Problems with Bass Pro Shops/Cabela's

I went to a Cabela's store last week. I was very surprised that many of the shelves throughout the store were empty. I wonder if they are having problems or is it just due to the Covid. I don't see the same in other stores...
 
I have another weird experience with Bass Pro: looking at the website for the American Hunter Magpul Stock. They say they only have it in Tan Color and not in stock in any store. Well, I was stopping by one yesterday had to kill some time and went in the store, and yes they have the Item in the shelf, 4 times, and none of them is Tan, they all black.
Checked again on the website, it says no stock, only in Tan can only be shipped.
They really become strange.
 
badkarma6 said:
Has anyone else recently experienced problems when ordering items from Bass Pro Shops or Cabela's? In the past month, I have made 2 orders on Cabela's and one order on Bass Pro Shops and every time, I have had part of my order canceled. Twice they have canceled an order for ammunition, once for a pair of shoes and once for a trail camera. Each time, the website reflects that the item is in stock and available to ship and about 12-24hr later, I receive an email saying my order is canceled. They don't delay the order in an effort to restock the item or source it form a 3rd party vendor, they just cancel on you. If you contact customer service via phone they just say, "sorry, we ran out." If you email, you get no response.

I'm done with them at this point. The internet gives me too many options of vendors who can perform basic retail functions like accurately reflecting inventory available for purchase. This may sound stupid but it kind of breaks my heart. As a kid, I use to get so excited for the Cabela's catalog to come and now I feel like the store is just trash. I feel like both stores have declined significantly since merging. I have a local Cabela's store in Gainesville, VA, and the customer service there is terrible. I spoke to a salesman once about a rifle and he was nothing short of a total jerk who acted like he was too busy to answer my questions about a rifle. Anybody else experiencing similar issues?
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They have the ammo my gun loves, tried to order four, got two delivered. I guess I should call myself lucky
 
I think some slack has to be cut because of Covid. I cannot recall ever having trouble with orders from them, but I have only purchased ammo once (they were the only place I could find 7mm-08 that was even close to reasonable), and guns never. Usually use local stores for firearms and ammo, thought the local gun shops are all "nonessential" here in New Mexico. Big box stores like Cabelas and Sportsmans are, however, open.
 
Dave N said:
I want to break those stupid cork pop guns over the parent's head when they let their kids run around popping them as fast as they can!
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I am sure there are a few employees that work there that feel the same way you do, Dave. I can't imagine trying to work there and have to hear that "popping" all day long.
 
FTF customer service was fair in our local store before the BP buyout, it's gotten horrible since then. I had hope for their online ordering system before this December...but now I wait for an item that I ordered, paid for, and their system indicates shipped to their local store on 15 Dec. Nobody has any idea where it is, just that it's on its way and I'll be notified when it arrives in the store.
 
Slate said:
I haven’t bought anything from Cabela’s in several years. Find stuff for better prices other places. Just cancelled my Cabela’s card also.
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It's a shame but I am headed in the same direction. I have a ton of points on my card but anymore they have NOTHING I want aside from ammo and they don't even have that anymore. Cabelas, BassPro and now Sportsman have all combined under the Outdoor Brands flag with a last ditch effort to save 1 or all of them. They are headed in the direction of Sears and JCPenny. Unable to adapt to the age of on-line with any effectiveness or efficiency, charge way to much fro products in order to keep up the retail overhead and can't seem to keep a handle on inventory. Unless they adapt FAST we won't be seeing any of them in 5 years. Way too much competition and online vendors to waist your time anymore going into a Cabelas or the like. Kind of sad. I remember the catalogs I use to love in the 80's. Now you cringe when you receive one in the mail because you just think of the waist and the price hike required to keep those catalogs alive.
 
All these outfits have went crazy with brick and mortar stores while shoppers continue to do more and more online shopping. Cabelas would have been better served to put their weight behind building a online presence instead of building destination stores.
 
Cabelas and Bass Pro are shopping experiences. People are expecting too much if they think they will get everything you want in one retail location.

You can’t go to another outdoor related store and be surrounded by the display of outdoor gear and ambiance. Sportsman’s doesn’t have that and neither does Scheels.

Where anyone sees that Scheels provides anything more than Cabelas is only true if you want to see soccer balls and baseball mitts. Trying to see a handgun through their spread steel display cabinets is a vision nightmare.

Certainly, Cabelas isn’t what they were before the BP buyout, but I don’t go there to buy much as it is only a MSRP retail location with a few guys in the gun library with safari shirts that act like they know what they are doing.

They are all a retail disappointment, but I like walking around in their big stores to see the high ceilings and displays of animals and airplanes. Then I go to gun shows or the internet and get what I want.

I ordered a Lyman Turbo tumbler from Larry at Midway last Monday and it was on my porch before Christmas. Retail had better wake up to the ease and efficiency of the internet or they will go the way of the dinosaur and only be talked about as they fade into history.
 
shrapnel said:
Where anyone sees that Scheels provides anything more than Cabelas is only true if you want to see soccer balls and baseball mitts. Trying to see a handgun through their spread steel display cabinets is a vision nightmare
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Couldnt be further from the truth imo, scheels sells quality and in my experience has some of the most helpful and knowledgeable staff I've ever experienced that's what sets them miles apart. So what if I have to walk through the soccer ball section to get to my part of the store. At least when I get there they'll have what I'm looking for and if I have a question not only are they willing to help they actually have a clue. Can't say that for cabelas or BP, but hey you get to look at a bunch of dusty old mounts and a fish tank.
 
Hum. The sheels closest to me has has a huge fish tank, mountain full of mounts, and a working ferris wheel inside the store. It's a cabelas on steriods.
 
nick87 said:
At least when I get there they'll have what I'm looking for and if I have a question not only are they willing to help they actually have a clue. Can't say that for cabelas or BP,
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I think the reason most informed outdoors-people get unhappy with CAB/BP/SW/Scheels, et al is this.

It used to be pretty common to have knowledgeable folks in those stores. Either full time or moonlighters that grabbed a few weekend/evening shifts for the discount. that model just doesn’t really exist any more for a host of reasons, some societal (Retail is a tough gig to stretch full time into a livable income) and others from an explosion of choices for supplemental income.

Anecdote: In college, I needed a job. I loved to fish and hunt. I got a job as a cashier/general help at Madison’s local large independent outdoor store (Steve Gerhardts- we were basically the size of a small format Sportsmans Warehouse). Our GM was a lifelong Merchant that knew retail. there were another 4-5 full time guys and twice as many part-time employees that more or less spent their paychecks on gear (at wholesale + 5%) or, in my case, a little gear but lots of rent, cheap beer and $3 pizza Every single guy in that store was an expert at something.

Then Gander opened my senior year. Within a year, we had to close the wildlife art gallery/birding section. Within another year, all the part timers were gone. 2 more years, the store was gone. Basically the same as the fate of my childhood outdoor store (Burger Brothers in MN). I think 1 of our team went to Gander for a while, but that was it.

it’s gotten harder and harder to get consumers to pay anything extra for ‘expertise’ at retail.
 
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