Big-Box Briefing: Dick’s leans on youth sports in pitch to advertisers

Outside of the traditional Dick’s big-box stores, the company’s GameChanger app serves more than 9 million users each year for streaming, statistics tracking and scheduling, and its Dick’s House of Sports locations are billed as a third space with climbing walls and batting cages.

While the company has previously worked with brands such as Adidas, On, Under Armour and Crocs, Young positioned Dick’s as ideal for advertisers representing restaurants or car dealerships that people may visit after shopping in Dick’s stores. In stores, Dick’s offers campaigns through digital screens or in-store audio.

“We have literally billions of touch points with these customers who are making a multitude of purchase decisions where we are already a trusted voice,” Young said. “We want to create more opportunities for more advertisers to reach these sporthood families.”

Dick’s Media and eMarketer found in a survey this year that 63% of U.S. parents have children in youth sports and that 84% of them said youth sports influence their purchase decisions. Young said this may be compelling to quick-service restaurants, CPG brands and automakers.

“Sports, as we know, is probably one of the last bastions of the monoculture,” Young said. “It’s something that drives conversation; it’s something that drives emotion out of many of us. It also drives identity.”

Young described the youth sports lifestyle as a center of gravity for how parents and children live their lives. He said advertisers should think about how sports influences how many pairs of cleats they buy, which kind of car they drive, where they eat and the loyalty programs they’re a part of, among other decisions.

“This is ‘sporthood,’ where three things are true: death, taxes and Thursday practices. We live our lives around this experience, but it also is more than just a customer ID sitting in Dick’s database,” Young said. “I am much more a soccer dad or a flag football dad than I am anything else, and I will describe myself as such.”

Young said that while many advertisers are already working in professional or collegiate leagues, youth sports represent a growing market that may be even more emotionally resonant for individual consumers. Youth sports participation jumped from 59% in 2021 to 65% in 2024, according to Sports & Fitness Industry Association data cited by the Aspen Institute.

Dick’s, through its own research, has found that youth sports influences purchase behavior in CPG, travel, restaurants and auto, and that Dick’s customers regularly over-index as showing affinity to buy in these sectors, according to Young.

“That makes sense; think about your life experience,” Young told the audience of advertisers, again tapping into his own life as a sports parent. “I will stay for college on the sidelines; I’ll order an iced coffee for pickup after the game; I’ll have a spirited conversation with my wife on whether we need a larger vehicle for our growing athletes.”

What we’ve heard

“Final-mile [delivery] remains one of our most compelling growth opportunities, with customer adoption continuing to exceed our expectations and economics improving as we scale the business. Through the first half of the year, we’ve already completed as many final-mile deliveries as we did during all of 2025, underscoring the strong customer demand and momentum behind this capability, and as a result, we expect to accelerate the rollout ahead of our original timeline.”

–Tractor Supply president and CEO Hal Lawton during the company’s second-quarter earnings call in July, ahead of this week’s announcement that its Petsense business would team up with Instacart for same-day delivery.

Numbers to know

3: Number of Lego stores opening in Canada over the next few months.

800-plus: Number of Target stores now selling Factor ready-made meals.

$15 million: What Ollie’s Bargain Outlet plans to invest in lowering prices this year.

What we’ve covered

Instacart launches custom AI assistants for retailers, and its own

Instacart announced the launch of Cart Assistant, a white-label assistant that retailers can implement on their own websites and apps. This is the latest addition to Instacart’s suite of enterprise services for retailers, further democratizing access to the kind of technology that larger retailers build in-house. Cart Assistant allows consumers to look for deals, reorder items and build carts from a photo of a shopping list. It was revealed as part of the announcement of Clementine, a separate AI grocery shopping assistant available to users of Instacart’s marketplace.

Why brands are prepping new return policies for Q4

A joint survey by Happy Returns and the National Retail Federation in 2025 found that retailers expect about 17% of their holiday sales to get returned. Loop’s latest survey data shows about 58% of consumers say they have walked away from a brand over its return policy, while 92% of consumers say return fees change how they shop. Joe Vancena, vp of marketing at Loop, said he’s seeing more brands institute temporary return policies to fit with the demands of the holiday season.

What we’re reading

The Flock backlash is coming for retail

Critics of the Flock Safety security cameras used by city governments are now targeting retail stores such as Ulta Beauty and Lowe’s that have contracts with the same company, Business Insider reported. A petition for Ulta to drop its contract received around 14,000 signatures, and another for Lowe’s surpassed 2,200 signatures. Lowe’s did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, while an Ulta Beauty spokesperson said Flock cameras are used in less than 1% of its locations for retail theft investigations.

Why Walmart is moving in on DoorDash, Uber Eats delivery action, starting with donuts, coffee and sandwiches

Walmart will soon begin delivering Dunkin’ products from its own stores, but will expand the program over the next year to most of the doughnut chain’s U.S. locations, CNBC reports. Walmart has already started delivering Subway orders from its stores, but now it’s beginning to create a rival to platforms such as Uber Eats and DoorDash. “By pairing restaurant delivery with Walmart’s vast assortment, we can create a delivery experience that gives customers more of what they want in one place,” a Walmart spokesperson told CNBC.

Tractor Supply marketing chief joins Vitamin Shoppe C-suite

The Vitamin Shoppe has hired Tractor Supply’s Kimberley Gardiner as evp and chief marketing and growth officer, according to Chain Store Age. Gardiner served as svp and chief marketing officer of Tractor Supply since 2022, and previously held marketing leadership roles at Volkswagen of America, Mitsubishi Motors North America and Kia Motors America. She will lead The Vitamin Shoppe’s marketing organization and help grow the brand into more of a digitally connected and customer-centric wellness platform, the company said.