Press release today.

Volumes of happy gas, nowhere does it mention that the inevitable result is higher prices for the consumer.

Buyouts, mergers, etc are never good for the end user. Competition makes the world go round, and it's sad to see Cabela's customers lose.

Better jump on those 'free ship' ammunition deals now before the corporate raiders restructure the business.

Right when brick and mortar stores were failing by the dozens Cabela's celebrates opening its first brick and mortar store.

Who was in charge of that operation.

Just what we need. No real competition in the future on the national level.
Jim

There will be competition, eventually. If the merger leaves a need, someone will step up and fill it. Capitalism at it's best.

Truth is, neither store has anything I cannot live happily without.

SRH

They have announced the opening of a new Cabelas here in Albuquerque next year and have already begun the ground clearing for it on some prime real estate adjacent to I-25. 'Wonder what, if any, effect that will have??

I also think the folks willing to invest in large retail stores put a little thought into it. Not only do they have to compete for local walk in customers, but with all the online sellers.

What is the future of brick and motor stores when you can shop the Internet? Guarded at best. Both Cabellas and Bass Pro Shop are as much a clothing shop as anything else. I buy a few sale items, ammo in flats, when priced right and a few used guns from them when they are under priced. So I'm no worried about this buyout as the elimination at all real competition because they have absolutely nothing I can not do without or find other places if need be. I suspect most others here feel the same way.

In Anchorage we have a Cabela's, Bass Pro and Sportsman's Warehouse. After retiring I worked part time at SW for 10'years and BP for 2. Overall SW has the best prices on most items. it will be interesting to see what happens in a couple years.

When I have infrequently bought items such as used guns on the Internet I've generally been disappointed in the description as compared to the actual condition when received. I basically quit doing that and will continue to buy at shops or show where I can do a real examination. I'm NOT trying to imply that all online gun dealers are less then truthful and there are some I would deal with in that manner.
Jim

Stan, your notion of capitalism stepping in to fill a need is not what I'm seeing world-wide---or here in my baliwick. There are three good gun stores within 100 miles which I patronize to keep them here. When they don't have what I want, they order it for me. I bought a new Beretta 686 o/u a couple years ago for less than at the big stores and way less than in Rome. Nationally the Canadian biggies, in resources and finance particularly, are buying billion-dollar opposition world-wide to reduce competition. The trend is to less competition and more misery for us.

That is terrible and prices will go up,Bobby

King, what you're seeing does not change how the market works. It is not subject to our whims or interpretations. Your views are short term, and remember I said "eventually". The market WILL fill a need, short term or long.

SRH

King, your little guy is stepping in and filling a need, or at least a want. Your Canadian biggies can't or won't compete with them. I doubt your little shop could go head to head with a big corporate clear cutter, but for the smaller market item like your shotgun, they probably have more business flexibility and less layers of administrative sponging up of the profit.

Maybe, if you have the gun you want, at a better price than elsewhere, your misery has decreased. I think your big corps are just bureaucrats that are more adept at covering averages, and you have to live with yourself when you realize you're supporting the true capitalist.

I dunno, craig. I haven't seen evidence of that with our good neighbour on the other side of the world's longest undefended border i.e too big to fail and to hell with home with more money to be made overseas.

The real loser's in this will probably be the good people of Sidney Nebraska & the surrounding area.

One of the first things that will happen will be the merging and streamlining of the corporate operations. Sidney is the corporate headquarters of Cabela's. It is a small town of approximately 5000, 2000 of those are somehow connected to Cabela's for their livelihood. If Bass Pro moves the corporate offices out of Sidney the tax base will feel the effects along with the schools & home values.

I've been lead to believe what BP was really after was the bank Cabela's owned that their credit cards were issued out of. This alone had tremendous assets. The real money in this business is in the credit cards and clothing. Not guns & ammo.

Think about what you see when you walk into a Cabela's store. Front & center is a kiosk hawking their credit card. Followed by two thirds of the store filled with cloths racks & shelves which you have to walk through to get to the back corners where the guns, ammo, decoys etc. are hidden.

Stan's right, competition eventually works - unless government screws it up with laws that reduce competition.

I'm a CPA with 41 years experience and no employees. I fill a niche that the large CPA firms can't - I can under-price them with the same or better quality work and client service and I can provide much better quality service than the franchise tax services at not much more cost. I make a better than average income for the US while, at age 67, working no more than 1/2 time. Competition at work.

