Cabelas-SMH

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Shanghai McCoy said:
"SHIBES"...?
o_O
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Shop Here Buy Elswhere
Ran into that first back in the early 70's working for a camera store just across the river from NYC. People would come in and spend 20 minutes or more with a knowledgeable salesman to make their purchasing decision and then jump on a subway and run over to one of the shops in Manhattan that employed know nothing clerks who would write up the order and hand them their expensive camera on which we helped them decide.
 
FlSwampRat said:
Shop Here Buy Elswhere
Ran into that first back in the early 70's working for a camera store just across the river from NYC. People would come in and spend 20 minutes or more with a knowledgeable salesman to make their purchasing decision and then jump on a subway and run over to one of the shops in Manhattan that employed know nothing clerks who would write up the order and hand them their expensive camera on which we helped them decide.
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Ah, Thanks. :thumbup:
It's not often that I see an "acronym" that I don't know.
 
FlSwampRat said:
Shop Here Buy Elswhere
Ran into that first back in the early 70's working for a camera store just across the river from NYC. People would come in and spend 20 minutes or more with a knowledgeable salesman to make their purchasing decision and then jump on a subway and run over to one of the shops in Manhattan that employed know nothing clerks who would write up the order and hand them their expensive camera on which we helped them decide.
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And in a big box store, that may very well be the case. But, they did come in to shop which is a form of advertising. And Advertising is NOT cheap.
 
Jeb Stuart said:
And in a big box store, that may very well be the case. But, they did come in to shop which is a form of advertising. And Advertising is NOT cheap.
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They come in to shop, that is to say, make their purchasing decision in a place where they could ask questions of knowledgeable people and handle the items in question. They don't, however, buy in that store, they go elsewhere. Nowadays they go online. Meanwhile that salesman's time cost the first store money, for which the store got no income in the form of a sale. They ran a half hour class on the items for free.
I understand advertising and things like loss leaders. You get someone to come in for a thing on which you don't even break even in the hope that the someone will spring for additional items while in store.
If Acme Distributors sell ammo to both Joe's Gunshop and Cheapo Online Retail for the same price, but Joe is stocking his shelves for buyer's convenience and El Cheapo is ording it and drop shipping it to the customer and factoring in only a couple of dollars for reading the customer order and emailing Acme their overhead on that transaction is near zero, so they don't have to make much on the deal for their gross profit and net profit to be nearly the same. Joe is paying for his location and for the dollars being tied up in the stock sitting on his shelf for the convenience of someone coming in, paying for the item and leaving with it rather than waiting for El Cheapo's drop ship to arrive and risk it being swiped off their front porch with that nice distinctive "ammo inside" label.
 
FlSwampRat said:
They come in to shop, that is to say, make their purchasing decision in a place where they could ask questions of knowledgeable people and handle the items in question. They don't, however, buy in that store, they go elsewhere. Nowadays they go online. Meanwhile that salesman's time cost the first store money, for which the store got no income in the form of a sale. They ran a half hour class on the items for free.
I understand advertising and things like loss leaders. You get someone to come in for a thing on which you don't even break even in the hope that the someone will spring for additional items while in store.
If Acme Distributors sell ammo to both Joe's Gunshop and Cheapo Online Retail for the same price, but Joe is stocking his shelves for buyer's convenience and El Cheapo is ording it and drop shipping it to the customer and factoring in only a couple of dollars for reading the customer order and emailing Acme their overhead on that transaction is near zero, so they don't have to make much on the deal for their gross profit and net profit to be nearly the same. Joe is paying for his location and for the dollars being tied up in the stock sitting on his shelf for the convenience of someone coming in, paying for the item and leaving with it rather than waiting for El Cheapo's drop ship to arrive and risk it being swiped off their front porch with that nice distinctive "ammo inside" label.
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I do not see how they worked for free. They do sell guns and they are not paid much to begin with. And their are folks like myself that will travel 20 miles to a Bass Pro, go right away to the gun department and not buy a gun, but usually walk out with something. Fishing Tackle, shirt, hunting pants, and on and on.I walked in there one time to look at center fire powder burners and walked out with a $400 air rifle.
 
Jeb Stuart said:
I do not see how they worked for free. They do sell guns and they are not paid much to begin with. And their are folks like myself that will travel 20 miles to a Bass Pro, go right away to the gun department and not buy a gun, but usually walk out with something. Fishing Tackle, shirt, hunting pants, and on and on.
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It's because you're not a shibe. You didn't stop at your LGS, take up his time to assist you in making your decision and then drive to Bass Pro to buy. You went to Bass Pro (can't bring myself to call it BP, sounds like you're gun shopping at a gas station) to do your shopping, did your buying there and went home. That's not shibing that's shopping.
 
