One of humanity’s most ancient forms of securing food has become one of the nation’s largest recreational activities, generating huge profits for the stores, using the Wal-Mart business model, that sell the gear.
An excerpt.
Reeling in shoppers
A Bass Pro store could shake local outdoor retailers
By Jon Ortiz - Bee Staff WriterPublished 12:00 am PST Sunday, November 5, 2006
With a thousand fishing rods angling toward a blue ceiling punctuated by boat bottoms and propellers, customers looking up as they cruise the huge Bass Pro Outdoor World here have the odd sensation that they are standing under water.
That's the same feeling Sacramento retailers fear is ahead for them should Bass Pro Shops Inc., one of the country's biggest outdoor equipment sellers, follow through on a plan to open a mammoth store in the city's downtown railyard development. Such a move would likely sink some of the region's locally owned fishing, camping and hunting shops.
Although fewer Americans are outdoor enthusiasts these days, Bass Pro, based in Springfield, Mo., is on an expansion binge with a mix of scale, showmanship and unrivaled stock that shoppers drive hundreds of miles to buy.
The company's 36 gigantic stores in the United States and Canada are all infused with a local flavor, designed to entertain visitors and loaded with every outdoor recreation item imaginable.
The 165,000-square-foot Las Vegas store sells $400 kayaks and $100,000 houseboats, trout flies for $2.99 per two-pack and $250 high-tech deep-sea lures. Looking for a good place to fish? There are more than 600 fish finders and Global Positioning System devices. And that's just in the marine section.
Smaller operators can't compete with that kind of selection and volume pricing, said Sep Hendrickson, a Vacaville tackle maker who sells his wares to many mom-and-pop shops in Northern California.
