Cabela's gone downhill

It seems like since Bass Pro has bought out Cabela's that the store has gone downhill. Anybody else feel the same way ? getting ready for and Elk hunt and not much seems available on the website .

Ruined the store in my opinion. Got rid of many products I bought from Cabela's and replaced them with Basspro brand. Prices are still just as high. Personal there has also told me I wasn't the only one looking for something that they axed in the change over. Might as well change the name on the front to Basspro

As soon as Bass Pro took over I quit buying from Cabelas it’s not the same anymore!

There is no Cabelas, it is history, dead, gone with the wind, Bass Pro will continue to use the name just like Cabelas kept the Herter's name as a brand for second tier stuff. We know the Cabelas name will be one step down from the BP brand, that's just how it works.
The Cabela's stores were a failure and the BP guy bailed them out.
In any case it's a clothing store first and a boat store second, any other outdoor products are just peripheral. You can cut out the middle man and buy direct from China by going to ebay or amazon.

We'll any time you take something from Nebraska and then put it in the hands of non Nebraskans, you've got to expect it to go down hill.

Shortly after basspro bought them out my local cabelas cut their stock of guns by more than a quarter. They barely carry anything decent anymore

As a company,, it was on a death spiral before they were purchased.

?? I never heard that before

When BP bought Cabelas it all made a downward turn

Factor in much of their product is probably made in China and the delays everyone is having with getting stuff from there and here you are

They opened a Scheels about 150mi away, need to go visit the wife's sister's family will ulterior motive of going to Scheels to check them out

Cabelas was in great shape when it was private owned. After they took it public, they quit focusing on customer service and more on profits. That's when the death spiral started.

Good Plan!

I rarely go to Cabela's. Maybe once every 3-4 years. I have relation that works there and gave me discount tickets all the time. If it wasn't for that I would of stopped going after my 1st visit.


They seem to be staffed with sales people that have narrow interests inn the outdoor world and that reflects on sales help.


I do mostly fly fishing. Their Fly Fishing dept was staffed with people who knew nothing about fly fishing.
Consequently they are of no help for someone wanting to get into the sport. And for someone who already knows what they are looking for they had a poor selection of stuff.
Mostly low end stuff.

I had no reason to go to Cabela's. There are much better stores with very knowledgeable staff in the area or much better selection of stuff on line.

I haven't been in the place since they sold out so I can't comment if they are worse, which is hard to imagine.

Yup, they ruined a once great store. It used to be that if you had something with the Cabelas name on it, it was top of the line. Some of the best stuff out there. Now it's Chinese junk like everything else. The selection in the stores sucks also. They have no inventory anymore. I've had a MEC 20GA reloader on backorder now since spring! I placed an order for fishing lures and some other things a few weeks ago and half of that is on backorder! BPS completely ruined Cabelas.

Anything made in the U.S.A. yet?

I used to buy so much from Cabela's that they would send hardbound catalogs for spring, summer, fall and winter. Now I hardly ever buy anything there now. I took a survey and I told them to bring back the old Cabela's.

Garryowen

Basspro fits the Florida/Georgia line type of (country) folks that spend $ there. I'm an academy guy

Our local Scheels is excellent, would highly recommend checking it out if it is anything like the one near me.

The Rapid City store is trash. Nothing but a camouflage clothing store in my opinion.

I have a $300.00 gift card that I can't seem to spend. The last two times I was at the store they made me so mad I left without spending it. The first time, the little gun counter punk tells me they never had and leupold doesn't make the scope I was looking for. The next time I had found a gun I wanted that was at a good discount. The website showed in instock at the store. I called them, they had it at the store and would hold one for me. Drove there (1.5 hr) and nobody there can find it and they don't have any. Haven't had any for days. Pulled up their website on the phone and it showed instock at the store. So I call the store, from inside the store and ask if they have it instock. Yep we got em. I say great, let me pass you over to your clerk at the gun counter. I over hear them argue and the gun counter guy says "the sale stock is gone and we can't sell the others until next week when the sale is over". I asked for my phone back and called them a bunch of cheating lying sob's. I am at the point that I am about to just ask to cash it out.

Gun Nut

I went to Cabela’s last weekend to buy a few more trail cameras. Their selection was so crappy I didn’t buy any. They didn’t have any moultries, and the only stealth cams they had were the cheap 2 pack ones. Only one camera was on sale and it was not the ones I was interested in.

So, I went to the fishing aisle to check out their rods. They had about 3 rows of the cheapest ugliest green and orange rods you could find.
Then they had 2 rows of expensive rods. Nothing in the middle.

Thank God for Canadian Tire!

