RVers in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula were caught off guard this week when Camping World in Escanaba shut down without warning. Employees and local residents learned on Wednesday that the store was closing permanently.
According to staff, corporate representatives from Camping World arrived at the dealership, and some workers thought the visit might be to celebrate strong sales in recent months. The news wasn’t welcome. “Corporate representatives told salespeople that it was their last day,” reports local news media. The Camping World closure has left employees and customers in the lurch.
Only six years since dealership bought, to Camping World closure
The Escanaba location, at 2905 N. Lincoln Road, had long been a fixture for RV owners. It began as Hilltop RV, a family-owned business founded by Kenneth and Theresa Swanson. The Swansons first set up shop on Danforth Road, then operated on Lincoln Road from 1985 until 2021, when they sold the dealership to Camping World.
At the time of the sale, Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis said, “Michigan is consistently a strong market for the RV and outdoor enthusiast… This acquisition expands our reach into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and allows us to bring our assortment closer to the consumer to fulfill their needs.”
The location offered the typical RV sales, service, and camping gear. Winters were quiet, but in spring and summer the business picked up. Many RVers who stored their rigs at the Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds brought them in for maintenance when the season started.
As one profile earlier this year noted, “Business was reportedly good in the warmer months.” Employees also said that sales had been especially strong in recent weeks, making the sudden closure even more surprising.
Unlike a recent Camping World closure, which the company blamed on disputes with local authorities, Escanaba officials confirmed that the shutdown had nothing to do with zoning or flagpole disputes. Zoning Administrator Joseph Walker said simply, “It was sad to see them go.”
More than 100 miles to nearest Camping World
For now, service technicians are finishing work already in progress. A spokesperson from Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis’s office confirmed, “They do have employees there until September the 26th; however, all RVS sales have stopped. All of the service work that they currently have in their location, they’re still gonna get that done for you.” After that, the building will be emptied, and customers will have to look elsewhere for their RV needs.
The nearest Camping World is now 111 miles away, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A laminated note on the Escanaba door tells customers, “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by this closure but look forward to seeing you down the road at our Camping World of Green Bay location.”
For RVers who relied on Camping World in Escanaba for parts, gear, and repairs, the closure marks a big change. The loss means a longer drive for service and fewer options close to home, making it even more important to plan ahead before hitting the road.
Sources include The Daily Press.
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RVT1225b
Our house is in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We bought our larger travel trailer from Hill Top in Escanaba in 2017. They stored it on-site for 6 months and arranged to have it moved to an RV park in Texas Hill Country. It is still our seasonal home. After first shopping corporate RV dealers in Texas, Hill Top was a breath of fresh air. I think it was in 2018 that Hill Top opened a second outlet closer to our house. Still great people to work with.
It was a shock to many when Hill Top was sold to CW. And just like that, corporate RVing had arrived. Within a year CW closed the 2nd outlet. We stopped by the Escanaba outlet once, and only once. Didn’t stay long and didn’t buy a thing.
Hilltop (if it’s the same one) still has a couple locations in MN, at least last I knew.
“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by this closure but look forward to seeing you down the road at our Camping World of Green Bay location.”
This sounds like typical Lemonis bull. Sincere, I think not.
Does anyone actually think he cares about the customers? He buys out the good privately owned dealerships and runs them in to the ground. Then dumps them.
Just look at what he did with Gander Mountain.
CW approached my dealer with an offer he could not refuse.
Well, he did refuse it and then doubled the size of his shop. Now he needs to up size again.
Good competitive prices and a service department and sales department that takes care of the customer.
Good to hear about quality dealers, thanks for sharing that info Bob.
Word of wisdom to ‘Mom & Pop” RV retailers: if you care about your employees and your customers, please don’t sell your business to Camping World…
Thank you for the news, Russ and Tina! Too bad that they left several people out of work. 🙁 Wonder if the employees will buy the facility and reopen it? If former employees are interested in carrying on, I imagine that the local bank(s) will be helpful and certainly non-adversarial. This could go well if things breaks right. Have a great day and safe travels!
While I truly don’t know, I would suspect after 6 years many of the Hill Top employees had already left Camping World. If still in the area, they would be the people to reopen. This also begs the question, would Lemonis’ real estate staff resell the property for anything like a reasonable price? I noticed it took 5 years sitting fallow for a developer to do anything with that 2nd location. Meanwhile somebody else opened an RV operation almost from scratch right next door – I can’t believe that owner didn’t first try to obtain the property that was already purpose built as a RV dealership.
The property is held and not sold to keep competition from moving in. Here is a example. Giant grocery store is in a strip mall. A new developer builds a strip mall across the highway. Offers Giant a great rent price. Giant moves to the new location and at the same time prepays the lease for five years on the old location to keep the competition from moving in.
Sometime businesses put a covenant in the deed that you cannot open the same type of business. Sometime it could be for X number of years. I’ve seen a McDonald’s and financial institutions do it..
A quick internet search shows three other RV dealers inside 58 miles of Escanaba. No need to patronize the hand that bit you at another location.
I know it’s fun to bag on CW but a business needs a lot of strong summer month’s sales to make up the horrible lack of anything in the winter months. Especially in a town of just 12,500 and with the corporate overhead that traditional private dealers don’t carry.
I agree, Vince, but Lemonis and his ace team didn’t study various case scenarios when they decided to buy this family owned business that had been successful for what was apparently a lot of up and down cycles??? He’s got to be smarter than to think the covid RV “Gold Rush” was going to last forever.
My bet is he figured he’d ride the high and when the inevitable low came he’d just dump them in hopes the customers there would travel to another of his locations. If enough of them do, he still wins.
We will never do business with any Marcus Lemonis business.
Camping world does things like this. They don’t care about their employees. They did the same thing to a Gander Outdoors in Scranton Pa.
Several years ago Camping World did the same thing to what appeared to be a thriving RV shop in my hometown of Ishpeming, which is about 75 miles north of Escanaba. Buy ’em out and shut ’em down! They make it easy to shop elsewhere!
I bought a lot of stuff from Camping World for years. Even bought a TT in 2015 from a local dealership Camping World bought. We had a bad experience. I was also a life Member of the Good Sam Club and got the monthly magazine. That went away. I was also a member of the Open Roads Forum which I really enjoyed. That went away. And then Marcus made a comment that anyone who voted for Trump he didn’t want as a customer. So we haven’t bought anything since.
Hello, very disappointed in the article. No information as to WHY they closed.
Hi, Mike. Try Googling “why did camping world in escanaba michigan close” and then look at the AI Overview. Lots of theories listed in there. Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com