is a
Sidney, Nebraska -based direct marketer and specialty retailer of
Hunting ,
Fishing ,
Camping and related outdoor merchandise. Its
Direct Marketing operation is one of the largest in the
United States . The company went public in
2004 , with that fiscal year's revenue reaching $1.56 billion, a 50% growth since
2001 .
Cabela's
Mail-order Catalog s are shipped to all 50
States and 120
Countries . More than 120 million catalogs were mailed in its first year as a public company.
Cabela's has a distinctive look to their
Retail operations, a look which turns them into
Tourist Attractions as well as
Retail Stores . The stores are more like cavernous
Showroom s, bringing the outdoors inside. They feature museum-quality displays of taxidermied
Wildlife , large
Aquarium s, indoor mountains, and
Archery ranges. The success of the format is illustrated by the company's
Kansas City, Kansas store, over 180,000 square feet, which attracted more than four million customer visits in a recent year. Currently, the largest Cabela's retail facility is in
Hamburg, Pennsylvania , with more than 250,000 square feet of floor space. In 2007, Cabela's purchased family owned S.I.R. Warehouse Sports Store in
Winnipeg, Manitoba . The Winnipeg location will serve as the Canadian headquarters. The company has also announced that its largest store will be constructed in
Canada . This location will be a part of the 14 million square foot
Lac Mirabel project , which will include 2.2 million square feet of retail space, and could open as early as 2008 Cabela's Montreal store Press Release[http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/community/aboutus/retail-detail.jsp?detailedInformationURL=/cabelas/en/content/community/aboutus/retail/retail_stores/montreal/montreal_press.html].
The 75,000-square-foot store just off
Interstate 80 on the southern edge of Sidney illustrates some of the elements. The big big grounds include a 3 1/2-acre pond and two bronze double-life-size bull
Elk on one side of the building. Inside, moss rock pillars hold trophy elks of huge proportions. A 27-foot-tall replica of a mountain is framed in a 48-foot mural of blue sky. The mountain is covered with 40 lifelike game trophies and features a
Waterfall that splits at the base into two
Pond s. Suspended in the air between the entryway and the mountain is a flock of
Taxidermic Canada Geese .
Other attractions in their retail
Showroom s include a restaurant, a gun library, where one can see the epitome of the gunmaker's art, and a travel service, where customers can plan trips to anywhere in the world.
In order of opening:
The company began in , he ran an ad in the back of ''
Sports Afield '' magazine, offering, "FREE Introductory offer! 5 hand tied Flies...25 cents Postage..."
In typical direct-mail style, each order was mailed with a mimeographed
Catalog of outdoor items Dick and his wife, Mary, added to their product line. In the beginning, Dick and Mary worked at the kitchen table of their home in Chappell. Continued success made the company a full-time operation by the fall of
1962 .
Shortly after incorporation in
1965 , it became apparent a larger facility was needed. So, the business moved across the street to a former
USDA building. Then, in
1967 , the USDA building was traded for the American Legion Hall in Chappell. This building served as company headquarters and housed offices, warehousing and a small retail product display in a corner.
The company expanded in
1968 , moving 30 miles west of Chappell to a 50,000-square-foot building near downtown
Sidney . The next major phase of expansion was in the mid-
1980s , when a former
Rockwell International plant in
Kearney was acquired and in
1986 became home to
Telemarketing operations as well as a second retail store.
During
1996 , Cabela's built a distribution facility in
Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin , with more than 600,000 square feet. It added to this in
1998 with a 40,000-square-foot retail store adjacent to Cabela's distribution center in Prairie du Chien, and added a third distribution center in
2003 alongside a new retail store in
Wheeling, West Virginia .
In January 1998, employees moved out of the original Sidney headquarters building into a new 120,000-square-foot world headquarters building adjacent to the retail showroom. The two-story building, which is large enough to fit a football field on each floor, houses offices for nearly 500 employees.
Other Nebraska communities have also benefitted by Cabela's expansion. There is an additional telemarketing facility in
Grand Island , a customer-service center in
North Platte and a returns facility in
Oshkosh . In 2001, the company created a
Bank ,
World's Foremost Bank , to facilitate its
Credit Card operations; the bank is headquartered in Sidney and operates from
Lincoln .
In the late
1990s , Cabela's began a period of rapid expansion of its retail stores. The company, which only had two retail stores in
1997 , opened 12 stores between
1998 and
2005 . By
2008 , at least 11 additional stores are expected to open.
Recent Cabela's stores are generally the anchors of large retail developments. The Fort Worth store, for example, was built on a fifty-acre site at the interchange of
Texas Highway 170 and
Interstate 35W . The Buda store has as many as 500 employees and anchors a 126-acre development at the interchange of
Interstate 35 and
Texas Loop 4 , approximately 15 miles south of Austin.
The development, due to open in early 2007 in Reno, Nevada, will be built in Boomtown Resort, a fully operational hotel and casino. This will be a new experiment, with a hotel and casino alongside a 185,000 sq. foot Cabela's.
Cabela's is a Presenting Sponsor of the 1,049+ $1,000 gift certificate. Cabela's hosts a website on the race, and for several years they have been providing extensive daily news coverage both during and prior to the race.
Some of Cabela's competitors based in the US include,
R.E.I. ,
Bass Pro Shops ,
Eastern Mountain Sports ,
Gander Mountain ,
L. L. Bean ,
Sierra Trading Post ,
Campmor , Sport Chalet, and Sportman's Warehouse, as well as national sporting goods retailers such as
Sports Authority ,
Big 5 Sporting Goods , and
Dick's Sporting Goods , web retailers such as
Moosejaw.com , Altrec.com and
Backcountry.com , and a host of local independent retailers.
Cabela's has produced several television series, they are called Cabela's Outfitter Journal, and Cabela's Memories in the Field. They broadcast on
WildTV and The Outdoor Channel and available for download at
MoboVivo .
Cabela's have produced several video games for many video game platforms, including
Cabela's Big Game Hunts , Cabela's Dangerous Hunts
1 &
2 ,
Cabela's African Safari ,
Cabela's Outdoor Adventures and more. All these games feature life-like hunting experiences and features.
: ''See .''
