Modells

I came here looking for some hand warmers in preparation for a certain Unilocal event. Actually, back up, I went elsewhere. They were out of stock. I called this Modells in a last ditch effort to get them, spoke to «Starr» who, to my surprise, was very nice. She was an opener and was very helpful. They were actually in stock. by the hundreds.
I came by shortly after to pick them up and actually met her at the registers. The store was nicely stocked and appeared neatly arranged. The staff was nice, especially for a weekend morning. I mean, even the security guard was pleasant!
Not bad, Modells. Not bad at all.

I rarely shop at Modell’s because I’m not active in a bunch of overaged sports leagues and I can think of a million better places to buy sneakers, but damn, this place smacked me in the face with it’s crumminess as if to say: «You were right in staying away.»
First off, this store seems to have been designed and organized by the same people that did Jimmy Jazz and all the other uptown big boxes. The store is just chaos. It’s hideous to the eye and overwhelming to the senses. Stuff is just scattered everywhere in the most haphazard of ways.
Then, everything in the store just seems to be cheap junk. This may be related to the presentation, but I’ll never know because I was so offput by the appearance and uninterested in what I was seeing to take a closer look.
Uptown residents should either avoid this place or be highly offended by the lack of care and concern from Modell’s higher ups when it comes to this place. Then again, I used to stop by the store on the UES and that was just as chaotic, so maybe Modell’s just doesn’t concern itself with presentation.

Let me just say
that I want to keep this place open because if this place closes, the nearest place to me that is dedicated to sporting equipment is Fordham Road and I’d like to avoid that uptown version of Dante’s Inferno. It’s also the only sporting good store uptown with a fixed schedule and a decent return policy. They also offer discounts depending on unlisted memberships for example CUNY Staff and Students/​Alumni
With that being said I come here about 4 times a year and 2 of those times are solely for sneakers. I do not need much help in regards to sneakers, but I’ve always been asked if I needed help, even though I usually like to look at what’s available before I can answer that question, no big deal. If you go during the holidays you won’t find many people to help you. Like most Modells security will stare at you when you come in also no big deal, if you say hello to them you will get a hello or a nod of respect in return. Humanity and empathy is reciprocal.
The cashiers are usually very friendly, but I almost never see the same staff twice, either the pay is horrible, management is horrible, or people just leave at a high rate.
They may need more staff because at times it feels like you can film a ghost town flick in this place. It must be a shoplifters paradise.

If you’re looking for sporting goods this is the place

Super Ghetto!
I’m going to start with all the bad because I only have one good thing to say!
1. The staff is all over the place, noone knows what the rules are!
One person is telling some guy he’s allowed to use the punching bag if he wants, the other guy is telling him that he can’t & another girl is screaming talking about this isn’t his house to be using the equipment!
Now, whether the customer is or isn’t allowed to use the equipment out on display, NO CUSTOMER SERVICE OR SALES EMPLOYEE SHOULD GET IN A CUSTOMERS FACE & THREATEN TO FIGHT THEM! Because if it was me I would have ragged her Dominican neck boobing teeth sucking unprofessional self out the store & probably hit her for exceeding her rude minutes! She made a gigantic scene when the situation could have been handled quietly & professionally.
The only good thing I have to say is that they have a very good selection of under armour but after this experience I doubt that I will ever get anything from this store, I’ll go Times Square or 34^th if I need a Modells.

Wow, just wow. I had to pick up some stuff for the gym, and apparently Modell’s is the only place in the Bronx that sells sweat bands and the like. The people at Foot Locker basically chased me out and told me to go to Fordham. However, I really did not feel like dealing with Fordham Road in the Bronx so I searched the internet for a Modell’s I might be crossing paths with. It just so happens that this Modell’s is just outside a stop for the 1 Train and one day on a trip to Central Park I decided to hop off the train for a quick stop. Boy was that a mistake.
First, has anyone ever been to the 181^st Street Station? It’s horrible! You need to take these shady elevators (and that’s one of the moderately shady things there) just to get out of it. FYI, on the news today I saw that a group of people were trapped in one of those elevators this week… wonderful. I could go on about the stop, the neighborhood, the intersection, but this is about Modell’s.
Upon entering I take a look around the first floor, and quickly realize that what I need is probably on another floor. But as I go up there is this awful musty smell coming from the second floor. Like the clothes are really old or something terrible happened to them in shipping. Normally I wouldn’t even think to notice the smell in a clothing store (unless it’s one of those silly ones that use perfume in the ventilation or something dumb like that), but this really stuck out. I would not buy any clothing items from a store that smells like that, Lord knows what those items have been through.
Anyway, I’m not looking for clothes, I’m looking for sweatbands which are packaged in plastic. So by some fluke I find them at a counter upstairs behind a pile of cardboard boxes (clearly for other merchandise) that have yet to be removed. This is right in the middle of the store, clearly blocking other products, I had to reach over boxes just to get what I needed. Then the selection was lacking. I like to mix it up a little at the gym, I try and wear different colors, but unfortunately all my sweatbands but my white underarmour ones have disappeared. And guess what is the only color of underarmour sweatbands they have… oh yeah. So the only other brand they seem to have are the Adidas bands which are an inferior product, really I’ve tried them out at the gym since. They basically have white ones and bright red/​white reversibles… wonderful. The reversibles also cost more, so to have anything other than white I have to drop a few extra bucks. I grab a couple. The reversible is roughly ten bucks… really? So for 2 and some arm bands to go with I’m dropping over 20 bucks for things that I don’t even really want, and were much cheaper just a few years ago.
I don’t hate this place, it’s just not somewhere I’d go to again for anything I would need. It’s messy, smelly, poorly stocked, and overpriced. I mean, what more can I say? Well, the man at the register was nice so that gets them up to two. In fact, I liked him so much that I feel bad for not writing a better review, but this place needs a thorough cleaning… among other things.

I used to go here regularly. I don’t expect a sporting goods staff to be really enthusiastic about their minimum wage jobs. But one day I tried to return a $ 50 pair of Under Armor pants which had shrunk and had become too small for me. They not only refused to accept the return because «who wants to buy something someone else wore,» they basically accused me of lying and bringing pants from some other store. Um, usually that’s how people figure out they need to return something: wearing it once. Very rude and unprofessional; they will treat you like you’re from the ghetto because they are.

I can’t agree with the other reviewer; I found the selection quite lacking and the staff rather unconcerned – though certainly friendly.
My sense is that this branch will be closing soon: a sporting goods store dead on a Sunday afternoon is not a promising sign.

I like this modells. It is up in my neighborhood, which is a big plus to begin with, but it is also rather large, well stocked, and is never crowded. I’ve gotten everything I’ve needed from the place fromYankee shirts to bocce balls to mouthpieces. They even opened at 5am the day after the Yanks won the World Series so I could buy a T-​shirt. The staff is good with questions seeing they probably get very few seeing how dead the place always is. Overall a very good location and I’m glad its within walking distance.