Apr. 6—Rambleraven Gear Trader is expected to close April 20, the last outdoor adventure equipment consignment store of its kind in town.
The shop is owned by Mark Schneider, whose most fond memories were outfitting entire families with affordable gear that helped them find an otherwise unattainable love for the outdoors.
"My favorite interactions were with grandparents or parents coming in with kids because they couldn't afford gear," he said. "Watching them all leave, outfitted for a fraction of what they would pay brand new is what made it all worth it."
Before becoming a store owner, Schneider worked as an engineer in the manufacturing industry. After feeling disenfranchised from his work, he decided to follow his passion.
Monday marked seven years since he opened Rambleraven, originally as Northwest Outdoors. Schneider eventually changed the name because he was inspired by the Hoarding Marmot, a similar shop in Anchorage, Alaska.
Upon opening, Schneider had expanded the store to include ski gear. He built its workstations, erected its light-up sign and even called it home — literally.
He lived on the property with his Australian doodle, Mazzy, for several years.
"She has been a shop dog her whole life. We lived in the house next door kind of illegally because it's a commercial lease," he said. "Then I moved out so we could expand our service department."
The property the store sits on and the adjacent plot to the east are both owned by Douglass Properties.
Schneider said he considered renewing his lease, but said he has paid close to half a million dollars in rent with nothing to show for it.
"I asked for a couple of things to fix, but I was on my own," he said. "It was surprising that they had zero interest in how I was doing or the success of the business."
Overhead costs, high minimum wage and the growth in popularity of e-commerce all compounded to shrink his profit margins.
"It was death by a thousand cuts," he said.
For the first years, when he was living on the property, he would work dozens of days in a row, often with no paycheck.
After he found more stable housing, he would still sacrifice paying himself to keep the store alive, he said.
"I would try and keep money in the bank to get ready for a move," he said.
He began looking for vacant retail spaces but found many of them to be in poor condition with owners disinterested in repairing them.
"I found a property that was going to be beautiful, and I was really excited about it," he said. "But there was black mold everywhere, the roof was 10 years beyond when it should have been repaired and the landlord wouldn't put a dime into it."