Atwoods Stopped Selling Work Wear?
One day last week, I was working out in the shop and managed to rip a giant hole in my five year old favorite pair of Dickies cotton duck work pants. I'm pretty handy with a sewing machine, but at some point I had to admit they were toast. Countless hours of welding and woodworking had taken their toll, and now they've been assigned a new role of "stain rag." So over the weekend I was on a mission to find some new work pants. I've always bought my work wear at Atwoods because it's not only an Oklahoma based company (headquarters in Enid... You should see that massive store) but their prices were always affordable. One problem, when I walked into the newly updated Lawton location, the Dickies work wear section was a single clearance table. Uh oh.
Now I don't know if they're scrapping the work wear category altogether, but looking around their new clothing corral, I saw nothing but high-end bro-country stuff. Jeans and shirts from brands like Cinch and Ariat. They had some Carhart stuff, which I'm not opposed to if the price is right, but there was nothing from the work wear category of Carharts lineup. Just the fancy duds and a few select outerwear items. Does this mean Atwoods, the home of affordable work wear, is giving up their title to someone else in order to look more like those nationwide corporate farm stores? Or are they trying to compete in the western wear category?
I guess time will tell if our little Oklahoma based is making such a big change. Perhaps they just haven't got the entire store put back together yet... Then again, maybe they're tired of being the hometown farm and ranch store and moving towards a more "corporate" look and standard of business. Would be a shame as we'd all be forced to find a new small type local business with good cheap work wear... or just order it straight from Dickies or Amazon I suppose.