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Cabela's fishing catalog came in the mail yesterday. Reminds me of looking through the Sear's catalog as a kid.
It is bass focused, and crazy to see single bass lures for $20+ each. I guess there isn't much crappie stuff in it, since it isn't high dollar. A guy could use $300 Shimano Sustain reel for bluegill if he wanted though.:bash
Yep. Wasted a catalog and postage on me. I did look through it though.
Went to bass pro today. They had a stack of Cabelas coolers in middle of floor for sale. I'm just looking for prices to get even higher now since basically BP has no compition now.
Cablea's is only 15 minutes down the road. I like going there to look, and the kids enjoy the little displays. I rarely buy anything that isn't on clearance though. One, because I'm cheap. Two, I like ordering from the smaller shops online. Three, if I need anything immediately WalMart usually will have something that will work much cheaper.
Bass pro is 40 minutes away. We go there a few times a year when the weather is bad, because their displays are much more impressive.
Shop local. You will have ease of mind even if you pay a penny or two ,ore..
The whole fishing industry is bass-focused. That means more crappie and bluegills for us. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by EWS
I would like to do so. There was a fishing store in the Podunk town I grew up in. But as far as I know, there's not a mom and pop fishing store around here or in the city. I do buy my bait at the marina, but they don't have much else.Quote:
Originally Posted by gracie1goose
If you want true crappie catalog then here it is period.:twocents
http://www.grizzlyjig.com/skins/skin...es/catalog.pdf
got my catalog also and had to check the cover a few times as I was seeing a lot of BPS stuff in it.:Rofl
I got mine to and looked thru it. I have bought a lot of stuff from them but not anymore. I use mom and pop or go to academy sports.
Got mine a couple days ago. Opened it up and the first thing for sale was Tracker boats. No thanks. Nothing against Tracker as a boat but not in my Cabelas catalog. It belongs in the Bass Pro catalog. In the trash it went.Quote:
Originally Posted by ET Fish
Caught me off guard when I saw a tracker boat in a Cabela's book. I agree, it's not right!Quote:
Originally Posted by silverside
We have a bait, tackle, rod repair and gun store in town. I still bass fish allot, they make a three arm spinnerbait, I like it! They sell components to make your own spinnerbait and buzzbait.
Silverside & Skunked again .... you do realize that Cabela's is now OWNED by BPS, right ??
Absolutely do. But they are still operating 2 entities. Need them to stay as 2 entities no matter who owns who. If you are going to market Bass Pro in Cabela, remove the Cabelas signs and replace with BPS signs.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrappiePappy
If I get a GMC Truck flyer in the mail it does not have Chevy's in it. :twocents
Crappiepappy - Yes I do realize it.
That may be true, but Chevy is still a GMC product. There may well come a time when there are no Cabela's ... but, with the cost of renovating them all to look like a BPS store, re-branding all the "Cabela's" name brand items over to BPS & selling out all the current stock ..... uh, no ... don't look for it to happen anytime soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by silverside
I have a Cabela's right down the road from me ... so I don't get/need a catalog. And I don't frequent it often, but the last time I was there I did not notice any BPS brands, and certainly no Tracker boats. I have a Tracker dealership within 15mi of my home, so I don't expect to see them at Cabela's anytime soon, either.
We had a discussion about this merger/buyout/whatever some time ago .... and all I remember was that BPS was going to keep the Cabela's name on the store & their merchandise brand (much like GMC/Chevy) and run both stores as separate entities with "connections" (like the credit cards & rewards & coupons being usable in either store) ... though I don't know if that actually happened. It wasn't something that affected me in particular, so I really didn't study on it all that hard.
They have already removed all of the old "Boat" related deals they had with other companies. Alumacraft "used" to be sold in Cabelas. Not anymore. That agreement was cancelled at the end of August of last year. All of our Cabelas boat centers already have Tracker Boats proudly displayed on their floors.
With the purchase of the Ranger/Stratus/Triton line back in the end of 2016 by BPS/John Morris, those boats are still being sold at Cabelas. I have not been in to a BPS in awhile so I am not sure if they are on the floor there or not. Just as I am not sure if the Nitro line has been put in to Cabelas.
A little interesting enconomics for you. The median price of a Ranger/Stratus/Triton boat (Talking Deep V) shot up Nearly 21% in the last year. A decked out 621VS sold for 74k last year. That same boat this year is 94k. As a result, other boats quickly followed suite skeeter is a prime example as they too shot up nearly 21%. The interesting part of all of this is that, while they all shot up, the Nitro line stayed identicle to last year at 74k.
So what does that mean? It means that someone over priced and over valued the market in order to sell more at a lower price. If you turn off 30% of the potential buyers from one market, but uptick your other market by 23%, it is a win no mater what. Especially when you own both companies. I suspect that the Nitro linup will have a big uptick this year.
