Today at work the news spread like wildfire, a new Cabela’s was opening in Lacey, Washington (about 60 miles south of Seattle), it will open on the 16th of this month. Plans were being made to travel in a caravan that morning, stopping to have breakfast on the way then get to the store about 9am. Some of the guys were creaming their jeans in excitement like the place has some mystical powers. Someone commented that over 20,000 folks showed up for a recent grand opening in Boise, Idaho. I have seen a Cabela’s catalog and visited their website to see exactly what everyone was so excited about. Hmmm, lots of hunting and fishing stuff plus a few things on the side to interest some women. I don’t hunt, I fish maybe half a dozen times a year and have more fishing equipment than I will ever need. The prices on a few thing I might be interested in such as shoes or automotive accesories are the same prices I can buy locally.
I have no plans to visit this place in the near future and would likely only stop by if I happened to be in the area. What exactly is it about these stores that has a bunch of grown men going gaga?
The selection, for the kind of hunting crowd, is pretty darn good. But I don’t think the prices are that great. Especially their used handguns and rifles. You are way better off going to your local gunshops. But again, they have a lot of selection. But they do cater to the camo crowd in a way that they aren’t used to.
And I am jealously impressed with the leather bound catalog my neighbor gets every year.
They are enormous – for instance the one in Dundee, MI has a trout stream, an aquarium-style tank of local fish, and many large, stuffed animals on display. I think that’s typical decor. For people who live a long way from the nearest Natural History Museum, its kind of exciting to see.
People are really into hunting/fishing are really into Cabela’s. Just like some people go out of their gourd when a Trader Joe’s opens, and others can take it or leave it.
If you don’t hunt, don’t do much fishing and don’t need more fishing gear then you are not exactly their target audience, simple as that.
I don’t hunt and I don’t fish but I do like a variety of outdoorsy activities and so I enjoy browsing their catalogs. I have been in one of their stores (Lehi UT, just the other month) and had a great time, it’s about ten million square feet (slight exaggeration) of outdoors equipment. They do have a very nice selection of casual and work clothing plus tons of footwear, camping gear and other related stuff. I got a great waterproof duffel bag for a good price.
Maybe it appeals to the outdoorsman that many men at least wish that they are? It’s fun to just wander about and browse all the camo gear, look at the gadgets, check out the museums they have in their stores, maybe try flycasting in their indoor ponds, eat a sandwich at the cafe where you choose between traditional roast beef and turkey as well as elk and moose and bison.
This must be a national trend because, here in Massachusetts, there is something similar happening. One of my routes to work takes me right past Gillette Stadium, home to the superpower New England Patriots. Now, the stadium is nice and large but there isn’t much around it at all. If the stadium itself wasn’t there, the area could be called semi-rural.
Next to the stadium, they are building a shopping and entertainment complex. The cornerstone store for this complex is Bass Pro Shops which is roughly the same as Cabela’s. The store is positively enormous and supposedly will contain entertainment and a full restaurant inside. I have no idea who the target demographic is for a store that size especially when there is nothing going on at Gillette Stadium. Plenty of Massachusetts people love outdoor sports but hunting and fishing aren’t as common here as in say, Georgia. The grand opening is on November 14th and I will go soon after that because I cannot imagine what diversity of merchandise could support a store like that here. It is about the same size as a Home Depot or a Wal-Mart superstore but fancier.
My cousin and I once planned and executed a 2-week road trip around the Cabela’s in Sidney, Nebraska. Washington State, through Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, hitting various places of interest along the way, the whole trip culminating with Cabela’s. Spent a ton of money there, too. I’m in favor of any hunting/fishing/outdoors store that has its own KOA.
It used to be such a HUGE deal to go to Cabella’s, becuase there were only 2 of them (Sidney and Carney, NE). Now they seem to be everywhere, so I don’t get such a rush from going.
The stores also often boast a “fine gun room” which has a lot of museum grade guns that you just can’t see at “regular” gun shops. I’m talking about $50,000+ stuff. I don’t think they make much money off of these, they are just an attraction like the giant fish tanks.
Also, I haven’t been to Bass Pro in awhile, but Cabela’s has a better selection of good hunting gear. Bass Pro seems to sell one version of their own store brand in some cases. Bass Pro is like Wal-Mart, Cabela’s is like Dillards, at least for hunting stuff. Fishing might be different.
