Cabela’s banning African hunting pictures from pro staff

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

What good did Cabelas think would come of this?
Seems like all of these stores are folding to the anti hunting pressure.

http://thehuntingnews.com/cabelas-banning-african-hunting-pictures-from-pro-staff/

 

[Edge]

Read that yesterday, makes no sense to me. Alludes to BPS influence, sad.

 

[Pheroze]

Thanks for posting Marius!

Jeanette Hall deserves a medal. Good for her to stand up to this nonsense. Is she a member here?

I choose not to buy from Cabelas. Online retailers and Sail.

 

[CAustin]

This decision is rather odd to me. I was just in Springfield , MO last week and noticed that the Johnny Morris museum at the Bass Pro home store had finally opened. The thing had been in the construction and display process for years. Johnny and his family have hunted all over the world and many of the trophies displayed in the store, and I suspect the museum, are his. The guy has long been a hunting supporter so now that he owns Cabelas you would think that he would continue to promote African hunting and hunting in general all over the world. By the way a billboard on US 65 advertising the museum prominently displays an African Elephant. One would think that such a trophy as depicted on the billboard is on display in the museum! So what’s the difference between the billboard and the pro staff posting pictures?

The pro staff member didn’t get answers to her email asking why she was not allowed to post pictures anymore if I read correctly. I wonder if anybody from Bass Pro/Cabelas would care to clear up the reasons for us here behind the decision. I do hope that the internal policy decision at this great brand is based on something we would be unaware of as customers and not just caving to political correctness and anti hunting foolishness.

Thanks for posting this @KMG Hunting Safaris

 

[WAB]

BPS is taking Cabelas down to their level. The gun libraries are a shadow of what they once were.

 

[CAustin]

BPS is taking Cabelas down to their level. The gun libraries are a shadow of what they once were.

Yes and they are co-branding merchandise as well. RedHead stuff was never as good as Cabelas branded products IMO and now that BPS stuff is starting to show up in Cabelas. The Kansas City Cabelas use to be full of merchandise but no longer is. To your point....many areas are “a shadow of what they once were.”
But they still have a massive African trophy display in the store that I always stop by to look at along with the American Mule Deer museum. The elephant full body mount on display was taken by one of the Cabelas brothers many many years ago. Wonder if that is going to become the wrong thing to display?

 

[Hogpatrol]

Thanks for this update. I will make my last trip/purchase from them and cash in whatever points I have. From what I saw on my last visit, they're now a toy and clothing store anyway. Dick's is my CO2 vendor but they've been on my boycott list too.
Email referencing this action to their corporate headquarters will be forthcoming. Condensed, it will read "no longer patronizing Bass Pro OR Cabela's. Thanks for the memories".

 

[Shootist43]

Before throwing "Cabela's " under the bus, I like to see their response. I also wonder if they know that their decisions are being looked at critically by the hunting population.

 

[Red Leg]

Yes, it will be interesting to see what is really driving the corporate decision - though I assume avoiding being the next company in an internet "shaming" event is high among their concerns. Most of these decisions are made by people old enough to not really have a clue about social media. Near term backlash can be far worse than the original concern. Unless the BPS management has a long term strategy to become the new REI, alienating hunters would seem to be a questionable business decision. I assume they believe they are merely trying to take the spotlight off the hunting side of their revenue stream; a revenue stream for which I am sure they have analysis and which indicates a precipitous decline over the next decade or so. After all the American retail landscape is littered with companies that could or would not adapt (Sears, K Mart, etc., etc.). Sometimes, however, companies that dominate a particular segment are better served expanding that base rather than looking to new horizons. Dance with the one that brung ya.

Others have commented, and I think they are absolutely correct, that BPS seems determined to dumb down the Cabelas product line to reflect BPS's more blue collar roots. I think that too is a stupid business decision. The point of buying a brand like Cabelas is to take advantage of that established (and probably quite loyal) client base - not to simply expand retail space. (I rarely if ever went into a BPS store and never ordered from them. I am sure I am not alone.) If you have no plan to take advantage of that established product line, all expanding retail space does is add overhead costs without generating meaningful additional revenue from a now diluted BPS customer base. In the day of the internet, lots of former Cabelas customers will simply move on to places like Kevins https://kevinscatalog.com/ , Midway, etc. The blending product line indicates that they obviously have already set in motion what I imagine is a fairly desperate plan to reduce inventory costs. The next set of events will be to begin to close stores.

