PORT TOWNSEND — Swain’s Outdoor, the 22,000-square-foot emporium for fishing and hunting gear and licenses, work wear and plenty of other outdoor essentials, is about to receive an influx of inventory.
The store at 1121 Water St. will inherit any merchandise left over after the Sequim Swain’s Outdoor shuts down, manager Grant Cable said Tuesday.
“My plan is to have most of the product over there by the end of June,” he said.
Cable is the son of Glenda Swain Cable and Dick Cable, owners of the Swain’s Outdoor stores in Port Townsend and Sequim.
He is also the new manager of the Port Townsend Swain’s, having accepted former manager Brian Menkal’s resignation last week.
The 10,000-square-foot Sequim Swain’s Outdoor at 551 W. Washington St. will close for good around the end of this month or by July’s end at the latest, Glenda Swain Cable said Tuesday.
The change does not affect Swain’s General Store in Port Angeles, which has a different owner.
“It’s the economy. It’s Sequim bringing in these box stores. It’s an unsupportive bank,” Swain Cable added, though she declined to name the bank.
Downtown institution
The Port Townsend Swain’s Outdoor has been a downtown institution since 1996; the Sequim store started in the QFC shopping center on East Washington Street in 2001 and moved to its current West Washington location in 2006.
“The theory is to get everything to Port Townsend and build sales back up,” Cable said.
“We’re not going to have a blowout sale. We’re just going to move everything.”
The shelving and fixtures in Sequim are for sale as Swain Cable hunts for a new tenant for the Sequim building they’re leasing.
“We’ve had the store for sale,” Swain Cable added, “but nobody can get financing.”
As she spoke, shoppers came in to browse through the selection of flip-flops and hiking boots, Life is Good T-shirts, sportswear and work wear from Columbia and Carhartt.
The Sequim store is down to three employees: Cable, the manager; Jomel Lehto and Nicole Miller.
Cable and Lehto will both join some 13 staffers in Port Townsend, while Miller, who just graduated from Sequim High School, said she’ll switch to child care.
Swain Cable, 60, said she looks forward to having one store rather than two.
Family stores
She’s the eldest daughter of the late Cliff and Bernice “Bee” Swain, who founded Swain’s General Store in Port Angeles in 1957.
In 2004, the two Swain’s Outdoor stores were spun off, and Swain Cable and her husband became the proprietors.
Swain Cable’s sister, Rebecca Gedlund, owns Swain’s General Store.
Now Swain Cable looks forward to spending more time with her two grandchildren, Connor, 14 months, and Kaiden, 2.
“You don’t own a business,” she added. “It owns you.”
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