Cabela's website is poorly designed and frustrating. A few weeks ago, I was looking up ammo availability (yeah, I know). If I would search by "Cartridge or Gauge" search fields, a number of choices of ammo would appear, but would not indicate if they were available. For each one, I had to click on the specific box or product to go to a page for it - where I would again have to select from a menu to indicate "Cartridge or Gauge" even though that is what I searched for initially. When those results came up, I had to scroll to the bottom of the next screen to see that it was out of stock everywhere. And so it went for every type of ammo. Three pages in for each one just to find out it's not available. Each item, one at a time. I got sick of that process and called their customer service and asked the guy if he could tell if any of a list of types of ammo were available. I thought maybe they could just give me the scoop and save me some time. After I sat on the line listening to silence for a while, I realized that the customer service guy was going through the same steps as I was! I asked him to pass along a request that they show availability on the first results page when you search for a specific type of ammo.

Other sites are much easier, and at least if you're going to hit a dead end with availability, you hit it quickly and move on!

Had points to burn up so called to place my order in person since I couldn't figure out how to apply them on line. Everything I wanted was sold out even though their web site said it was available. Finally managed to put an order together after making a second call. Very frustrating. Did the survey and did not give them raving reviews, not like that's going to change anything. Quality has dropped considerably and now that my points have been used up, I see no reason to go back.

Oh yeah, that's right! 20scout just reminded me - at the bottom of the pages, there was a notice that they had just updated their site and asked if you would take a survey and give them feedback. I clicked it and the link didn't work! I tried that a few times before I called.

The first time my boys went into a Bass Pro, one remarked: "Dad, it's kinda like Cabela's, only instead of deer heads, it has stuffed 'possums....."

That is good to know! I am in town and had planned to stop there. You saved me some time.

Every time a GOOD COMPANY goes CORPORATE everything seems to got downhill fast! PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT! Financial people get involved that have no idea what the business is really about anymore. The bigger the CORP the worse they get, IMO. $$$$$$.

My Cabelas hear in WNY just started carrying trapping supplies last year. Its nice to have a isle dedicated for trapping. Now for the Archery department.......lets just say you get what you pay for.

Bass Pro ruined Cabelas

Cabela's downhill slide started immediately after they listed IMO. The recent changes implemented by BPS have only hastened the spiral into mediocrity. It's a shame.

Their gun selection is awesome, they have lots of ammo,reloading stuff , quality camp gear and fishing lures like no other place. Sure, 2/3's of the store is clothes but the rest is solid hunting, fishing and shooting. I quite like the store. Next time there, take a right from the cashiers, past the shoes and if you cannot find a gun that suits you, good luck anywhere else.

I kind of like Sportsman's Warehouse. We have one an hour and a half from here I go to sometimes. Seem more reasonably priced than Cabela's does I think.

https://www.sportsmans.com/

I have ordered fishing lures from Bass pro/Cabelas a couple times lately. The orders have all arrived over the course of a week with a 10 item order shipped in three separate mailings each time. Free shipping but they can't be making a lot of money pulling items from all their different warehouses to fill orders IMO!

Chris

exactly how C's was before BP!!

This was true both before and after BP, although the area is a little smaller now with less stuff that we wouldn't buy. Two outstanding fly shops within easy drives that are owned/operated by great fly anglers. The gun people both at the old C's and the BP C's don't have a clue about black powder or even if the accessories they stock are appropriate for the use.

Cabela's built a very extravagant upscale store near me about three years before the sell out, and I probably spent 300 hours walking around in there trying to spent about $50-75 in gift cards from the kids and grand kids, finally just went on line and ordered fishing flies that I would never had bought otherwise, it was an overpriced clothing store long before BP stepped in to rescue the stockholders.
So a couple years go by and I've walked through that store a couple dozen more times without finding anything worth buying at their outrageous prices, and they had a fly rod on sale that I bought, fished with one day and returned for full refund. That full refund policy was the only thing Cabela's had going for them and no doubt added to their overall fiscal problems.
The only thing I've bought there since it became BP is some Hot Sauce reel oil and grease.

The fact they even built here is indicative of either poor business sense or what I believe was an early outreach to a Bass Pro offer.
This market is not upscale, this is Walmart's home town.... This store is an hour and a half from Bass Pro's hometown and anyone wanting that kind of experience just goes to Springfield.
Academy (upscale for this market) just up the road was selling clothing obviously made in the same shop as Cabela's for 30% less.

I walked through there a few days and the store still sucks just as bad as it did when it was Cabela's.
IMO, anyone who thinks C's was anything better before Bass pro is either living in the far away past or holding hands with Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Bass Pro though has gone down hill ever since they started having stores in every town, or maybe it was when they got the online store, any way nothing is the same as it was back in the '60s.