 

[Royal27]

I'm going to withhold judgement until more information is available .

That said, I never have been a BP fan and have already seen what I view to be poor influences on the Cabela's model, in store.

 

[fourfive8]

Makes little sense. I have been a Cabela's customer since the cheap 4 page newsprint flier phone order days. I have had their card almost as long. However, in recent years I've noticed less and less stuff of interest to me so using their CC points has made less and less sense. Even when BPS got big years ago for fishing tackle, I was never much of a customer. So changing to a BPS Mastercard for points I won't use by a company that has lost its roots is the final straw. I used up my last Cabela's $50 points the other day and will not activate their new card. So long, voting with my feet...

 

[lwaters]

I have slowly moved to Midway over the last few years.

 

[YancyW]

I have slowly moved to Midway over the last few years.

I know both the Potterfield and the Morris families well, I do every bit of business I can with Larry and Brenda. I will leave it at that.

 

[flatwater bill]

BPS had a great opportunity to diversify....................keep the Cabelas brand name, make it even more hard core hunting and fishing, and keep BPS separately named with more wood hippie and flea market crap. Cater to both sides. (Disney did this when they wanted to put out a little more racy films, they created TouchStone.......so as not to tarnish their family friendly rep.) But they are in the process of prostituting themselves to the dark side......................I believe it will eventually bite them in the arse...................and I may live to see the trophy displays and the museums they tout, torn down and sacrificed......this is just the start of a slide for them.......FWB

 

[wesheltonj]

Big discussion on this elsewhere, with BPS denying it.

From Bass Pro:

"This is not true.
Please check out our 1 Source as well as our Pro Team members posting of African Trophies. At this moment I can’t provide you with the story as its source is being investigated.
Thanks for sharing and trust that nothing has changed at Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas as it relates to hunting worldlwide.
As we learn more, we will provide a response."

The above was from Karl Evans of DSC post.

However someone posted a screenshot of said memo. "Do not post animal shots that are excessive bloody/inappropriate and/or exotic animals (safari aminals, etc)"

Will be interesting to see, how this all shakes out.

 

[Hogpatrol]

Maybe they're backpedaling already. Either that or they read Dick's tea leaves.

 

[rookhawk]

The data I heard is that firearms and firearm accessories make up about 16% of BPS/Cabelas revenue. (at least for Cabelas when they were public, I got that info when I was a shareholder)

You look at the long game and your biggest customers at these stores are not hunters. There will be a move towards more appeal to the outdoor/camping/fishing groups. Marcus Lamonis (CEO) is doing this right now with Gander Outdoors because he too sees the writing on the walls that hunting, or specifically guns, is not a good use of square footage and will continue to create protests and bad PR after shootings.

In the future, I think there will be dedicated gun shops and you'll see the superstores reduce their firearms emphasis. I can't say that I particularly mind because I don't wish to own the guns sold at retail stores in the USA myself, the prices are atrocious, and the selection is truly terrible. (Unless you want 50 black guns and a palette of 5.56 ammo...then you're all set)

 

[WAB]

I began shopping at Cabela's when the Sydney store was an old wooden structure in downtown Sydney. I was at the grand opening for the first superstore which was also in Sydney. It's sad to see it come to this!

 

[lwaters]

I began shopping at Cabela's when the Sydney store was an old wooden structure in downtown Sydney. I was at the grand opening for the first superstore which was also in Sydney. It's sad to see it come to this!

I remember stopping by the Sidney store when it was the size of a small Walmart. I stopped there every time I went to Wyoming hunting. Some stores get bigger and bigger and than become annoying to shop. Walmart a prime example. It is hard to avoid but try as much as I can. Amazon is going to give them all a run for their money. Now we even buy paper products at Amazon.

 

[johnnyblues]

Cabelas is now unsubscribed from my email. Unless they have a damn good excuse I will never shop there again. I sick and tired of this anti hunting bullshit!