Unfortunatley, this, along with the ownership changing hands to John Morris, has turned people away from the entire Ranger organization. He has a history of building crap! Their numbers for this year are way down. And that doesn't look good. Couple that with the fact that your entire leadership that had hundreds of combined years of experience left the company within weeks of the ownership swap and you could see the writing on the wall.
The interesting part to all of this is that a new boat company has been formed with new models being introduced in March of this year. WHO started this new company? The grandson of none other than Forrest Wood. Who is Forrest Wood you ask? The founding father of Ranger Boats. What is even more interesting? Who do you think the major players are in this new company? If you guessed it to be the same people that LEFT Ranger after it changed hands then you are correct. The new company is called Vexus and they just built a brand new state of the art facility.
These boat prices blow me away. :yikesQuote:
Originally Posted by wicklundrh
Yep, look for the used market to jump also?
You got it. That market has been booming the last few years. Another CDC member and myself both have boats that are actually worth more now than what we paid for them.
I just did a search and found that Cabelas is in fact offering the same boats as BPS. So, I guess you can buy a Nitro at Cabelas. The big issue is that John has always had a deal with Mercury. Until this year, the only company that offered a 350 was the Mercury Verado. Unfortunately, they have electronic steering so you run in to battery issues when you tie them in to a kicker motor. They have not been a well liked motor on the Walleye tour. Everyone was waiting for Yamaha and Suzuki to come out with their 350 (which happened this year). Unless ordering a new boat (Ranger) I doubt they will carry any of these on showroom models. They are shoe horned with the Nitro lineup because of the Deal that has always been with Merc.
BASS fishing is not a big thing here in Michigan. When they stopped planting Salmon, the majority of those guys got out of the Salmon industry. Everybody and their brother is converting over to Deep V boats that can be used to fish a variety of species on the Great Lakes. Walleye fishing is king here. Because of that, the deep V market is big.
I try not to buy from either company honestly. We have some great local stores that actually have much better prices on equipment than both of them. BPS was founded on BASS fishing. Cabelas caters to the BASS angler. I can walk in to my local Wal Mart and find more Walleye equipment than I can at most BPS or Cabelas stores.
Personally, I think they built way too many brick and motor stores. They are going to be a product of their own making. Over saturation of a market that is already prone to purchasing things online at discount prices. I can drive 1.5 hours and be at 3 different Cabelas stores and one BPS store. I've passed time at each of them within the last year and have not purchased one thing from each of them.
When I was boat shopping, I went to Cabelas to look at the Alumacrafts. They had three different salespeople, and I ended up working with the 'sales manager'. First I called and tried to schedule an appointment and spoke with him. He told me to just come on in. I had already been window shopping the boats on the floor, and intended to buy a boat that day. When I met him, he was aloof and seemed troubled to take the covers off of boats. When I asked him about pricing, he got on Alumacraft's website and started building the boat online. I told him I had already done that, and he said that was the price plus a fixed $1500? in prep fees regardless of what was in the boat 1-4 batteries, tiller vs remote, fish finders, trolling motor, etc. This was the so called manager. I was shocked. If I was running the store I would have fired him on the spot. I ended up buying my boat elsewhere. Their inventory is stagnant and the same guy is still working there. I don't see how they can afford to run it that way. Maybe the $60 house brand thermal tops, that maybe cost $3 to make?
EWS, like many have said on this and other threads that we already know and others are starting to realize: Mom and pop shops, local boat dealerships, and Marinas are much better to do business with. They value their customers, they value their time, and they know their products. Sure they might charge a little bit more but in the end, you get what you pay for. The majority of those guys do not even own a boat. I could tell you a story that would blow your mind in regards to a Cabelas boat center. It involves another CDC member.Quote:
Originally Posted by EWS
I know Alumacraft quite well. I own 3 of them! I have direct dealings with their company and the marketing staff. When the hammer dropped and Cabelas was purchased by BPS, they dropped their dealship options and cancelled boat orders for the new year. It ended up being a great thing for a ton of us. Dealerships that didn't have the opportunity to carry those boats and that line where now at the top of the list. As a result, 8 new dealerships were established within Michigan alone. Alumacraft was tired of the horror stories from Cabelas customers anyway. Their service department wasn't qualified to put in a fuse let alone work on their boats.
Sounds like an interesting story. I've just quit asking questions in Cabelas. The staff can't even find their own stock. Which isn't surprising in a way, since they rearrange the fishing department every three months. Much less when I was shopping for fish finders. It's a good place to window shop, before ordering from a small shop online, since there isn't a mom and pop around.Quote:
Originally Posted by wicklundrh
Alumacraft lost me as a customer that day because of Cabelas. I happily ended up with a Lund and drove 4 hours one way to get it from a fantastic dealership. I would cross shop Alumacraft again if they got a real dealership nearby.