Academy Sports + Outdoors — Local services in Auburn

UPDATE #2: Had to downgrade the Auburn, AL, Academy Sports store from 2 stars to 1. Was shopping there this past Saturday, 7/26/25, looking at men's clothing items. I noticed they had placed Academy price stickers over the top of the MSRP stickers. And, in many cases, Academy had tacked on an additional $5.00. From this day forward I refuse to shop Academy Sports unless I cannot find the same item elsewhere. They will someday soon price themselves out of business!!!

UPDATE: Downgraded from 3 stars to 2. On 1/8/24 at approximately 4 p.m. I visited this same store to purchase a pair of boots. I found some for $159.99. Next to the shelf price was a red discount sticker saying $20 off. At the checkout register the boots rang up as $159.99. I told the cashier that the boots were $20 off. She radioed another employee asking them to go and check the price. That person radioed back and said the boots I wanted were not on sale. I returned to the shoe department and pointed out the red tag. She told me the $20 off was for another boot. And it did say that....in microscopic print. And why was the red discount tag right next to the shelf tag for the boot I wanted. Needless to say, I didn't buy the boots. Not that I couldn't afford the difference. But because they don't deserve my business. I can buy the boots elsewhere.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: The company has recently remodeled this location and turned it into the Academy "Shoe" Store since a quarter of the floor space is now a shoe department. That, however, came at the expense of down-sizing other departments. In addition, their prices continue to climb. Seems to me they would have learned a lesson from the demise of a nearby Gander Mountain store. I would suggest shopping around for a better price before buying here. In the past I have shopped this store often but find myself more and more at Dick's and Bass Pro. What a shame. Change is not...

I stopped in this evening to purchase a few pairs of shorts for a work event on the recommendation of a coworker. My sister and I came in just after 9:30. I quickly grabbed a few pairs of khaki shorts and capris to try on. I used to work in retail and made sure to hang all of the items back up properly and my sister returned them to 2 staff members at the desk in the fitting room at 9:50. One of the ladies rudely commented “why are there 2 pairs of the same shorts in the same size here!?” And my sister shyly replies that one was a skort and the other was a pair of shorts. The woman copped a further attitude, rolled her eyes and ignored my sister. When I came out with 3 final options, she told me what was said. I returned 2 of the items to their spots myself and grabbed a second pair of the shorts I chose. We stopped for a brief moment so my sister could look at a pair of shorts she was interested in purchasing from her last visit. The same extremely rude employee yelled across the department “ma’am we are closed!” I checked my phone and it was 9:58. My sister sadly said never mind. We then went to the check out and their were 3 folks ahead of us. My receipt was timestamped 10:04pm. I don’t write bad reviews.. but from one manager to another, I would be ashamed to have this employee as a part of my team. The cashier was great and the the other staff at the front were courteous. But for a disgruntled employee to be so rude and multiple times, when it’s unmerited was completely disrespectful and wrong. She picked on my sister because she’s young and soft spoken... how many other people is this angry woman offending on her shift? It’s shameful and a poor representation of...

Overpriced. Understaffed. And good luck making a return.

Received a $280 pair of Costa sunglasses as a Valentine's gift. Tried to EXCHANGE for a smaller frame size without receipt (gift) and they were only going to give a $35 credit for the $280 sunglasses, despite being in the original box with all stickers, etc. To get the full price for the return, they needed the credit card used for purchase, so I begrudgingly asked my girlfriend to drive across town with her credit card to help me with the return/exchange. After she showed up 30 minutes later, we then had to wait in line at customer service for 15 minutes, as the person working the customer service desk was also the ONLY cashier for the entire store.

When we finally attempted the return, she was prompted for the credit card she used for the original purchase to look up the receipt. She attempted to scan her credit card on the phone using the tap-to-pay, we found out that their "system didn't recognize tap-to-pay" for RETURNS. Despite the fact that the original PURCHASE was made using the tap-to-pay card on her phone.

We were then asked to wait while the cashier rang up everyone else in line and then went and pulled up the original receipt from their comouter. After waiting 20 minutes for them to check everyone out in line, pulling up the original receipt from their system took less than 2 minutes.

Bottom line: they make it as simple as possible for you to give them your money, but make it hugely cumbersome to...