Why Nobody Wants to Go to Cabela's Anymore

Why Nobody Wants to Go to Cabela's Anymore video from Ivan's Journal.

Summary:

There was a time I would drive three hours out of my way just to walk into a Cabela's. Last month I drove right past one on a clear day and did not even slow down. Same building. Same mounted elk. Same long glass gun counter. So why does it feel like a different store?

The easy answer is that Bass Pro bought Cabela's and ruined it. I used to say that myself. Then I dug into what actually happened, and that answer turned out to be about half right. The other half involves a Nebraska town that went from more than two thousand jobs to about five hundred, a store that closed because its new owner had another one two and a half miles away, and a competitor people camped out overnight to get into.

And there is the question I care about most: is the Cabela's Gun Library still worth checking?

So nobody writes in about it, here is where I stand. I am not here to tell you every Cabela's is dead, and I am not here to tell you it is fine. Your local store might be great. This is what I found, what is rumor, and what I would actually do before I made the drive.

What we go through:

A fishing fly business that started on a kitchen table in 1961 with forty-five dollars and one answer to a classified ad. How a catalog written by hunters grew into a pilgrimage stop, and what the Gun Library really was. Why Cabela's was already wobbling in 2015, before Bass Pro ever made an offer. The 2017 deal, the credit card business, and the price cut. Sidney, Nebraska, the buyouts, and office space offered for one dollar a year. What customers say changed: the inventory, the clothing, the Bargain Cave, the floor staff. The Gun Library today, and why it has become a store by store thing. The Fort Oglethorpe and Bristol closings, and the signs that came down in Winnipeg and Albuquerque. The failed Sportsman's Warehouse deal and the Federal Trade Commission. The gun market cooling off after the 2020 boom. Scheels, and the crowd that camped out for a store opening in Cedar Park, Texas. What the old Cabela's really sold, and why that is the hardest thing to keep through a buyout.

Said plainly on buying and selling: inspect a used gun before you take it home and ask about the return terms. If something seems off, have a qualified gunsmith look at it before you shoot it. Transfers go through a licensed dealer and the normal background check, and state rules and waiting periods are not the same everywhere, so check what yours require. If you sell or trade, bring it in unloaded and cased, follow the store's check in process, and shop it around, because a big store has to make a profit on what it takes in.

There is no villain in all of this. A struggling company, a merger, and a cooling market stacked on top of each other. Most of what you hear about the stores themselves comes from customers and former employees on forums, not company data, and I say so in the video.

Next time you walk into your local Cabela's or Bass Pro, go to the gun counter and talk to whoever is working it. If that person knows their stuff, the store is still worth your time.

If you want the lessons I have learned about knowing what a gun is really worth and when you are paying too much, I put a lot of them in my book at ivansjournal.com.

Tell me in the comments which store you shop at and where it is. And tell me this: is your local Cabela's Gun Library still worth the stop, or did it go the way of the Bargain Cave?

Note: The Albuquerque Cabela's changed over to Bass Pro Shops. It gets a good mention in the video. I last visited it in October and the used gun rack was somewhat sparse.