I can assure you than Stan understands what he's talking about (yes, I've had lunch with him several times) and competition will eventually fill the need. Hell, the internet is proof of this because I can buy things I need from almost anywhere in the world - I've bought a reloading tool direct from Italy and clothes from Northern Ireland and England.

Okay, I'd like to be convinced. What's eventually: five years, a generation---or two? You also qualify your claim with "unless government screws it up." Weak government regulations made The Great Recession. Ever know governments not to screw it up? "Eventually" and "unless governments screw it up" are a bridge too far for a claim that capitalism always fills a need.

How long did you wait for your 686? Ten minutes, a few weeks?

Odd you ask about screwups. It reads here like the current US gov is perfect on women's rights, race relations, the economy and foreign policy. Did I miss anything?

The only real good price I have seen at Cabela's was $54.99 for 250 rounds of Italian made Herter's 16ga ammo. That was when they opened up store near me. Occasionally they have sales like P-64 pistol in very good condition for $209 (nicely made compact pistol if you don't mind weight of steel and "25lb double-action trigger pull ), Soviet era Pistolet Makarova for $219, Steyr .270 rifle with rotary magazine plus ERA-Recknagel rings & bases for $900, $400 Model 12 shotgun, .... Those are examples of fair prices, but most of their Gun Library is hopelessly overpriced.

I happy to buy almost all my supplies from LGS:

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I agree now is the time to buy certain things. For example 50 pack of 9x19 FMJ is <$10, .40 about $13 and .45 $15.

What do you need convincing of King?

That you live in a time and place of unbelievable access to goods and services unlike ever seen before in the history of mankind?

That the average person is wealthier, in term of access to health care, food, shelter and a srptunning array of material goods from every corner of the globe, than ever before in history?

That the expansion of capitalism around the globe has lifted more people out of grinding poverty and starvation circumstances faster in the last 30 years than ever before?

Socialism didn't do that.
Government management didn't do that.
Five year plans didn't do that.

The relaxing of economic management by governments and unleashing the creativity and drive of individuals is what did it.

King, I won't further banter words on this thread and participate in causing it to become another political trash heap. I already made the mistake of saying something that could lead into a debate of idealogical beliefs, rather than the intended topic.

My apologies to James.

SRH

IMO,Cabela's was better before the company went public. It's my understanding that Bass Pro is still privately owned. Maybe better?

Buying guns from Cabela's . . . assuming you have a store anywhere close to you, you don't have to rely on the Internet description. You can have the gun in question shipped to your nearby store for $25. That's what I've almost always done when I've spotted something of interest in their on line inventory. Unfortunately, they made some changes in how they organize the Gun Library inventory on the Net. "Shotguns" is now all one big category--60-some pages worth. Used to be broken down so that scrolling through side by sides didn't take nearly as long.

One thing about buying guns at an out of state Cabela's or any other large chain, if they have a store in your state , and even if they are not shipping the gun to the store in your home state, you will still be subject to paying sales tax.

Local gun stores seem to survive the crunch of a large brick and mortar chain store better than local fishing stores. Usually there is more knowledge in the local gun shops and they have loyal customers. The LGS's often have a gunsmith. I trade with two local shops one of which has a gunsmith who will tell you his limits. They have all the business they can stand. What I lament is the death of the smaller fishing shops, especially fly fishing, in my area. The small mom and pop shops were often outlets for local fly patterns, handmade specialized accessories and artwork from local craftsman and artists. Bass Pro offers the same mass produced products as does Cabelas as does any number of online merchants. Prices rarely vary.

Understand your position, Stan. Things go adrift when a thread started as a discussion by Shotgun and Jim of concerns of less competition is confronted with a notion that less is eventually good. All members succumb similarly in expressing their opinions at one time or another.

I would say that prices at local BassPro are better and not every piece of attire is in "ChinaFlage". Perhaps because our local Cabela's is smaller one. I don't know. Anyhow I get sport clothing at Steinmart or from LL Bean. If both Cabela's and BassPro went away I would not miss them at all.

BPS is owned by Johnnie Morris. He is a local Springfield boy who I went to school with. He started with a bait station as a kid, added rods and reels the next year and now the Mother of all BPS's is here in Springfield. Johnnie is a true visionary and usually gets things spot on but not in a hurry. Of course there are some folks who don't necessarily like his visions and others who are very jealous of his sucesses. I think there's a very good chance that this will be good for Cabelas and that changes you see will be for the better. But the jury is still out.

Well said, Oh King of "Canucks?" Well said.

Having worked with entrepreneurial companies still controlled by their founders as well as those owned by investment funds or public, I'd always choose the former. I think the slide at Cabela's was related to the Cabela family selling control and I think this may turn out well for the chain.

