Personal op; Cabelas invested in too much square footage that translates into overhead. With much fewer anchor stores and a continued robust mail order business based from that, and I believe this story would have had a happy ending.
Similar with Gander Mountain. Still have the best down jacket I’ve ever had that I bought mail order on sale for IIRC $39.95 about 25 years ago. Cami Fleece and nylon. And still in great shape. But they expanded brick & mortar when that product was on the downturn. One was built within a few miles of our home no more than 10 years ago and never matched the quality of clothing and most gear I had become accustomed to by mail order. I’m sure that mail order quality was matched in their much fewer anchor stores. Now they did have a good line of fishing gear I had never been exposed to but it didn’t make up for the reduction in quality and increase in price of most other of their lines. Plus whoever picked this retail location was penny wise and dollar foolish. Looked good at a glance. But the population demographics just didn’t match a monstrous retail facility. Lots of people, just not the right kind. And though they tried to be Firearms Central their prices sometimes bordered on foolish. Then a few years back bought by a travel trailer company and there standing alone, another empty big box.
Overhead kills.
“When Tyranny becomes Law, Rebellion becomes Duty”
Colossians 3:17 (New King James Version)
"And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
| 
