Cabelas was great up until they became an open stock company. Then they started hiring management from Home Depot and Lowes who had no effing clue about the attitudes and mentality of hunters, and what we expected from them.
I told them at the time. I was affiliated with the company. They did not want to hear it. They were cutting cost while riding high on their reputation.....a situation that always comes to a bad end.
Later still, about 10 years ago they began to feel the effects of their stupidity, but they decided to go further from their early success and double down on failure, so they began making some horrific business decisions - opening up stores at terrible locations - antigun states, cities where there is no real wilderness or hunting opportunities within 50 or 100 miles, with no ambiance or draw for people to go there from out of state, like they did with the old stores. I told them, and they didn't want to hear it. They were dead set on their "business model" drawn up by their ex-Home Depot managers. To them (as we quoted them at the time) "a gun is a sweatshirt is a box of drywall screws, there is no difference in how you sell it".
At that point, I guess I was "too negative" about the direction of the company and "not onboard with the company's vision" so they pushed me out from my management position. And from there, as I watched from the other side of the door, the company really went to hell, just as me and all the other employees who worked there because of our love of hunting had said it would.
Now they have turned into Bass Pro. The stores are getting ragged and worn out, lights are burned out, the mounts are faded and missing hair, there are fewer people visiting, even on weekends, and the endcaps where interesting merchandise used to hang, is now full of hats and other assorted bullshit. My prediction: Soon they will become a clothing store with a small sporting goods department, and after that they will become Dicks. Very sad.
www.milehighshooting.com