FlSwampRat said:
While not necessarily wizards of finance, they do understand the double edged sword of carrying low profit/slow moving items. If they decide to do so, it's mostly from a viewpoint of being customer oriented, or at least customer friendly. The idea that having X will bring customers in to purchase Y and Z. This greatly affects cash flow. Rolling the money. Every square foot of both floor and shelf space has to produce for the store each and every month. Producing either profit or attracting customers who will buy other things that will produce the higher profit.
What's bringing down many brick and mortar retailers is a complicated mix of reasons, but many lie in the hands of consumers. Ages ago things were produced and consumed on a local basis. As an item's longevity was a major factor. People would spend more for the best quality that was affordable to them to purchase items that would last. With the advent of mass produced items available from all over the country, pressure was put on the local craftsman. As trade became international, pressure was put on the national manufacturers to compete. Now were are a disposable society. Few things are repaired, just chucked out and replaced by some other cheap item.
At no point in this process did a significant group of consumers consider that, at first, they were hitting their neighbors in the wallet, and following the internationalization, the pursuit of getting something that cost less either bankrupted manufacturers or forced them to make a cut quality product to be able to match the cheaper import. Many companies and their brands were sold and the products often suffered.
Now with internet buying, the SHIBES are back in full force. Instead of buying locally, they are shopping locally, handling the guns and making their purchasing decision in their LGS and then ordering online. Eventually the LGS is going away or thinned to the point of almost non-existance. People forget the customer service rendered in a good local store will be far better than and easier to deal with than with some far away internet dealer. Many of the dealers online don't stock the items they're advertising that they are selling. I've done many ffl transfers for items bought online that came direct from distributors and were never in the selling dealer's possession. When the biggest deciding factor in someone's purchase is strictly price it's hard for a brick and mortar store to compete with an online retailer who, in many cases, has no physical store or warehouse or in some cases employees.
As things stand right now you can't buy an American made (Made in USA) television, Blu-ray player or almost any other piece of electronic hardware. Much of the tech in those items was discovered, developed or refined here and than handed over to other countries to produce to make a cheaper retail price point.
If this wasn't true, you'd still be buying your tools at Sears.



I'm still trying to work out your first sentence, but it doesn't matter whether the policy is smart or not. Not following the policy and losing your insurance because of it certainly isn't smart.
I'm not sure exactly how that's the same as a politician's fallacy, insurance companies do everything they can to limit possible indemnity, something I'm painfully aware of living in Fla where we get the occasional hurricane and yet housing insurance is hard to get and expensive. Most big insurance companies have actually pulled out of the state. This isn't doing something just to do something for the sake of doing it.
I'm still trying to figure out how the presence of a trigger lock on a display pistol affects the evaluation of said pistol.
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Paragraphs please. Old eyes have a hard time reading huge blocks of text.
 
Texas10mm said:
Paragraphs please. Old eyes have a hard time reading huge blocks of text.
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I was using a carrier return, aka hitting the Enter key to form the paragraphs, the sentences end well short of the right margin. I'll do a double carrier return in the future to add a line break between paragraphs.
 
For those that aren’t familiar with the Politicians’ Fallacy, it goes like this:

We must do something.
X is something.
Therefore, we must do X.

It is used to justify a large amount of dumbness, including many gun control laws, the Testicle Squeezing Administration at the airport ... and gun locks on the guns so I can’t inspect the actions at Cabela’s without getting a clerk to unlock each of a dozen rifles I might’ve looked at on the used rifle racks. Life is too short.
 
Thunderchicken said:
and gun locks on the guns so I can’t inspect the actions at Cabela’s without getting a clerk to unlock each of a dozen rifles I might’ve looked at on the used rifle racks. Life is too short.
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There isn't a gun shop I have been to in recent memory that had guns accessible to customers without involving a clerk.
 
FlSwampRat said:
Good looking store. And I see a load of gun locks.
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Ya, trigger locks on everything but at least you can pick them up and get a feel for grip, sight alignment, etc. without having to ask for every single one I guess. Last time Inwas there I fondled several handguns I'd been thinking about, and checked out some scopes I'll never be able to afford, haha.
 
FlSwampRat said:
There isn't a gun shop I have been to in recent memory that had guns accessible to customers without involving a clerk.
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As I stated in my post (#63 in this thread) Swamp Rat, the reason I bought my new Smith Model 638 from Sportsman's instead of Cabela's/Bass Pro last week was because the "clerk" at Cabela's/Bass Pro in Idaho Falls informed me that he was not allowed to remove the trigger lock so that I could test the trigger. I don't have anything against there being trigger locks on every gun in every gun store. For that matter, even those much griped about internal locks on a lot of modern day handguns don't bother me all that much. But if I'm considering purchasing a gun, I'm going to be allowed to test the trigger, or I'm going to shop somewhere else.
Sportsman's Warehouse in Idaho Falls is right across the street from Cabela's/Bass Pro, and the "clerk" in Sportsman's Warehouse removed the trigger lock so that I could test the trigger. I liked it. And if I remember right, Sportsman's even beat Cabela's/Bass Pro's price by a few bucks.
 
