Sportsmans Warehouse

[Bucksnort1]

You may have heard, Sportsmans has been purchased by the group that brought Bass Pro and Cabela's together.

Not much changed at Bass Pro after the merger except you do see some merchandise with the Cabela's label.

My only disappointment in the merger is Bass Pro still doesn't have a Bargain Cave. The Cave is one of my favorite parts of Cabela's. Cabela's is too far for me to drive and risk my life on these dangerous Phoenix metro area highways.

 

[roscoe]

Not really a good sign. There is likely to be consolidation. Since I prefer SW, I will be disappointed to see them disappear.

 

[Bucksnort1]

Roscoe, I agree with you. I prefer SW. As I said, I'm too far from the local Cabela's store (maybe 40 driving miles) to muster interest in going. Bass Pro is closer than Cabela's but SW is about three miles from me.

 

[ejb69]

our local Cabelas has gone down hill since the merger with bass pro shops. The store is more of a tourist attraction than a store. It does not have all the items tat are available on line. they dont have near the used guns they had in the past. I used to be able to order items from Cabelas and get them in a day or 2. That too came to an end with the merger. It now takes over a week for an order to arrive.

Our Sportsmans Warehouse closed a couple of years ago. i miss that store. I find myself shopping for gun /hunting stuff mostly at Fleet Farm or Sheels, or ordering it on line. Its gotten that i have to buy most of my ammo on line. If that gets banned I am not sure where I will turn to as the Box stores have put a lot of the small gun shops out of business. Walmart was selling ammo for a lot less than the other stores and now has stopped selling ammo.

 

[Bucksnort1]

Many years ago, Sportsmans opened a store about three miles from my house in Littleton, CO then, a few years later, it closed. It was so convenient. Eventually, they reopened at another location farther away.

The Sportsmans store near me here in the "Valley of the Sun" where we had 143 non-consecutive days, last summer, of triple digit temperatures is as I said, three miles and very convenient.

I lived in the Denver metro area for 38 years before moving to Gilbert, AZ a little over four years ago.

Except for the last three years in Colorado, the only "big box" store near Denver is the Cabela's store in Sidney, NE. Occasionally, friends and I would do road trips to Sidney to shop.

It always amazed me that as much hunting and fishing there is in Colorado, there were never any big box stores until Sportsmans opened three stores around 2013-ish in the metro area and one in Grand Junction which is a six hour drive. After that, Gander Mountain opened two stores, Bass Pro opened one and Cabela's opened two stores. Go figure.

I did my best to buy from small business but when the big stores came, most folded. The exception was Angler's All on south Santa Fe Blvd in Littleton. If you want the best advice but not necessarily the lowest price, Angler's All is the cats meow. I would buy small business here in Arizona but there are no "ma and pa" fly fishing stores in this part of the Valley of the Sun. I believe Orvis has one on the other side of Phoenix but that's too far to drive for me.

The two Gander stores and all but one of the Sportsmans stores closed in the metro area. I don't know what the situation is now.

 

[RETG]

Does not surprise me; they almost went bankrupt a few years ago, but were starting to rebound.
I would guess (and hope) that the new owners will only close (consolidate) stores that are close to other owned locations while leaving those that are not close alone and to prosper.

Here in SE idaho I could see the Sportsman's store in IF closing cause of a Cabela's just down the road. However, the Sportsman's store in Pocatello does a great business and no Cabela's or Bass pro.

But, what do I know?

 

[kenny53]

I have a Cabela's 9 miles from the house and i9n the opposite direction I have a Sportsman' Warehouse 11 miles from home. I like Sportsman better, but for the most part I shop on line.

 

[jpx2rk]

In my area, BPS and Cabelas were usually located w/in 10-20 minutes of each other. I usually went to Cabelas for the better selection and people seemed to appreciate you being there, BPS not so much. Both of the Cabelas have closed since the merger with the BPS still there. There is one SW an hour away, and it will probably be closed as it is within 10 minutes of the BPS that remains open.