Academy Sports + Outdoors

I am genuinely conflicted about this store. On one hand, Academy has almost everything you could ever need if you love sports or the outdoors. As a business owner, I respect the amount of inventory they carry because I know what it costs to maintain that many SKUs. But the prices… that is where I get hung up. Their Carhartt jacket, for example, is running around $129. It is only about $10-$15 more than the online price, but that adds up the more you shop in-store. A lot of their apparel feels marked up just enough that you notice it every time you check a tag. The strength of Academy is simple: if you need something last minute, they absolutely have it. The trade-off is that you are going to pay for the convenience. Literally. Overall, it is a solid store with great selection...just be ready for a little sticker shock along the way.

Absolutely awful experience. This store flat-out refused to honor their own online prices. I was literally holding the item in my hands, but they made me go through the process of buying it online — only to tell me I’d have to come back in an hour to pick it up. What a joke. Completely disorganized and customer-unfriendly. Save yourself the headache and shop somewhere else.