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Al's Sporting Goods to Close
FIRST REPORTED 11:10am 7/8/11 A Galesburg business known to residents both interested and not interested in the outdoors is shutting down soon.

Al Hayden, owner of Al's Sporting Goods, announced Friday he's selling everything in the store, and if it's not sold soon, it will go up for auction. He first opened up his store in 1975.

Hayden tells WGIL the reason: he's going to a similar store that's about to open -- and no, it's not in Galesburg.

"I've been hired by Bass Pro Shops, going down there to [East] Peoria," Hayden said. "I'll be working in their hunting department down there. I've been a Bass Pro Shops...affiliate...for the last 30 years, where we could order stuff out of their catalog and get it to customers up through here. I've always admired Bass Pro Shops. They're the number one leader in the hunting and fishing industry in the United States, probably in the world."

The new Bass Pro Shops store in East Peoria is slated to open next Month. Hayden says he'll be dividing his time between there and her in the interim so that he can be trained.

Hayden has been actively involved in the local outdoors community, from helping fifth graders learn fishing, to the annual youth fishing derby, to weekly outdoors reports for both FM 95 and the newspaper.

Hayden says he hopes to still be active locally, but time will tell.


(Al's Sporting Goods. Photo from Galesburg Township Assessor's Office)
07 09 11 by Newsroom
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