Latest reports are that Morris intends to keep the brands separate while combining appropriate back office functions.

Companies need vision and investment funds rarely provide that.

Investment funds are all about short term not long term they sell off parts, spin off parts and sell out to make money all in the short term. There is never any long term plan it is all about getting in, maxing out what they can and get out with as much money as they can get. Does not matter if shortly after they leave the wheels come off everything. They don't care. Blood sucking ticks come to mind when I think of them.

Morris also is heavy into Tracker Marine which acquired Mako, SeaCraft, Pro Craft, Kenner, Fisher and a few others. Anecdotal reports from owners contrast the quality of mfg. before and after Mako and SeaCraft were acquired and the preference was to the before. The Potter family started SeaCraft and those old boats are highly sought after and the hulls command a premium if you can find one.

The Anchorage Cabela's will not bring in for the $25.00 fee.

It has been my experience that the advantage of Cabelas and Bass Pro is availability not price.

Example, two cases of 16 ga. shells shipped free. Try to find those locally.

One big question is what BP will doo with the Cabela's CC operation? Which is one of the most profitable parts of the business.

I heard of a guy who has enough Cabela's Club points to buy a new boat, a big one. If I was that guy, I would be boat shopping today.

My understanding is they sold the CC operation to Capital One. And that Capital One is doing a new deal with Bass Pro.

NPR's report said that Bass Pro would retain a piece of the action on every credit card that they issue, but they won't own the banking operation.

As an observer, it all seems sorta incestuous with money higgly-piggly going here and there in strangest places. What's in the big deal for you and me? Wasn't that what Shotgun and Jim were questioning?

Probably the best part of the big deal is that the customer can just shop elsewhere. If someone likes to patronize the big box outdoor stores, do they have to sign up for the credit card? Relationships are a choice, not an inevitable medical condition.

There's some indication that there were already business competitors well before this higgly-piggly started.

In Forbes today...

Cost of Living Extremely Well Index (CLEWI)

Broken down into various groups.

Entertainment & Toys

Motor Yacht: Hatteras 70 (North Carolina) $5,465,000 no change
Sailing Yacht: Oyster 625 (U.K.) $2,700,000 -21%
Sporting Shotguns: Pair 12 ga SxS James Purdey & Sons New Jersey) $265,452 -7%
Cigars: 25 Dominican Aniversario Double "R" (New York) $850.00 no change
(Man, and I feel fancy when I crack a $6.00 tin of Erinmore!)

Point? I guess when I head down to the Bass Pro in Toledo I'll go with the leaky fishing boat with the wheezy Evinrude and a clapped out 870 over the sailboat and dusty old Parker. Loose your arse on those.

P.S. Nobody cares what's in it for you, King.

_____________________________
Any Billy Bob that had some Cabella shares on Monday is eating at the Sizzler today. Nice change of pace from Arby's.

Not a question KB, a statement.

These merger/acquisition/buyout press releases are full of lies.

Copy such as 'dedicated to serving the outdoor sportsman' or 'growing the Cabela's brand' or 'retaining the wonderful people of Sidney, Nebraska' are just smoke in your face.

It's a corporate shakeup, brought on by 'under performance' of Cabela's of late. Note they are not losing money, just not making quite what their creditors and investors feel entitled to make. This makes them low hanging fruit for a streamlining merger.

Sidney is doomed. Prices at this new mega-chain will jump. People will lose jobs.

Economies of scale will still make it impossible for small operations to effectively compete. The big operations set the prices. If the Walmart experience has taught us anything, it's taught us that.

The future remains mail order, or to be more precise internet driven sales. Remember Cabela's bought Gander Mountain's mail order operation years ago. They do a lot of business that way and Bass Pro has never been price competitive with them. I suspect the prices will shortly be identical, and you can bet they will not be the lower of the two!

lonesome indirectly brings up an interesting question... with the recent financial suicide in the UK, has it now become feasible for Eley Hawk to find a US importer for shotshells?

I signed up for my first Cabela's Club Visa card in August-- took about 5 minutes at the customer service counter, got a $9k credit limit, which I will never use. So, for all you finance guys- what will happen to my account with Bass-Ass Pros taking over. I get a 9% interest charge on mdse I buy at any Cabela's-- no interest of course if I pay the balance due when I get my statement. Anyway BP can "screw me" over on this piece of plastic- my first ever. Like my late Dad and Grad-dad, I always paid in cash- CIF Grandfather called it-RWTF

Thanks Shotgun, lonesome and craig. I'm intriqued by speculation concerning shotshell benefits for US gunners from UK debacle. I'm loathe to say it because of political sensitivity but there may be a larger factor looming for UK-North America trade: a massive spike in the stock market if a certain person wins, pulling up the U.S. dollar, triggering a rate hike, and putting downward pressure on the Canadian dollar. If the other person wins market speculators say the US dollar will be worth a Canadian peso.

