BASS PRO MAKES ITS BID to buy Cabelas..

http://journalstar.com/business/local/report-bass-pro-shops-to-bid-for-cabela-s/article_5f1d314c-0bb5-5740-b18b-5193accc5258.html

Any idea what this would mean for the Cabela stores?
– Stay as is.
– Keep name, but totally revamp stores.
– Turn them all into Bass Pro Shops.

Just curious I guess. I do go to the Rogers one way too much!

Dont you just love the cycle of big business?

Expand, expand, expand,,,,then DIE.

Hey, whatever happened to that Bass Pro Shops Mega-Mega Store that was supposed to get built out by the MOA? There was a lot of talk about that and then nothing.

I thought that was a fantastic move and Cabela’s totally screwed up by focusing on smaller format stores in more urban areas rather than going BIG right beside MOA. With the sheer numbers of bored husbands who got dragged along on a shopping weekend at MOA, the place would have been a jackpot for either Cabelas or BPS company.

Whatever happened to that proposed BPS?

Grouse

Last I heard Grouse was that Bloomington wouldn’t give them enough tax breaks.

That was a long while ago…

Yup, I believe the MOA thing pops up every couple years, and it’s been like 10 years since it was first mentioned, and Bloomington doesn’t want to give the tax breaks.

This is from 2013

Just when you thought Mall of America had it all, soon you could swim, skate, stay longer

Seven years ago, outdoors mega-store Bass Pro Shop was one of the first retailers eager to join the Mall of America expansion. It evidently still is.

The outdoors retailer has no stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin or the Dakotas, but it has locations in 30 other states. And at MOA, officials say it would add a helpful element to its retail mix.

Despite Mall of America’s 520 existing retailers, Bausch said, “we don’t have enough sports; we don’t have enough for men.”

Bass Pro Shop isn’t locked in as a future anchor tenant, but its arrival seems likely. Plans call for a store up to 250,000 square feet. Based on other Bass Pro Shops, that store could feature equipment ranging from speedboats to hunting gear to a bowling alley.

No tax breaks = no BPS.

If you want a store for MOA pray for a Scheels.

I very rarely shop at the MoA, but every time I’m there, I’m amazed at the sheer numbers that come and how FAR they come from for a “shopping vacation”. BPS and Cabelas are missing out bigtime by NOT having a store there.

Some years ago, a client company of ours had some people flying in from all over for an event. So the Europeans got here, and several of the guys had already bought their wives tickets from Europe for later in the week to come over shopping for 4 days because they had read about the MoA.

So long story short, it turned out that 4 of these guys were fishermen or hunters and they asked me are there any stores there. No, but there is this Wunderland called Cabelas. I ended loading my SUV tour bus full of these guys and driving down to Owatonna.

They went freaking crazy. One of the British guys was a “wildfowler” (waterfowler), which is almost an extinct species in the UK, so needless to say he went nuts with waterfowl clothing and accessories. I don’t know how he got all that sh!t back on the plane. I didn’t want to pry into his final tab, but a quick mental total said he was over $3k about 2 hours into our 4 hour trip. The Poles were both “coarse” anglers, which means carp fishermen. They loaded up on really weird stuff like superfine floro line, high end hooks, and they bought 10 top end spinning reels between the 2 of them.

Cabela’s owes me a commission. They’re freaking crazy for not building a MOA store.

Grouse

Dutchboy wrote:

No tax breaks = no BPS.
If you want a store for MOA pray for a Scheels.

I can pray but it won’t happen. Scheels is too smart to expand beyond what they’re good at. They’re going to stick with small to mid market size and do the great job they’ve always done.

20 years ago I worked for them and it was still the most fun I had while getting a paycheck.

patk wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
No tax breaks = no BPS.
If you want a store for MOA pray for a Scheels.

I can pray but it won’t happen. Scheels is too smart to expand beyond what they’re good at. They’re going to stick with small to mid market size and do the great job they’ve always done.

20 years ago I worked for them and it was still the most fun I had while getting a paycheck.

I keep thinking I should grab a part time gig in their fishing or loss prevention departments.

As far as cabelas or BPS at the MOA I would love to have one there, preferably cabelas. A few weeks ago my wife and I went to go visit my newborn nephew. When we were done we decided to run to IKEA and if time permitted after dinner we would hit up the woodbury cabelas. Well time did not permit as ikea took forever and we had a wonderful dinner at the Tavern on Grand. The next day I spent about 200ish in my local scheels. Now 200 is not big time money by any means but I absolutely would have bought it at a Cabelas had it been right there by MOA.