While a shame, it sounds like they kept their original business model -which might have worked well 65 years ago, but would fail today. to stay afloat, you must improvise, adapt, and innovate
(he climbs upon his soap box...and this may be the low road but hopefully it will educate)
You have no idea how pissed comments like this make me.
These stores are not going under because of failure to "improvise, adapt, and innovate" they are going under because of being under cut. I personally have seen this happen on more then once, and in more then one retail setting.
Big stores buy more, when you buy for 200 stores and you buy 3 of each item you get a better price then the little mom and pop shop that just buys 3 of the given item. Then you get into the "branded stuff" by that I mean the Cabelas sweat shirt that sells for 39.95 and has an actual cost of less then $5. (I know I worked there..but more on that later) Profit on soft line goods is what keeps these mega stores in business.
The little family owned shop is actually more flexable to market and customer changes then the big shops....changing policy in a place like Cabelas now takes an act of god...or more like those that think they are god.
I worked at Cabelas before Jim and Dick sold the company, and it was a fantastic place to work, and shop. People where there to help you, customer service was actually #1. It was very strange to see this setup in a large retail setting. After the company went public about 7 or so years ago it changed a great deal, payroll was cut, and the type of people hired changed. Before you had guys that knew fly fishing in the fly shop, now you have the warm body. Now don't get me wrong there are people that work there that still love the out doors and work there for the one reason to be around the stuff they care so much about, but they are getting fewer in number....and they are growing frustrated.
I saw the same thing happen at Borders....where the bottom line drove the company into the ground. People with no love or passion for the product ran the company and only about the bottom line. So the company drifted away from things and people that knew the product to warm bodies and selling paper and pink christmas trees that had huge margin.
The company can kill itself (Borders) with poor management, poor customer service, and many other things. But to say adapt or die is a pretty harsh statement. I have found that small companies are generally better at the adapt part then the larger companies.
Sorry if I came across as hard on this but I have seen the inside of borders for almost 30 years, my wife worked there, and I was with Cabelas for about 5 years. When a company goes public it looses tends to lose customer service.