.308 Norma said:
As I stated in my post (#63 in this thread) Swamp Rat, the reason I bought my new Smith Model 638 from Sportsman's instead of Cabela's/Bass Pro last week was because the "clerk" at Cabela's/Bass Pro in Idaho Falls informed me that he was not allowed to remove the trigger lock so that I could test the trigger. I don't have anything against there being trigger locks on every gun in every gun store. For that matter, even those much griped about internal locks on a lot of modern day handguns don't bother me all that much. But if I'm considering purchasing a gun, I'm going to be allowed to test the trigger, or I'm going to shop somewhere else.
Sportsman's Warehouse in Idaho Falls is right across the street from Cabela's/Bass Pro, and the "clerk" in Sportsman's Warehouse removed the trigger lock so that I could test the trigger. I liked it. And if I remember right, Sportsman's even beat Cabela's/Bass Pro's price by a few bucks.
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Blindly adhering to a rule is dumb. I don't break laws, but I'll break a rule now and then in the interest of making a deal happen. I just watch the person a bit more carefully in case they want to do more than a couple of dry fire clicks. That's what we have store use Snap Caps for. Want to try it in a holster and see if it prints? No problem.

We call it customer service.
 
FlSwampRat said:
Blindly adhering to a rule is dumb. I don't break laws, but I'll break a rule now and then in the interest of making a deal happen. I just watch the person a bit more carefully in case they want to do more than a couple of dry fire clicks. That's what we have store use Snap Caps for. Want to try it in a holster and see if it prints? No problem.

We call it customer service.
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And that's why if we lived in Florida, we would buy guns from you rather than Cabela's/Bass Pro.:)
I don't know. Over the years, my wife and I have bought and sold a lot of guns at Cabela's in Idaho Falls, Boise and even Salt Lake. But I can't remember whether or not we have bought a gun at Cabela's since it became Cabela's/Bass Pro. So maybe the "no removing the trigger lock rule" is a Bass Pro thing?
That, or maybe my wife was right - she usually is. As we were leaving Cabela's/Bass Pro and heading across the street to Sportsman's to buy my new gun, I was still fuming. My wife (a cooler head) was saying that the salesperson in Cabela's was just a "kid," and he was probably new. She said he should have gone and got a more experienced person that might have been willing to remove the trigger lock for me. If that "kid" (as my wife called him) would have done that, Cabela's/Bass Pro would probably have sold that Model 638 Smith.
 
.308 Norma said:
My wife (a cooler head) was saying that the salesperson in Cabela's was just a "kid," and he was probably new. She said he should have gone and got a more experienced person that might have been willing to remove the trigger lock for me. If that "kid" (as my wife called him) would have done that, Cabela's/Bass Pro would probably have sold that Model 638 Smith.
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A new hire, esp a young person, is not likely to bend a rule.

I've been at this gig for over 30 years, I'm the manager of the store (Whee I have the key, alarm codes and responsibilities. whoopee) I know I can bend or break some rules. My bosses are spectacularly great, and I'm not saying that here to brownnose, they don't know I post on this forum, they won't read this so I'm saying it because it's true.

We believe in doing what it takes, within reason, to make a customer happy. Because it makes sales happen. No deals, no income, and I'm under a bridge holding a sign saying "Will pawn for food".
 
FlSwampRat said:
No deals, no income, and I'm under a bridge holding a sign
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:rofl:
Ha! Don't knock it. Holding signs under bridges or on street corners isn't so bad. We have an ex son-in-law that does that for a living.:D
The law says he isn't suppose to own a gun though.;)
 
Guess I am lucky. Don't live in a town big enough to justify a Cabela/Bass Pro. Do have two LGSs that have huge inventories of guns and sell them at internet prices. Yet, there are times when Cabelas still has the better price on accessories and other outdoor items. Could be they're having a sale or maybe I have a gift card to burn. With their free shipping and quick delivery, many times it's easier than going brick and mortar. Remember, they started out as mail order, maybe they are just going back to their roots. Kinda the new age/internet way nowadays. Another thing the internet has brought around is major whining. Good Lord, folks would whine about being hung with a new rope. This thread is a prime example.

As for the kid?/salesperson that would not break/bend the rules just for you? Kudos to him for being a good employee. There are a ton of rules that go along with my job. Due to safety, security and the fact I enjoy working there, I don't break/bend rules for anyone unless someone with more authority tells me to, especially for some random stranger. Most of the time, with very few exceptions, do those folks with more authority tell me to. The rules, as silly as many appear to some folks are there for a reason and it's not just to tick folks off. Asking an employee to break a rule and risk their job is much sillier and rude, than any rule.
 
Worked at Sportsmans for a while back when Stu Uttgard owned the franchise. Can’t count all the guys wearing Cabelas hats coming in the store. Running joke among the staff was these customers wanted the Cabelas “worlds foremost outfitter” image but sportsmans WAREHOUSE prices. But back on topic. Was at a Cabelas last weekend out west here and the place was chock full of guns and ammo. Gun room looked bad though. No more Savage 99’s and english stocked upland shotguns, levers etc. Mostly late model used black rifles and pistols at or near new prices.
 
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