CABELAS' New Business Model

[CLYA]

Heck, if the black powder revolver "sale" prices now higher than they were prior to the buyout, then we're looking at Cabela's not being as good a place to buy stuff.

They are not higher. I bought two (possibly three, but lost track) when they were $50 off. We always need to compare prices. Cabela's price for the Uberti Walker has always been on the high side. More than Sportman's Warehouse, and quite a bit more than Midway, when they have it on sale. And then there was the recent sell off, of Walkers on the internet.


As to the $50 off on BP revolvers (Pietta), the Cabela's prices were beating all the competition. There may be a few prices, elsewhere, that were comparable. But it would take searching and at the right times.

 

[heyjoe]

point of information- due to a recent supreme court decision everyone is going to be paying their local sales tax on every internet purchase regardless of whether there is a physical presence in your state.

 

[FITASC]

Which is fine, Natchez and Brownnell's probably need the money more.

Since Brownell's bought out Gamaliel, their prices have also gone up. It is getting harder and harder to find one store that can do it all, and do it all fairly inexpensively.

 

[rodfac]

Our local Cabelas here in Louisville KY has had both powder and primers available on a regular basis, both at 10-15% less than the LGS (the few that sold reloading components). But for big ticket items like guns, they've always been close to MSRP. The local cop shop, Wolf Supply on Roosevelt Ave. has always been cheaper for the Sig's, Glocks and factory ammunition that I've purchased. He can order what you want and have it in less than a week and at a price that can't be beat. Bill's a good guy, a retired cop, and has earned the customer loyalty he enjoys.

Farther east, in Lexington, Budd's Gun Shop has by far a biggershelf inventory, but again, unless it's a sale of some kind, their prices are close to MSRP. The only time I've bought from them, was for a really nice S&W M19...the price was low for the condition and it went out the door with me.

For all of the above, ask for a military discount if you qualify, and dikker on the price...it'll help. Just hope that Cabelas in Louisville continues to offer reloading components 'cause they're pretty much the only game in town.

Rod

 

[kmw1954]

Rodfac, the store in Hoffman Estates Illinois is about 1 hour from me or 1/2hr from my brothers so many times he will stop in to pick up what I need or if it's on sale. Unfortunately this store has been completely out of stock on primers since March. I am now down to my last 800 large and small pistol primers so I need to locate a new supplier. The next closest store for me is about 1.5 to 1.75hrs away after that the next os over 2 hours. Now I do not mind the road trip to go it's just that now it will just be a bit more inconvenient and I'll have to plan my purchases a bit differently. Which also means buying more at one time.

 

[markr6754]

Sad to have to join in on this thread. I haven’t visited my local Cabela’s in a couple of months...but their sale on ammo storage boxes had me stop in. It took me some time to find the severely reduced reloading section. Some have reported a reduction of half...not here in Centerville, OH...it is less than a third it’s previous size...with a significant reduction in SKUs. Nearly all of the tools are gone, although the end cap of powders now stocks nearly twice the variety. I picked up a bottle of CFE-Pistol for $25 (plus tax). I don’t need dies, but Hornady Titanium Nitride 3 die sets are all on sale for $38.96...I’m really tempted to switch out my non-Hornady sets. Bullets are few in quantity and in variety. This section is now part of a shelf, vs an entire row of bullets as before.
Primers, we all know the story...except they did have CCI 500 SPP in stock...yeah, 5 boxes of 100 for $3.99 each. They also had small and large Magnum in 1000 piece boxes for $32.99. But the primer rack was Swiss cheese...more holes than cheese.
The check out clerk implied they were merely reorganizing the store...then the gaps in stock will be filled...but I’m skeptical. So glad I overspent on the bullets.com clearance.

 

[marchboom]

Most people don't want to travel to different stores to get their components. Gas costs money, not to mention your time. Having powder but no primers just doesn't work. Either BPS wants to get out of the reloading supplies business or they have no idea how to run a business. I'm leaning to the former.

For me, I'll probably just make a list of primers and powders and wait for a sale with online companies where they don't charge a hazmat fee...and sometimes free shipping.

And then call Cabelas and tell then why I won't be shopping with them.

 

[Glenn E. Meyer]

The person who answers the phone will not care.

 

[blackwidowp61]

Like Glenn said, what do they care? They're already phasing out/reducing their reloading supplies, so your call is wasted.

Now if you said that you were not going to shop at their store for anything because of their policy on reloading supplies/equipment, that might get their attention, but don't count on it. It takes a whole lot of calls of this nature to cause any concern on their part. Bottom line is, a drop in revenue is the only thing that gets a business to sit up and take notice.

 

[Scorch]

Cabela's lost me as a customer when they discontinued their "World Class Warranty" and started selling the same crap as everybody else only 10% higher priced. Cabela's stores never had much in the way of reloading supplies anyway, there is not enough volume or profit margin in those things to carry a large stock of them. The internet is the answer, and places like Powder Valley, Southern Shooters Supply and Grafs carry about everything I could hope for.

 

[Road_Clam]

Luckily for me I have to LGS's within an hour's driving distance to me. Both have an outstanding supply of reloading components. Yes they cost more but no shipping and hazmat fees. I am developing a very bad attitude towards greedy big corporate as I lost my job of 22 years where a small very successful family run business was sold, bled dry of knowledge and shut down in favor of off shore manufacturing. I am on a mission to support small USA based manufacturing as much as I can. Cabelas and Bass Pro I can certainly live without.

 

[jonb32248]

I'm down the street from corp. headquarters of BP and mostly only buy Berry's 124 gn bullets. Primers sometimes but I go to Academy for that.Lgs are over priced for all that stuff here.

 

[Justice06RR]

Their business model is definitely not good.

Gander and BassPro are 2 of the overpriced stores that I don't shop at. The clothing merchandise is extremely overpriced; a t-shirt that should cost $15 is $40.

Academy seems to be a bit better on firearms and ammo, although clothing is still overpriced.

 

[imp]

Perhaps this is pessimistic of me, but I have zero faith in Cabelas/BPS in the corporate and political arenas.

They are under enormous pressure to follow the same path as Dicks Sporting Goods, and it may just take one more evil screwball to make news with a gun for them to radically alter their additude towards the shooting sports.

I know for a fact my local gunshop won't cave in to anything. I try to patronize them as often as possible to keep them open, for the days ahead when the big box stores have turned their back on us.

 

[m&p45acp10+1]

Both stores I have been to in Texas (Buda/Austin. and Waco) have not replaced the sold items. The shelves are starting to clear, and I was asking if there is another scare going on that is driving a shortage. The gossip I heard is that they are not going to be restocking those items until they do a logistics merge. They are going to merge the distribution centers to be able to deliver to both stores.

It seems simple at a glance. The truth is there is a team of people trying to sort things out, and get a single system to work for both. So in order to feel like they are making things work better, they are going to bust the gears of a system that was already working.

 

[rebs]

Since the buy out of Cabelas by BassPro our Cabelas here in Cheektowaga has taken a big down hill dump. Very low ammo and reloading supplies etc etc.. Their prices have gone way up. In all honesty this store has taken a big turn down hill. And with Gander Mountain changing hands to Gander Outdoors it also has less for the firearms enthusiast. But they are better than Cabelas. I go to the Buffalo Gun Center first for all my shooting needs, if they don't have what I want I go other places to find it including online.