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Goin' Fishing & Hunting

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Goin' Fishing & Hunting

Details: Published on Tuesday, 01 November 2011 16:58; Written by Paul Gordon

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Now in its third generation of ownership, the Presley family has been baiting lines for 65 years

It once had one of the best, most descriptive names of any independent retailer anywhere – South Side Worm Ranch.

The Presley family has since moved from Peoria's south side to a larger space in Bartonville and calls the store Presley's Outdoors.

But now in its third generation of ownership, the family hasn't changed what it does best: Provide hunters and fishers from central Illinois and all over with the best possible equipment for their needs with top-notch service honed from knowledge about what they sell.

"We'll have people drive 100 or 150 miles to get things they can't find anywhere else. They know we can usually get it for them and if we can't, probably nobody can," said Tim Presley, company president whose father Bob founded the store on Southwest Adams Street in Peoria.

"Because of that, because we know our products and because of the service they get from us they keep coming back," he said.

Presley's Outdoors now is at 1510 W. Garfield Ave. in Bartonville in a 30,000 square-foot store, triple the space of its original store, which allowed it to offer amenities such as an indoor archery range.

It also expanded what it offers the outdoors sports enthusiasts, from air guns and ammo to archery and fishing equipment; from camping gear and clothing to firearms and hunting gear; from muzzleloaders to decoys. More than 15,000 items are available at the store.

"We have people drive from all over for something as seemingly simple as shotgun shells because we have the best brands and put the right price on them. The same with all the game calls. With those, people want to come in and hold them and hear them, try them out. They can do that here," Presley said.

They can't do that online, a segment of business the Presley family got into a couple years ago if for no other reason than to keep paced with the competition. "We do a pretty good business with online sales, but then again we get a lot of people in here who saw something on the Internet but wanted to come in and see it instead of buying it online," he said.

Other things the enthusiast can find at www.presleyoutdoors.com include a calendar that lets one know about state Department of Natural Resources hunting and fishing licensing and regulations and the dates for the various hunting and trapping and waterfowl seasons.

It also keeps one up to date about upcoming fishing, hunting and archery tournaments – including the tournaments it sponsors itself, like Presley's Midwest Open, an indoor archery tournament now in its fifth year, on Dec. 3 and 4.

Presley said his store does good business at Christmas for several reasons, including the fact a lot of hunting seasons occur around holiday times. Also, he said, "it really is more of a man's store, so a lot of women will come in for things for their husbands or boyfriends."

Or gift cards. Presley estimated 60 percent to 70 percent of the store's total sales at holiday time is in gift cards, which always get redeemed at Presley's Outdoors.

Hunting equipment sales remain strong, he said, but he added that fishing business lost ground the last couple years. "Nobody really seems to know why," he said.

Presley's Outdoors has had bigger national competitors come into the area in recent years, the most recent being Bass Pro Shops. Presley didn't want to say much about it, though.
"We're holding our own very well," he said.