisel, a outdoors aficionado, will appear from 4 to 6 p.m. that day.
Grand opening events will continue Saturday and Sunday, with naturalist Eustace Conway scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Professional anglers will give tips all weekend at a 4,000-gallon bass tank, which will be brought in along with an archery trailer.
Regular hours, starting Monday, will be 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit fieldandstreamshop.com.
Three other Old Mill stores are scheduled for launch Monday: Buffalo Wild Wings, Halloween Dreams to Screams and Valley Pool & Spa.
Buffalo Wild Wings will open at 11 a.m. daily and close at midnight Sunday; 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday; and 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.