If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, it’s “da bomb!” I live less than 40 miles from the original Cabela’s in Sidney, Neb., and a lot of my friends work at corporate HQ there. My BIL just down the road is a HUM0NGOUS outdoor type guy, bought everything outdoorsy he owns at Cabela’s, including a $60,000 pontoon boat, all of his hunting rifles and shotguns (he has over $20,000 wrapped up in firearms alone) and most of the clothing he wears It’s like, a giant industry in these parts. Hell, everybody in my family wears some type of Cabela’s label; I have three shirts and two pairs of pants with the Cabela’s logo on 'em. It’s a step or two above Bass Pro.
They have an interesting story, too. Log onto their corporate web site, read about how they got started – I grew up with guys who bought their fishing lures back in the 1960s!
Like Bass Pro, they have perfected the art of getting people to believe that a big box store is a tourist destination. And they try very hard to whip up a frenzy of word-of-mouth marketing for Opening Day.
When Cabela’s recently opened a store in Glendale, AZ, they had been placing full page ads and paying for “articles” for months. The impending opening was the lead story on local TV news for several days before the Big Day ®™
The local police used the traffic & crowds on opening day as a rehearsal for the Super Bowl they’ll be hosting in a few months. Something like 75,000 people showed up on that one day to tour a warehouse full of fishing poles.
Soon the Chinese will own us all. We’ve proven we’re too stupid to take care of ourselves.
There’s nothing wrong with the store itself. I’ve been to the one near us to buy a tackle box and if I wanted hunting, camping, fishing, or general outdoor gear they’d sure be a place to find a good selection of whatever. But it’s just a store, not a recreation destination. Think Home Depot for ourtdoorsmen. And I sure as hell wouldn’t go there on the same day that 74,999 other people were wanting to go.
A few months ago, me and the wife went to our first sporting goods “destination”, a recently opened Bass Pro Shop nearby. We spent about half an hour wandering the store, the whole time thinking WTF? Why is this a tourist destination, and what’s so special about taking your family photos in front of mountains of fake rock and stuffed animals? Or buying the same camo/hunting/fishing gear that Sprawl-Mart has? The big fishies in the tank were the only thing mildly interesting and that fascination lasted all of 60 seconds.
We didn’t get the appeal, but friends of ours went the opening weekend and raved about the place (they even bought a bass boat while there), so we had to see for ourselves. I remember several years ago, my ex-brother in law risked much marital stress to drive 8 hours to the original BPS in Springfield, MO and spent a whole flipping weekend there.
Your off by an order of magnitude. Or two. I belong to MEC and have shopped their store in Vancouver. You could drop that store inside a Bass Pro Shops store or a Cabelas and not be able to find the MEC again. :eek:
Let me put it another way. The Vancouver MEC is about as big as the bass boat department in the BPS in Orlando Fla.
A buddy of mine refers to BPS as Big-assed bait and tackle.
I’ve been to Dundee a couple of times with my husband and I’m not sure what is more entertaining: looking at the 9,000,000 fishing lures ( most from China) or people watching.
They do have a fair selection of ladies outdoor clothing that it’s too prissy-trendy makes me almost buy some, except it is too pricey for my tightwaddery. It leaves me with my old stand by of my butchy carharrts or circa 1976 black snowmobile suit with a fake fur collar.
Overall, I don’t get the whole experience, but it is sorta on the way to the Toledo Zoo.
There is a Bass Pro Shop about 15 minutes from me and the highlight is the aquarium for the kids. I like the fishing lure clear boxes ( for storing knitting items.) Other than that, it is really expensive.
My boss and her husband finally got a weekend free (kids at Grandma’s) and they elected to go to Cabela’s as their special trip. She said the selection was amazing, as well as the stuffed animal decor and over the top decorating.
They will be opening one here in Maine next yeah. It will be neat to window shop there, but since we have L.L. Beans here already, I’m not overly interested or excited about the new store.
I do a lot of hunting and fishing, but I wouldn’t consider buying a boat from them, or a four wheller or anything like that. I think with items like that (as well as general merchandise at their store) you can find better deals elsewhere.