Academy Sports + Outdoors — Local services in Bossier City

First off, I've long been an Acedemy fan. All of my clothes, shoes, and much of my camping, fishing, and shooting sports gear comes from Academy. But there are issues. One big one is how pushy the clerks have become about applying for a credit account. That's obnoxious on a good day. On a bad day, you get what happened this week.

To set the stage- Sunday evening, there was one checkout lane open. There were two associates at customer service. One was helping a customer. The other was just standing around. Not as in he was engaged in other tasks, literally no apparent tasks. The lone register line was at a complete standstill. I assume someone was checking a price or something, because neither the clerk or the customer were saying or doing anything. The CS clerk was tracking this but not taking action.

Eventually, when the register did start moving again, he called for the next customer (which was me, unfortunately) to come up front. I brought my purchase up (receipt barcode is 20251005200600015002216228 if corporate is reading this review) and he scanned the item. Then he started asking me about getting their credit card.

Now, in what fairness I can extend to this person, it is corporate's fault that the employees are stuck asking this repetitive and arguably intrusive question. The issue that stemmed from this would not have happened if they would let customers check out in peace like their competitors.

However, I have autism and Tourette's. In fact, I was wearing a mouth guard as a medical device to assist with a motor tic, which this person had ample time to notice while observing me in the standstill line and again up close. I shook my head in response to the credit question, as verbal responses aren't always easy for me. He ignored that response and asked again, and I again shook my head. Well, apparently a universally-recognized non-verbal response was some sort of slight to his person because he immediately became derogatory, twice repeating in a sarcastic tone, "It's not like I was asking you a question or anything."

Now, I shouldn't have to share my medical information to justify why I am not being verbal in order to give Academy my money. So, unable to avoid speaking at this point, I asked if the transaction was done processing because I wanted to cancel my purchase. It was too late to cancel, so I asked for a number to corporate. My intent was to ask them to temper their pushy tactics to respect the fact that not all customers may be verbal and to practice some sort of situational awareness with regards to accessibility when harassing people.

He said he didn't know the number, told me to Google it, and walked off. I'm guessing that is not how he was trained to handle that situation. However, I still wanted the number, so I waited where I was. After a minute or two, he called out towards me to ask if I needed anything, again in a sarcastic and condescending tone. I reiterated that I was still waiting for assistance with a corporate contact number. He again told me to just Google it. So I asked for a member of management so they could get me the number. He said he couldn't make a manager come up front.

About that time, a manager did come into our field of view and he magically managed to quickly produce a card that had been near him the whole time with a number specifically for customer service issues. Perhaps someone in his ear told him where they were at that moment, but it came off as him taking action so he could say "he already gave me the number and I was just being difficult by not leaving" when asked about the situation.

I am quite confident I am not Academy's only neurodivergent customer. I also get that it may not come naturally for neurotypical store employees to consider that everyday interactions they take fro granted may be much more difficult to others, particularly when their conditions are not readily visible at first glance. However, life with developmental disabilities is hard enough. We don't need folks like this to...

Two consecutive visits...two poor customer service experiences. The first visit (approximately two weeks ago) I visited the gun counter. I spent several minutes looking at pistols through the counter glass. Three employees were laughing and visiting at the far end of the counter. Not one of them broke off their conversation to ask if I needed any assistance. I could have easily called one of them down to show me one of the guns I was looking at, but that isn't how customer service works. Instead of spending my money with them I chose to leave and spend my money with a competitor.

An hour ago I approached the gun counter. Two employees were engaged in an activity behind the counter and another on a computer. The employee at the computer asked if I needed anything and I stated that I wanted to look at one of the guns behind at the far end of the counter in a minute. I continued to that end of the counter to locate the Glock 43 that I wanted to check out. Several minutes passed and the employee at the computer never moved down to help me. One of the two employees who were engaged in an activity behind the counter took a phone call and walked out to the aisles presumably to help a customer over the phone. Someone else approached the guy at the computer and he began to work with them to see if a particular gun would fit in a case. They moved past me to the end of the counter where the employee began to show that customer a revolver.

The employee who was on the phone walked back by me and asked how I was doing, I replied that I was fine. He continued past me to a customer who had approached the counter well after me and asked if he could show him anything. At this point I left to go to customer service to complete the return that I originally came to the store for. I waited in line for several minutes when I realize that the only customer service associate was assisting a customer with an online order, which is fine. However, there were several other employees hanging around the customer service desk. Not a single one of them attempted to assist me, much less even address me.

I'd expect these experiences at the local Walmart, not at an Academy store. I'm pretty disappointed and, to be honest, it may be some time before I attempt my luck at this...

This store was clean, pretty well organized, well stocked, and had lots of workers floating around to ask directions. Of course only 2 of the 8 or 10 checkout lines were open.

Maybe it's me. I'm kinda over big box stores, especially sporting goods stores. If you know what you want and are willing to find it yourself, it's OK I guess. Same with Walmart. No one there is really knowledgeable on anything. I'd just as soon buy online. You have to go to independent stores to really find anyone that knows anything. And I know that can be hit and miss too. Plenty of "experts" at mom and pop stores that don't know much either. Academy does always have a good selection of cheap made-in-China products, so there's that. I didn't even go by the guns and ammo section. It's just depressing to me how little the typical big box gun counter people know about what they're selling. That doesn't stop them from blowing smoke most of the time though. That's probably just my perception. Hopefully. And I didn't go by this store's gun counter today so they may all be great. It would certainly be a nice change from every other big box "gun store" I've ever been to. Once, one guy working at Cabelas in Louisville, KY, was knowledgeable. He knew the difference in controlled round feed and modern push feed, how the 3 safeties in Glock pistols work, and the pros and cons of first and second focal plane scopes. Those are the first few questions I ask at a gun store, to gage who I'm dealing with. And I've gotten some really outlandish answers over the years.

There is a great selection of sporting goods, shoes, boots, clothes, and gun safes at this store. Like I said, if you know what you want, it's fine. It is a convenient place to shop for gifts with Black Friday sales. I'm just not a big...