So, Oh Mighty King- which are which in the persons you mrntion, pray tell. Do the Canucks want to see Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump as the next POTUS of their neighbor and biggest trading partner. Do Cabelas or Bass-Ass Pro shops have any stores in Canada, or is their business mail order? Do tell-

The Fox who knows a lot about everything ventured sort of a prediction some time ago and, if truth be known, I was surprised our volatile membership didn't take him up on it. I think everyone here has the answer. No, Fox, I won't slip the dogs of war.

A cartoonist in our provincial newspaper pretty well summed up Canadian feelings, as I see it although James may disagree, with a map of the world showing every country in black and the US as white marked Undecided.

I think Canadians understand the warranted fear and pain in America that produced the Trump and Sanders phenomenon but would be more comfortable with Clinton (whom I distrust because the fear and pain will be forgotten when she's in).

Lots of Cabelas and Bass Pros in Canada, two within a couple hundred miles of my place in the sticks although the last one I gawked with Orphan Annie eyes was in the Cabelas in Louisville, Kentucky. Great place to visit if you have all you need.

I agree with Shotgunjones that things don't look good for Sidney. In any big merger, the acquiror is always looking for "synergies". There are revenue synergies and there are cost synergies. Cost synergies typically involve closing sites and laying off employees.

Prices at the combined company may go up in the short run. If so and if the higher prices last long enough, they will attract new market entrants who will seek to take advantage of the higher prices. This should lead to more competition and lower prices.

The Internet can be something of an equalizer. Razors are a good example. For years the market was dominated by Gillette and Schick and prices for the newest and best blades kept going up. Enter Internet companies like Dollar Shave Club and Harry's. Now I can get a month's supply of great blades shipped to me for about $4/mo and shipping is free.

Something that has not happened, in our particular area of interest: Dealers in high end shotguns have not suffered from the competition offered by Cabela's and Bass Pro. And I don't see the merger having any impact on that. Too many stores; not enough Gun Library personnel who specialize in high end shotguns (or collectible Winchesters or Colts, or any other similar niche in the firearms market). As noted previously, sometimes you can make very good buys because they underprice a high end double; sometimes you laugh when they overprice one. But if you've fooled around with doubles for very long and have developed the experience and knowledge of many who post here, you really appreciate dealing with people who know what they have--even if you end up paying only a fair price rather than walking out with a real bargain.

I am hoping that Cabela's retains its 5% military discount. If you do find a higher end gun at an attractive price, that's just a bit more icing on the cake.

The "Fox who knows a lot about everything" sounds a bit like "damning with faint praise", at least to this Reynard. I know a bit about certain things, at age 75- and you are correct, oh Mighty King, there is a great deal of vitrol extant here and on other gun related websites as well.

I view the Canucks as being provincial, although your new PM is indeed a force majeur in today's world, as is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, IMO anyway. As your Dominion is restrictive on guns and especially handguns, and now it is required to have a valid passport for Americans to enter and exit Canada, well my last visit was to Calgary in July 1988- took a side trip to Banff as well, well worth the drive from the "Oiler City"-

What a do know a great deal about is welding and metallurgy, and what a know something about are L.C. Smiths, Winchester Model 12 and Model 70 , and some Colts- also the M-1 Garand. What I am interested in even though I do not have the college degree to enter the field- is architecture, literature and both art and music, classical music.

My favorite poem is "High Flight", written in 1941 by Canadian pilot John G. McGee Jr., my favorite paintings are: "The Astronomer by Vermeer and the Starry Night series (he painted two views by the bridge) by Van Gogh, My favorite book is "The Prince" by Machiavelli, and my favorite piece of classical music is Handel's "Messiah"-- there you go!!

That's interesting to hear of some of your favorite things Fox.

As you can see, some of King Brown's favorite things are blind allegiance to anti-gun politicians like Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama.



Naturally, King Brown is predicting the downfall of the United States if Trump should get elected. This is about as accurate as his prediction of the collapse of Great Britain upon leaving the EU in the recent Brexit referendum.

