A coworker of my friend just informed her that he heard about a ski shop in Gathersburg/Rockville that is going out of business. The coworker thought it might be called the "Ski Haus" but is unsure. I'm not familiar with what shop he might be talkin about. Has anyone heard about such a closing?

They've been advertising in paper and radio for weeks. Apparently a pair of stores, Inner Ski and Ski&Golf in Gaithersburg and Rockville, are closing. Liquidation is taking place at a location somewhere on Rockville Pike, ad on page A2 of today's Post says call 301-838-8545 for details. I know nothing about reputation of shops and don't endorse in any way.

Inner Ski...and the building is now empty.

Thanks for the prompt reply! Much appreciated.

The liquidator has been selling ski stuff from the Rockville address for almost 2 years. I don't know whose it is, am assuming Ski Haus which closed more than a year ago. Inner Ski closed this last fall, the week after the ski show at the Dulles Center, and their stock was purchased by the liquidator.
We were shocked and dismayed to see Frank closing Inner Ski after so many years but are optimistic he may decide to reopen in the future. All of the small shops have taken tremendous hits the past few years, with the bad ski weather, shaky economy. Hopefully, the few that remain can recoup this year and not leave us at the mercy of the chains and discounters.

Speaking of the shrinking number of ski stores in the DC area, I learned that REI once sold skis at their VA and MD stores. However, the company stopped selling skis at those stores a few years ago because it did not think that we constitute a large enough market. I wish REI would reconsider and try selling skis and snowboards next year. Just a thought.

REI did used to see skis and hard equipment (boots, poles, bindings, etc) at its VA and MD stores but discontinued at least two seasons ago. According to a salesperson at the Virginia store, there was more business out West where they would always run out of inventory. By contrast, in the East, they always had surplus stock. So for business reasons, they discontinued ski and equipment sales here. Even with this season's excellent conditions, don't expect REI to bring back skis anytime soon. If you really want them though, you can always order from REI online. Alternatively, head to their Denver store next time you're out west. They have killer deals on equipment in March.

[This message has been edited by Jim (edited 02-03-2003).]

I agree with you Snowcone that small stores offer a lot of individualized attention and are the only place to go for a good boot fitting. However, this area desperately needs more ski/snowboard equipment venues to keep things competitive. I am sometimes shocked at how much cheaper certain basic equipment is at Ski Barn in Davis WV (poles, ski bags, etc) than in some of the local stores. On the other hand, Ski Barn does not stock nearly as many skis or goods as our local stores. If you want a specific pair of gloves, you are better off biting the bullet and paying full price at Ski Center than praying that Ski Barn will have your size in WV.

I went and checked out the store"s "sale" and it was no better than going to a good place like ski chalet, Alpine ski shop, or DC"s ski center and selectivrly purchasing sale items. The Liquidators however do not match the service, knowledge or returnabilty of full service stores. I was very dissappointed and thought it was a waste of time.
IMHO

I think it's not so much the selling of skis and boards but the personal service that a small shop gives it clients. A good shop is a place to get your skis tuned, your boots fitted. It's a place to chat about the weather, the resorts, good powder, great turns, to research new equipment, to meet people who are similarly impassioned about the sport.

There isn't a chain, discounter, liquidator that can offer that.

>...it was no better than going to a good place...

Ditto.

I checked out the skis at Ski&Golf on Rockville Pike a few times before they announced this sale. I was not impressed.

With respect to new skis, if you were very familiar with the past few model years, current prices, had some very specific need, and they happened to have the thing you were looking for, I found a few new items that were a bit less than you might see elsewhere, but in general I didn't they were offering any great bargains on new skis.

OTOH, if you were looking for things like cheap, *well* used kids rental skis, cheap goggles, etc, you could pick up things like this at low prices there, the major benefit being that such items usually aren't sold by the regular stores.

Tom / PM

Ebay is not a bad place to shop for skis, but you have to know what you are looking for. At the end of the season, stores often sell last year's new merchandise on Ebay at ok prices. It's worth checking out.

I agree with all...that Ski & Golf place was a waste of time. For anyone looking for a real bargain - one word: Ski Chalet Swap Meet in the Fall. The ski patrols that host the event are very helpful if you are not sure what you are looking at. I sold my K2 Merlin's w/ Marker select bindings for only $75, my K2-Two's for $50. If you absolutely have to have brand new - I had good luck on eBay. Did better then using Pro-forms!