Bass Pro buys Sportsman's Warehouse

[sroz]

This will be good for their employees as they will now receive discounts at BP, Cabela's and SW. Always gotta look on the positive side of things.

[ANADRILL]

I work at the Parker store, gun counter, due to being laid off from the oil field. It sucks, as our discounts are amazing, but will go away when bass pro takes over. Most all of our customers comment on the level of service they get at the gun counter, and complain about cabellas and bp.

[00tec]

I work at the Parker store, gun counter, due to being laid off from the oil field. It sucks, as our discounts are amazing, but will go away when bass pro takes over. Most all of our customers comment on the level of service they get at the gun counter, and complain about cabellas and bp.

Your store must be much better than Thornton, because the counter service there is shit just like Bass Pro.

Stand in line. Lady calls you up and takes your info, says someone will call you in a few. Lady stares at wall for 15 minutes. Lady walks over and asks if you have been helped, and if you need assistance. (All the same woman) One dude is walking around having casual conversation with the other reps about the pizza he had for lunch.
On the plus side, one of 'em rang up the rifles at black friday prices 3 weeks after that sale was said and done.

[MrPrena]

I went to Parker Sportsman's warehouse on Tuesday while I was going down to parker to pickup my firearm.
Looks like it is much bigger and gun counter is much wider in terms of display. I can just do a quick sweep of pistol display inventory and price and just leave. I cannot do that at Thornton Sportsmans.

[ChadAmberg]

I work at the Parker store, gun counter, due to being laid off from the oil field. It sucks, as our discounts are amazing, but will go away when bass pro takes over. Most all of our customers comment on the level of service they get at the gun counter, and complain about cabellas and bp.

I will say, any time I've dealt with the guys behind the counter at the Spring's Sportsman's, I've been very happy with how I was treated. Cabelas and Bass Pro not so much.

[.455_Hunter]

I guess neither side of the acquisition did much market research on implications of the deal. Even the guys working a Cabela's today thought it was a bad idea.

[MrPrena]

When the market is at their highs, many companies do dumb M&A. Funniest one was Compaq-HP deal and AOL-Time Warners.

[Martinjmpr]

I've never been much of a "business guy" but I thought the whole reason SW went through their bankruptcy or near bankruptcy in 2010 - 11 (I think that's when it was) was because they grew too fast and spread themselves too thin. And back then, we didn't even have Cabela's yet (I think the Cabelas stores in the Metro area opened around 2015 or so.)

So now, with BPS owning not only their own BPS store, they own the two Cabelas stores in the metro area, and soon will own the, what, 3 or 4 SW locations? So that's one company with either 6 or 7 locations just in the Denver area alone.

What is the value, to the company, in having that many locations? Seems like a lot of overhead to have that many store that are all relatively close to each other.

Didn't Gander Mountain close their retail stores because they decided they couldn't compete in the "big box sporting goods store" area?

Cabela's has a "brand identity" seeing as how it's been around since 1961, and I suppose you could say the same about BPS but SW really doesn't - as I said above, their gimmick was always low prices so once their prices go up to BPS and Cabela's levels, there's really no gimmick at all.

Would not surprise me a bit to see SW closed for good after this. To be honest, I'm surprised they even came back from their earlier bankruptcy or reorganization or whatever it was.

[KS63]

The SW in Parker has always been great with customer service and their store is very well light and organized, unlike the other SW locations that are dark and gloomy. I’m not the type to browse the gun counter often, but when I pass by they always ask if I need help. I hope the employees who are currently at Parker stay through the transition as they are the ones giving the service, not Corporate.

[.455_Hunter]

I have found SW to provide great service and definitely more product selection than post-Bass Pro Cabela's. Usually, the same $10 to $20 item is $1 to $2 less at SW than Cabela's, but there are exceptions. The biggest thing that happened to Cabela's was expansion of the outdoor lifestyle crap that reduced sales space for the traditional items. Over a quarter of the 144th store is now sunglasses, toys, decorative junk, and self-branded t-shirts / hoodies.