Cabelas Since The Bass Pro Buyout

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44caliberkid

New member
I have been to three Cabelas locations since Bass Pro Shops bought them out. I notice they have adopted Bass Pros "slowest checkout process in the world" and under staffed registers. Also, not nearly as much stuff on sale or not as good of sales as when Cabelas was their own. I have a Bass Pro Shops close to me, have gone there often, but rarely find anything to buy. I do enjoy their taxidermy displays though. Anyone else notice a degrading of Cabelas quality since they were bought out?
 
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FITASC

New member
I noticed a degrading when they started building lodges - prices went up a lot since they went to brick and mortar stores - as did Gander and all of the rest.
 
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Bartholomew Roberts

Moderator
If someone at Cabela's would write a book on what made them decide to take a company with solid catalog sales and start competing against Bass Pro with giant retail stores just as the Internet is slaughtering retail stores, I'd buy that book because that has to be a good story.
 
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rpseraph

New member
44caliberkid said:
All the Gander Mountain stores I passed in Minnesota were having Going Out Of Business sales.
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Yup they are being 'rebranded' to Gander Outdoors. Liquidating all their stock and reopening most stores sometime. I heard Gande Mtn will be liquidating through August. Some good deals, but nothing amazing yet.
 
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FrankenMauser

New member
Understaffed.
Poor service.
Long checkout lines.
Overpriced.
Nothing worth buying.
Tons of expensive eye candy.
Questions about relevancy and remaining competitive.

...Sounds like the Cabela's I've always known (and avoided).
 
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FITASC

New member
Yup they are being 'rebranded' to Gander Outdoors. Liquidating all their stock and reopening most stores sometime. I heard Gande Mtn will be liquidating through August. Some good deals, but nothing amazing yet.
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Only about 1/3 of all the stores will remain open.

As to Cabela's, they went public to raise cash to open the lodges and are now about 1billion in debt. The brother's should not have given up control to the corporate bean counters
 
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johnwilliamson062

Moderator
If someone at Cabela's would write a book on what made them decide to take a company with solid catalog sales and start competing against Bass Pro with giant retail stores just as the Internet is slaughtering retail stores, I'd buy that book because that has to be a good story.
Click to expand...
I'd kickstarter that book.
The other angle is they ruined the "destination" status of their existing showplace stores when they threw little ones every hour along major highways.

I do love stopping at them when traveling for bathroom, snacks, and sometimes even a sandwich.
 
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Rembrandt

New member
Bartholomew Roberts said:
If someone at Cabela's would write a book on what made them decide to take a company with solid catalog sales and start competing against Bass Pro with giant retail stores just as the Internet is slaughtering retail stores, I'd buy that book because that has to be a good story.
Click to expand...

I see the strong catalog business transcending to internet quite easily. Internet sites are nothing more than electronic versions of a catalog.

No big changes that I've seen in the retail stores....Cabelas still offers used guns and much bigger ammo inventories than Bass Pro.
 
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TruthTellers

New member
If someone at Cabela's would write a book on what made them decide to take a company with solid catalog sales and start competing against Bass Pro with giant retail stores just as the Internet is slaughtering retail stores, I'd buy that book because that has to be a good story.
Click to expand...
No book needed. You see, when CEO's and other execs get hired or promoted, they negotiate deals where if the company goes belly up or they do a bad job and get fired, they get million dollar buyouts and walk away with money as the business goes down.

So, if u had a deal where even if u did a TERRABAD job u would still get a million or ten million bucks, what incentive is there to make the company better?

This is the sickness in our world today: Reward for failure.
 
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PoiDog

New member
I was in the Cabela's in Hammond IN last Friday. It was pretty crowded probably due to all of the fishermen buying seasonal items. The gun section wasn't too crowded.

The lines on the way out reflected the crowd. It was pretty slow checking out. There's always the guy paying for jerky with a credit card, getting rejected, dragging out another card, etc. Once that show was over, it was pretty smooth.

Sometimes their sales are pretty good, and I buy lots of loading consumables there unless a gun show is happening soon. Amazon blows them away on most things, for whatever that's worth.

I still make it to Cabela's 5 or 6 times a year. I enjoy the store, with all of the animals on display.
 
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TruthTellers

New member
Personally, last time i went to Cabela's was last October. I had to return a Pietta 1851 Navy that had something wrong I didn't like (the latch on the end of the handle for the bullet seater was a loose fit with the catch) and I wanted to exchange it for another one that didn't have said issue.

So, I drive 45 mins, went to the service desk and said, "I'd like to exchange this with another model, it has a quality issue." Well the word "quality issue" must have confused the poor bloke at customer service, cuz he was all "Whaaaa?"

He tells me he'll exchange it, but that I had to go to another part of the store and grab another box of the item, which I was peeved by because I had called before I left to make sure the store had them in stock for an exchange, I figured they'd have it up at the desk... But no.

So, I can't find the damn section with the black powder revolvers and I have to wait in line behind a guy dub enough to be buying a S&W Shield at Cabela's. 15 mins later, I finally get the damn box of a new Pietta 1851.

Alright, so now it's back to customer service and at this time I am starting to get PO'd. I ask to take it out and inspect it to make sure it doesn't have any issues. The dolt can't open the box for some reason and has to disappear into a room to do it. Another 5 min wait.

Finally, the box is open, I check it over, it's good. Now, it's paperwork time.

The service guy has to type in a bunch of stuff in the computer which takes time... And it crashes. Great, now he's got to start over. After another wait, he has me slide the card I used to purchase the original with to refund it, then he will charge the card the same amount to get this return/exchange over with. That works, but now he says j have to pay $10 or something, which is the sales tax.

I say this isn't a sale, this is a return and I won't pay a second tax on something I already bought. Alright, that takes time to process and finally, after a friggin hour, I finally walk out with a working 1851 Pietta Navy.
Haven't gone back since for good reason.
 
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kenny53

New member
I have a Cabela's about 15 minutes from the house. Almost never go there. Over priced from ammo to guns. Is fun to look at the aquarium.
 
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at2000

New member
pete2 is correct. Cabela's has a special shareholder's meeting on July 11 to approve a revised acquisition agreement. It still needs antitrust clearance.
 
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lefteye

New member
Maybe I am just lucky but I doubt it. I've been a Cabela's customer since they operated in a two-story building next to the railroad tracks in Sidney, NB, maybe 40 years ago. The quality of their products and services are at least as good as any big box sporting goods business. Last year a senior employee accompanied me to my SUV with my boat trailer (carrying the boat) in their parking lot. I was shopping for a locking pin for my trailer hitch insert. He brought out a couple he thought might work. None would work. He spent some time trying to provide the product and service I needed and apologized for not having the right product. That was the best but certainly not the only good service I have received from Cabela's. I think Cabela's does a good job training their employees to be courteous and to seek assistance from a more experienced employee to satisfy their customers. While some other sporting goods stores have provided decent products and services, none have exceeded the performance of Cabela's in my experience.
 
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Glenn E. Meyer

New member
I was not happy with Cabela's in general. They consistently ran bait and switch gun ads. Once, I went to get one in a flyer and after much conflict found they only had 4 (FOUR) of that model in the entire country.

Similarly, I had cargo pants fail and they refused to refund or replace them. LLBean never did anything like that. Even after several years, they replaced some failed boots (that they never should have failed is a different story).

I like Bass Pro clothes much better.

Gun prices at the big stores are a joke if you know the market.
 
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