Cabelas coming to Erie!

jreichel

jreichel

Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
Messages
174
News is that Cabelas is looking at property in Millcreek behind Buffalo Wild Wings. They would like to be open by Thanksgiving. Sadly they are talking about a small store (40,000 sqf) but small is better than nothing!
 
Its nice for the hunting/gun aspect but could care less about fly fishing. If your in Erie, check out Lake Erie Ultimate Angler, awesome fly shop, Steve is a good guy and will help you out. Support your locals!
 
krott243 wrote:
Its nice for the hunting/gun aspect but could care less about fly fishing. If your in Erie, check out Lake Erie Ultimate Angler, awesome fly shop, Steve is a good guy and will help you out. Support your locals!
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+1, don't forget about the local shop. Those guys have always been really good to me.

Thanks for the heads up Jeff. I'd definitely check out Cabelas but I'll keep getting my supplies at Ultimate Angler
 
I have spent money in all the local shops (Ultimate Angler, Folly's etc.). But I also do some business with Cabelas as they can fill a budgetary niche for a guy on a very limited one! Like the President I like to spread the wealth around! =:~}
 
Pretty sure thats not a Cabelas.
 
I go to the Cabelas in Hamburg regularly, great store! Hard to believe they could build and get going in just 8 month's?


Good luck, Tony
 
A 40,000 square foot cabelas? That would be odd. I doubt its a cabelas, would be totally opposite of every store they have built. Maybe i will be proven wrong, but i doubt its a cabelas.
 
It will be the smallest Cabelas store. See for your self.

http://www.erietvnews.com/story/21791000/businesses-react-to-cabelas-coming-to-erie
 
Speaking of LOCALS don't forget POOR RICHARDS , i mean they are no high class but they provide a great service and go above and beyond the call of duty , there probably wouldn't be steelhead in
ERIE without the local participation. 3cU 's website will tell the whole story. I doubt if Cabelas had anything to do woth steelhead in ERIE.
 
How exciting, a big box store coming to put several local merchants out of business! What a privilege!
 
greenlander wrote:
How exciting, a big box store coming to put several local merchants out of business! What a privilege!
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I dont know about all Cabelas locations, but around the Hamburg Cabelas that didnt happen. When it was announced that Cabelas would be building a store in Hamburg, they said that it would add tourism and more retail stores to the area. The area has grown alot since Cabelas, there are many new stores and resturants.

Good luck, Tony
 
That was the same impact on Wheeling. It's a "destination" attraction - hotels, resturants, etc. have all gone up. JOBS are booming because of that location. I wouldnt think it would impact a small fly shop at all - that's what the internet is for:( I've found Cabelas great for everythuing but fly fishing supplies. Guns, ammo, etc.
 
My bet is that the entire big box outdoor store phenomenon will be over in another decade to maybe 15 years at most and you'll see the companies like Cabela's and LLBean contract (and BassPro to a lesser extent), close down most of their retail locations and retreat back to concentrating on their core businesses. That's just a sense I get based on the highly volatile history and nature of big box retail, regardless of the product mix.
Its a nasty, Darwinian place, the kill floor of American business.

If anything, Erie is probably going to be a tougher place for Cabela's to hang on than the majority of their other retail locations. Its a fickle demographic (Erie has a long history as a test market location for new products) and disposable income levels in the area are modest, at best.

I'll be surprised if the Erie location stays afloat for 10 years.

We'll see though. I've been wrong before. Once in 1978, another time in 1996 and almost again in 2009...
 
cabelas is good for the the rest of the outdoor stuff - camping, hiking, paddling, clothing etc. which i wouldn't buy from a fly shop anyway.

and as to the low income up there - i find that untrue some. i worked for a pittsburgh bank and we visited up there regularly. there's a whole bunch of old money up there, so much that we had a Wealth Management office built up there for people to deposit and pick up cash, help with HNW mortgages etc.

plus you have the 'summer crowd' .

LL Bean have opened some smaller stores in MA in the last few years. They have Orvis rather than Bass Pro in their sights i think.

If i had to guess i'd say their size is about 20,000 sq ft. I think the comment about the decline of big box stores is dead on - amazon and ebay is killing em.

I know the manager of dedham MA LLbean and they are there to build brand image, provide personal advice and introduce people to outdoor sports, and if he's honest to leverage their catalogue...



 
Cabela's is planning to open a bunch of smaller "non-destination" stores across the country in the future. One just opened this month in Columbus, OH.

I will still continue to spend my money at the local shops though, except for stuff that the local shops don't sell but Cabela's might like geebee said.
 
I was hoping for the destination size store not the outfitter model in the Erie area. Wheeling is still just too fair for me to venture off to on a whim. I do and have purchased big money idem's from them and other online retailers; hard to pay full price at the local shops when you can get better deals online or out of state.
I feel if you have a shop it better have an online presents or your not going to drive year over year increase sales.
 
I think we show a sad diservice to all the mom n pop shops , that tirelessly over the years created and fine tuned this sport we love into what it is today , these people had passion for the sport. Cabelas is just another faceless , formless corporation . their passion is cash profits and the bottom line.
 
Have to agree with RLee on this one.

When Cabelas and Bass Pro began putting retail stores all over the country a decade or so ago, I thought then that they would exhaust the market. How many rods, reels guns, waders, etc, can they really sell on a steady basis?

With the stores relatively close together, there are only so many people to reach, and even fewer that have the means to contunually shop there.

They will eventually contract, and many jobs will be lost.

Also agree to support the local shops and Poor Richards really packs in a lot of gear in a small amount of space. Cabelas could never compete with them for steelhead gear.
 
osprey wrote:
I think we show a sad diservice to all the mom n pop shops , that tirelessly over the years created and fine tuned this sport we love into what it is today , these people had passion for the sport. Cabelas is just another faceless , formless corporation . their passion is cash profits and the bottom line.
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Cabelas's was a mom and pop store at one time!!!!!!!


Cabela's stores have a place. They are better than Dick's or Dunham's but don't compare to a good local fly shop, archery shop, gun store etc.

And if your local fly shop got it's butt kicked when a cabela's opened up nearby, it wasn't a good shop to begin with. Cabela's "fly shop" is not much to write home about. At least not in the Wheeling store.
 
Wheeling store is good. Michigan, good. Charleston WV and Columbus OH, bad. Both the Charleston and Columbus stores have 80% of the SKU's of the destination stores. According to an employee, there are 3 sizes of Cabela store (destination, medium, small?)

My experience; local fly shops have more square feet dedicated to fly stuff, fairly priced, don't carry low end goods.
 
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