Cabela's
Cabela's started out as a premier mail-order source for hunting gear. It is still known for that, but its coverage has expanded far beyond hunting, far beyond camping, to include anything remotely connected to the outdoors. Its pages overflow with boating tools, trailer hitches, smokers, meat processing equipment, kayaking stuff, binoculars, remote cameras, tent gadgets, tons of clothes, pet gear, RV supplies, and so on. The range of tools sold is staggering. It is a catalog of outdoor aspirations. In general the stuff they sell works as advertised, so one can use them as a pretty good guide to what's useful.
Candid customer reviews of purchased items makes shopping at the Cabela's website almost as good as Amazon's. But you really should get your hands on their 500-page master paper catalog. No one is as keen on web shopping as I am, but the Cabela's master catalog is prime evidence that sometimes a big fat paper book is better. You cannot grasp the totality of what Cabela's has to offer on its website, nor can you zip through it in browse mode as you can while flipping through its 500 crammed pages. It would take days to do the same on the web, and you'd still miss stuff.
A big fat paper catalog can be a big environmental waste mailed out each season. Cabela's has engineered an interesting experiment wherein they display scans of the catalog pages with embedded links to the online item. You get the browsability of the paper catalog and the convenience of web ordering. What you don't get is speed. This method is currently too slow to be enjoyable, but it is a handy option. I still take the paper version.
-- KK
Favorite (15)
Bradley Zebal
Yeah, they have a lot of stuff, but they send out tons of needless stuff -- huge catalogs several times a year. I have gone through all of my "stop the catalogs" web services, and they refuse to stop sending catalogs. This lack of commitment to the environment and disregard to "customers" is why I will NEVER buy an item from Cabela's. It is NOT a cool tool.
Tim
They do have a lot of cool stuff. And if you happen to pass by one of their stores, be sure to stop in--it is an experience. Just be sure to have lots of time as their stores tend to be pretty big.
Steve Portigal
Yes, I'm with Tim, it's a fascinating experience to visit the store. More dead animals in frozen heroic poses than you can imagine.
My photos from a visit are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveportigal/sets/72157604109498281/
Dave
Cabela's use and abuse of TIFs is much written about. I might not be able to control abusive government spending, but I can control my own. I would not support such a company.
Michael McMillan
TIF = tax increment financing
aah, you are upset about the retail end of the store receiving tax incentives from the cities that the store is going to move into.
It looks like the company wants to move into an area with say 15 cities, The company then asks each city if it can receive some incentive to move to that city giving that city some of it's sales tax revenue. The city which gives the company the best deal gets a store.
Your complaint is that the company is requesting and receiving an incentives.
Michael McMillan
I like the catalogs, I rarely buy anything from the catalog, but I can look at it to see the proper way to say design a cart, or how to mount an axle to a lowered floor cart. or a good way to make a tool handle. I will often see the design for a tool, and then go to home depot to buy some 2x4s, bolts, and a couple of wheels to build the tool that I need to get the job done.
I think that I have bought boot covers from them, and an snow saw for making an igloo in the winter mostly following the instructions in the american boys handy book.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Boys-Handy-Book-Centennial/dp/0879234490
(I have also caught birds and squirrels with those instructions, though I released them later)
Jo
If you enjoy Cabela's (and I echo visiting their stores) I'd recommend the Duluth Trading Company Catalog too. They have less merch, but it's always great quality and very useful. I find their clothing is much better made than Cabela's, too, especially work and outdoor stuff. For women's outdoor & work items, they are my only go-to place (and I work in the oil patch.)
More though, I love their penchant for offering things like the "denim presentation jacket" so you don't have to "leave your blue jean roots behind." Or the "No ouch when your crouch" jeans, described as: "First and foremost, the added comfort of our F.O.M.™ (freedom of movement) crotch gusset, so they don't feel too tight when you bend, stoop or squat." ha! Now that's useful.
http://www.duluthtrading.com/
John
***Your complaint is that the company is requesting and receiving an incentives.***
That is over simplifying it. The incentives offered to Cabela's are not offered to local businesses that have been employers and tax payers for years and sometimes generations in effect giving them an unfair advantage. Cabela's gets to write off the sales tax (or collect it and keep it) which is in effect a tax increase on the local residents while losing long time businesses. I don't support them or WalMart because of these predatory practices. Our local leaders need to get off the bandwagon and just say no.
dumbwhore
Not to mention, you can't take the web page with you to the can. I love Cabela's catalog and every few Christmases I buy all my gifts there. Thanks for the link to the Master Catalog request!
David H.
I'm with Jo @ 7, Duluth Trading Company (http://www.duluthtrading.com/) is chock full of "Cool Tools" :)
Frank de Paola
On their website they show men's desert boots and refer to the boots worn by British officers in Africa in WW2. I ordered a pair and discovered they were as hard as rocks cheapo Chinese boots not at all like the Clark's Desert Boots they hinted at so strongly in their ad copy. I returned tham at my expense and found a $7.50 "restocking" charge deducted from my credir card credit. Buy with extreme caution from their site or catalog. Their ad copy is misleading and their quality often sucks.
paulie
I'm with Dave #4 and John #8:
David Kay Johnston's Perfectly Legal has a chapter on Cabela's that turned me off forever.
joe s
Cabela's actually started out as a furniture store. Ask any TV watcher from 1970's Nebraska. Fine viewing.
tao1214
Hello, just to let you know that the Cabela's catalog is not available and costs $9.95. See the customer service response to my inquiry:
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Thank you for your recent email. We randomly send out a set few of those at the beginning of each season. I would recommend calling 1-800-237-4444 and placing and order for one over the phone with our call center associates. The master catalog costs $9.95.