Dick's Sporting Goods is hit or miss, depending on what you're looking for and where in the store that item is located.
I have had great luck here finding sports apparel. Last year my husband was given a Blackhawks jacket from a rival chain, but it didn't fit him, so we went to return it for store credit. They had no other sizes and were unable to tell us if other nearby locations might have them, so we decided to see what other 'Hawks apparel was offered. Um, none, except in children's sizes. We ended up spending the money on a pair of pajama pants and a lot of socks. When the same thing happened at Dick's though, they had jackets...and jerseys...and shirts...and hats...and more! This place is only second to the Blackhawks store on Michigan Avenue for team apparel, and when we want to get somebody 'Hawks gear as a gift, this is always our first stop now if we have no other reason to go into the city. They're also great for apparel for local baseball, football, and basketball teams including some college teams.
Their shoe department offers a pretty good selection and is staffed well. My very picky husband got some new running shoes here and not only found what he wanted, but got it in his size, after an employee helped him trying on a few pairs. We've tried this before at a competitor and frequently discovered either nobody staffing their shoe department or a serious lack of size offerings. I think Dick's will also be our first stop for running shoes now, too.
In other departments, though, they just don't have their sh*t together at all. When we wandered upstairs looking for an item, it was like being in a different store. We had to search for an employee, and when we found one, he was spectacularly unhelpful. He acted like our question was beneath him, and we were wasting his time. We were looking for what I now know is called a Boston valve with an adapter, but at the time, we just described to him what we wanted. He said that he didn't know if Dick's has it, but if they did, they'd be by the tents, and then he went back to chatting with another worker. I figured that makes sense--people camp with air mattresses, right? Only, we went over there, and there weren't any air mattresses. Or valves. Or anything like that. We went back to find him, but he was gone, so we wandered around trying to guess where the valve might be. Is it over by the bikes? If it was, we missed it. How about the boats? Sadly, they DID have ONE kind of Boston valve in this section, but because nobody helped us, we didn't realize at the time that it was what we needed. We also weren't sure if we needed adapters for this valve, if they were included or separate, etc and again, there was nobody to help us. We left without buying the valve, but had we bought it, they would have also been able to sell us on a pump and adapter. That is, if they had been selling us on anything instead of having some sort of Very Important Conversation about facial piercings.
We've also tried looking for winter coats here and had a similar problem--nobody was around to explain to us why the same brand of coat in the same size fit so differently from one style to another (it turns out because you can zip a separate liner into it, but we had no idea), why some brands cost so much more than others (my guess: because this store likes to sell high-end, marked-up apparel brands), or why a certain coat had a million zippers (still no clue). We ended up getting the coat from Target, where there was nobody to help answer questions, but we were paying a fraction of the price to puzzle through the offerings on our own.
One perk is that there are occasionally celebrity appearances here. I have noticed Q&A's, autograph signings, and just plain old "come listen to me talk about my sponsor's product and then take a picture" athlete events. One notable visitor, for example, was Shaun White. If you like this kind of thing, keep an eye out for these events, as I think they try to do one per season. I myself don't collect autographs or anything, so it's just one more thing making the parking lot congested, although I might care a little more if my child is into sports when she's older.
In the end, Dick's is good for some things, but not for others. If you come here and grab an employee, do not let him or her go until you get what you need! Lasso that person if you must (well, no, that's probably illegal), because otherwise, you'll probably be on your own if you're shopping for anything but shoes. read more