12 April 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — On Wednesday, 283 fish got to explore their new home inside Scheels’ 16,000-gallon saltwater aquarium.
“Next week, we will release another 300 fish,” Wichita Scheels Assitant Store Leader Paul Reese said.
There will be more than 600 different species of tropical fish coming from across the world.
Reese said aquariums are one of Scheels’ signature things.
“Most of our Scheels stores have a very similar aquarium to this,” Reese said.
According to Jerry Ohrn, the president and owner of Reef On, there are people in the aquarium four days a week.
“There’s a lot more that goes on behind the scene, but we usually are here Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and we want that to be part of an interactive event for the customers,” Ohrn said. “It’s part of the draw, so you can come in, bring your kids, see the fish be fed, interact with the divers while we’re cleaning and maintaining the aquarium.”
The aquarium is part of Scheels’ experience.
“Fingerprints equals smiles,” Ohrn said. “So when kids come in, and they press their face against the glass, that’s exactly what we wanna see. When we come out, and we clean the tank, if there are more fingerprints on it, that just means more people had a better interactive experience, and ultimately they are gonna want to come back to Scheels.”
Reese says Scheels will try to offer a full family experience.
“We will have several different attractions throughout the store. We’ll have our saltwater aquarium, we have a bowling alley, we have our Fuzzywigs Candy Shop, we have a shooting gallery for little kids to practice shooting. Kind of a fun attraction throughout the store,” Reese said.
Scheels will have just over 500 employees.
“Most of our full-time positions are full at this point, so we are kicking off our part-time hiring,” Reese said. “The associates have responded great to our hiring efforts.”
If you are interested in a part-time job at Scheels, click here to apply.
Reese says everything is on schedule to open on July 1.
“We’ll have a nice grand opening where we will have events going on,” Reese said.
Scheels is located on the west side of Towne East Square, 7700 E Kellogg Drive.