From Tying Flies to Flying High
Cabela’s Inc., the World’s Foremost Outfitter,
is a classic American success story.
The 32-year-old company, founded by a Nebraska couple in their home,
has grown into one of the world’s largest outdoor equipment suppliers.
The year was 1961, and with a small advertisement in a Casper, Wyoming, newspaper offering "12 hand-tied flies for $1," Dick and Mary Cabela started a thriving mail order and retail sporting goods business from their home in Chappell, Nebraska. The Cabelas were hooked.
The mail order business was run from the Cabelas’ kitchen table
and a small shed in their backyard was the first "warehouse." In 1964 the
business moved to the basement of Dick Cabela’s father’s furniture store. Two
years later the still growing business moved into the Chappell Legion Hall, and in 1965
the mail order business incorporated. As time went on, they continued to reel in more and
more business.
The growing volume made it necessary to move again in 1968, so the Cabelas purchased the 50,000-square-foot John Deere building in Sidney, Nebraska. In the mid-1980s Cabela’s Inc. acquired the Rockwell International plant in Kearney, Nebraska. Work on the Sidney store began in 1990 and the store opened for business one year later.
30 Years Later, 50 Million Catalogs
During 1990, Cabela’s acquired three buildings for warehouse operations on the former Sioux Ordinance Depot grounds. By 1991, Cabela’s had grown to well over 1,000 employees, with 50 million catalogs mailed annually all over the world. In 1992 another five depot buildings were acquired. Currently the firm’s Sidney warehouse space equals 10 football fields.
The Sidney store encompasses 75,000 square feet, of which 50,000 feet is devoted to retail space, a sandwich shop, an art gallery, and a 27-foot-tall "mountain" displaying 40 wildlife mounts from across North America. This building also features four 2,000-gallon aquariums stocked with trout, panfish, game fish, and predator species. The site also includes a 3.5 acre pond.
Since its opening the Sidney store has become a destination spot for outdoor enthusiasts. At times as many as 35 different states are represented by license plates on the vehicles in the parking lot. While the retail store volumes are impressive, the company’s catalog sales operation is the mainstay. The "800 Service Center" in Kearney is the heart of the catalog sales, where 150 operators work the telephones seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The busy Christmas season sees this number double. The catalog sales center receives two million calls annually. In December of 1992, the company logged more than 35,000 telephone orders in one 24-hour period.
A Megastore Opens in Minnesota
In April of 1998, Cabela’s opened a 150,000-square-foot store in Owatonna, Minnesota, 45 minutes south of Minneapolis on I-35. More than 100,000 square feet is retail space, and the facility uses 40 acres of a 200-acre site. The lodgepole pine logs used in construction were harvested from trees damaged by the 1994 Little Wolf Creek forest fire in Montana. Construction of the largest fishing, hunting and outdoor gear retail store in the midwest required more than 700 tons of Minnesota field stone, picked by hand, to cover the facility. The site also contains two ponds, each covering two acres, which are accessible from walking paths throughout the landscaped grounds. This store houses an educational center, a 35-foot-high, 98-foot-deep and 88-foot-wide mountain complete with streams, waterfalls, and authentic wilderness sound effects, a live bait shop, a kennel area, and an interactive laser-based firearms and archery training system (FATS). Three gigantic aquariums hold 54,000 gallons of water collectively and are stocked with Minnesota fish, mostly caught by Cabela’s employees.
The ceiling height is 55 feet above the floor, to accommodate the aesthetic elements. Natural atrium lighting and an open-air decor was implemented to bring the outdoor experience indoors. Neilsen-Mayne Architecture of Omaha, Nebraska served as the project’s architect, and Kraus-Anderson Construction Co. of Circle Plains, Minnesota, was the general contractor.
This new store has everything the outdoor sportsmen could
want, including fishing kiosks with interactive touchscreen displays; two habitat dioramas of African wildlife; an area called the Bargain Cave
featuring returned and discontinued merchandise; a gun library, where high-quality, rare
and sought-after firearms are displayed; a gunsmith shop; an outdoor adventure and travel
service; an art gallery; a three-times-life-size bronze sculpture of two whitetail bucks,
by Dick Idol; a gift shop, and a grand staircase leading to the second floor where a
park-like 125-seat restaurant overlooks the mountain and store below. The site includes a
parking lot for 750 cars, 84 tractor-trailer rigs or vehicles with trailers, plus
additional space for buses. Even parking for dogs is included individual kennels with
shade and water in season so dogs don’t have to stay in a vehicle while their
owners are in the store.
Next to the new Cabela’s store, a 160-acre commercial site has been proposed, including a museum with a collection of antique trains, airplanes and cars, restaurants and motels, a truck plaza and a recreational vehicle resort and campground.
Cabela’s opened a catalog showroom in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin during October. The 50,000-square-foot retail facility is adjacent to its 600,000-square-foot distribution center. This store houses a 28-foot mountain and a special catalog order area, as well as other museum-like displays, including an 8,000-gallon aquarium stocked with fish native to the area. Parking for all stores includes areas for for semi-trucks, buses and recreational vehicles.
It is easy to see why the retail stores in themselves will become destination stores for anyone who has ever picked up a pole or camped or even thought about doing so. The store itself is the major draw.
The Owattonna store continues to shatter national retail customer records and in June less than three months after opening the store celebrated its one millionth customer.
Future Cabela’s sites will be based on the same design as the Owattonna and Sidney stores, assuring that each will be a destination site in itself. Future locations and number of units were not released by the company. For information on the company or to propose a site, write to Dick Cabela or Jim Cabela, 1 Cabela Drive, Sidney, NE, 69160, or visit http://www.cabelas.com.