![Newspaper clipping from February 25, 1970 in the Daily Barometer showing an article written by Bob Allen, past Barometer Editor. This article was written to spotlight both the student body’s lack of participation with student government at the time in conjunction with their class representatives response. [It’s important to note ASOSU was not structured identically to today’s standards, likely having a president on behalf of each class work together as one entity as opposed to one president representing all classes.]](https://dailybaro.orangemedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-12-1.00.42-PM-e1741811160853.png)
Peak Sports is still in “survival mode” as Larry Desaulniers, owner of the local Corvallis business, said last October.
According to Desaulniers, the uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration’s tariffs and their hold hasn’t helped.
On April 9, President Donald Trump announced a 90-day hold to a series of wide-ranging tariffs, which he unveiled on April 2.
“Without the huge upset with tariffs … it was probably reasonable to expect that in the next couple of years things would get back to a very manageable level, but now it’s not looking all that great,” Desaulniers said.
Desaulniers says he’s been getting notices from vendors that price increases are happening or could be happening in response to tariffs. This would, in turn, increase the retail price the consumer pays.
He believes that by the end of the 90-day hold, there are three possible outcomes for the business: if the tariffs end up being lower than currently expected, prices could decrease, increasing demand. If they remain how they are, demand will likely remain on the current curve until the normalcy of pre-pandemic demand comes around.
According to Desaulniers, it’s not expected, but it is possible that tariffs could increase even further, which he said would result in many vendors going out of business, unable to pay the tariffs, and price their products out of Peak’s price range.
Desaulniers is confident that demand will normalize at some point, but it’s a question of how long until then, and if the business can survive that long.
“We’ve been treading water for a while now, but at some point, you just run out of energy … I’ve probably got another one or two years that I can probably figure out how to make this work, but that’s really the limit. That’s where this business is at.”
Last October, Desaulniers stated that he had hoped demand at the store would normalize by the end of the 2025 bike season. According to him, the bike season in Corvallis starts in March and ends around October.
Unfortunately, “Things have changed in regards to what the industry feels that the level of demand is likely to be. It managed to find a way to go even lower … we’re still finding it super tough to make the sales in the volume that we need to,” Desaulniers said.
Desaulniers believes the all-time low demand is due to not only being at the bottom of the “boom and bust cycle” after COVID, but also their store selling mostly “wants” when many people’s current economic situation only has room for “needs.”
“That’s a big thing that’s changed from 2024 to 2025, there’s been a strong realization of where we’re really at in the demand curve. It is lower, it’s going to remain lower, and it’s going to take a while for it to get back to something that works for many of us in my industry,” Desaulniers said.
When asked about strategies being employed to stay afloat, Desaulniers said, “We’re at the point now where the business has already made all the large changes that it can.”
Some small changes they plan to make include being more careful with staffing and being even more careful with their inventory purchases. They can’t take chances on buying products that might not sell, and have to stock products that are known to sell.
“It’s a bummer for everyone involved. Part of what makes an in-store experience exciting or pleasant for the customers coming in is seeing the stuff they didn’t expect to see,” Desaulniers said.
One thing they’ve done is ensure their customer service experience is as good as it possibly can be. Post-purchase surveys are a great tool for them to make sure every customer is getting a quality experience.
“Every once in a while, we get feedback saying, ‘Hey man, I was in there for 10 minutes and I wasn’t able to get helped,’ and I know that that’s happening, and it is because we just literally can’t afford the payroll for (staffing), it’s a super bummer, we’re really not happy about that.”
Desaulniers reiterated that he couldn’t imagine Corvallis without Peak Sports. By releasing surveys to customers on the store’s email list (and eventually doing focus groups), he has been able to narrow down what people who shop at Peak want out of the store. If you’re looking to support the business, you can take their new survey here.
“We have to be on point all the time. There’s no room for making assumptions about how we’re doing things, and what customers want anymore.”