I bought my first shotgun at the Sydney Cabelas in the mid-80's. I bought a lot of stuff from Cabelas since, then, too. I always stopped at Cabelas whenever I happened to be close to one. Cabelas was the first place I looked whenever I needed something. They always had lots of good stuff at very fair prices, and the Cabelas house-brand was always a great value.
Now I drive by two stores in my area all the time and don't even think about stopping in. In fact, Cabelas would pretty much be the last place I ever stopped if I needed hunting/fishing/camping gear.
I've switched over to Sportsman's Warehouse and Scheels for my brick and mortar outlets.
Its the end of an era.
This exactly.
100 percent agree. I can remember as a kid getting the Cabelas “big book” catalog and loving it. The first store I went to was Owatonna, MN on a family Vacation to a Twins game. We stopped at other stores when traveling and bought 90 percent of our hunting and camping stuff from them. Especially when one was built in Mitchell friends and I would go there for sale events.
Now I live 20 minutes from the Rapid City store and go there only as a last resort. I go to Scheels most of the time. I really enjoy Sportsman’s Warehouse but the closest to me is in Gillette.
I bought a used 6CM from Cabelas Gun Library this spring. All went fine until I went to pick it up and they couldn’t find it. They eventually did but what should’ve been a 30 minute deal took 90.