Note that I didn't take this thread off topic and into politics. King did that. I just wanted to set the record straight and point out his repeated anti-gun, anti-NRA, and anti-2nd Amendment leanings. In my opinion, it appears that undermining our gun rights is one of his favorite things. King thinks it is "volatile" to support the only pro-gun candidate in this election. Just what I'd expect from a good little Liberal Left soldier.

President Obama's popularity rating is pretty high now-a-days. Even a hammer looks pretty good when you stop hitting yourself on the head with it...Geo

Actually, the hammer probably looks terrible. Can a hammer have no clothes?

I guess it could be seen as condemned by faint praise, Fox. I meant it as a compliment, drawing on Isaiah Berlin's famous essay "The Hedgehog and the Fox." He got the idea from a Greek poet: "a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog one important thing."

An expanded and my edited version from Wikipedia: Berlin divides "writers and thinkers into two categories: hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of a single defining idea, and foxes, who draw on a wide variety of experiences and for whom the world cannot be boiled down to a single idea."

I'm a fox who's like a hedgehog knowing one thing for sure: Your posts are the most entertaining for me on the board. Probably because of your wide interests, and we share memories of the minutia of the same times. I think, as a feminist often advocating for women, you're hard on women (possibly for good reasons) and I'll take an early CZ over a Model 70 any time.

Canadians are provincial in the sense of a relatively small population trying to make a federation of strong, accommodating, inclusive community values. It's an experiment. As for border hassles, attribute them mostly to your homeland security. Gun laws are expressions of national will through our Parliament. With a tenth of your population, Canada projects only soft power.

Yes indeed, it sho 'nuff do. Especially with dat Ol' Kingfish, Mr. Slicky Willie givin' us de bell-ringin' endorsement of O'Bammy Care. All O'Bammy done cares 'bout be he golf game--

Are you a racist, Francis?

I bought some Red Army Standard ammo that was on sale there and also learned something I did not know. I found brand new fifteen shot Smith & Wesson 5946 pistol there. My friend told me they still make them for certain police departments. The price of $650 was very reasonable for brand new stainless steel gun with Trijicon night sights. Amazingly those guns cost the same in late nineties when they were offered for sale to the public.

Thought this was about Bass Pro and Cabelas. I was told recently via PM not to read threads that had RvL political content I was not interested in. Now you are making it impossible. Plenty of other sites to discuss how you think guns should be controlled or how absolute the 2dA is. Personal vendettas are childish and have no place on a scholarly discussion board. I'm asking you to take that stuff there and let this great board be the way it was. Failing that maybe settle it with percussion pistols at dawn......

Bob. Flintlock pistols are just way more sporting!

Sabres...Under the Oaks...at Dawn...

just ban them all and lets get back to discussing old guns, it does get tiring

I suggest the "rabble-rousers" be given a 30 day "Time-Out" with a clear statement that these types of personal attacks and political blather will not be tolerated.

As L.K stated "just ban them all and lets get back to discussing old guns, it does get tiring"

gold40

I think I saw a note in the business news today..."did Bass Pro waste 5.5 billion on Cabelas?"

The opinions here are very simple. There are conventional American views and King's socialist views. Nuff said.

I agree completely. Now the new owner has all these huge brick and mortar stores with their huge parking lots that have to be maintained and huge electric and heating bills and state and local real estate taxes pouring in and, I could go on and on. They'll be fire selling these stores to Walmart in a few years.

Yassah Boss, I sho 'nuff is. Grew up in the Queen City, which is not Deep Dixie, but close. Did Stateside training in the early 1960's in both VA and NC- say lots of Jim Crow signs-and in that era, both the Navy and the USMC relegated enlisted blacks to mess duties and orderly and sick bay details--I am also a mysognist, who believes in ERA as meaning Earned Run Average- nothing else- and that women since 1920 when they got to vote and shoved the load od crap that was Prohibition down America's thirsty throat, have Fubared more things of a political nature than you could ever dream of in a Stephen King scripted scenario. The blacks in America will never advance because the men do not take responsibility for the children they have fathered. Who do the blacks have for a role model in America.? Bill Cosby? Snoopy Doggy Style? WTF.

So you're a bigoted ignorant cracker?

No- crackers are rednecks found below the Mason-Dixon line mainly. I'm a bigoted Irish Mick Catholic--I lost 2 uncles to WW2- one on Dec 7th 1941, at Pearl Harbor, the other on Iwo Jima-- And my grandfather and my father would never own or use any Japanese made tools in their machine shop in Cinci--or hire any minorities in their day either. I don't like men who don't take the responsibility of fatherhood as they should, or raise generation and generation who believe welfare is a way of life. How's that grab ya?? RWTF