I just wanted to pass this story on. I was at the St. Louis Cabelas on Suday. i grabbed 5 boxes of Federal Power-Shok sabot 12ga 1oz. slugs. the price was $4.99/box (which i thouhgt was really cheap). When i went to checkout, the ammo rang-up at $11.99/box. I nicely asked teh cashier why the price was so high. she called back to the hunting department to check. The hunting department said that the price had recently gone up, but the sign on the shelf was not changed.

The cashier credited my purchase $7/box stating "We are going to honor our pricing on the shelf." This is just another example of good customer service from Cabela's and i will continue to shop with them, and drive the extra mileage past 3 Wal-Marts, 1 Dicks and 2 Sports Authority.

Jeeez, i'd say it went up.....

I know that here, if a business refuses to honor the marked price, its against the law. It is false advertising according to the State Attorney General. I've never had to use that but I've left items on the counter before.

Same in WA (and most states), mattsbox99, though most states (don't know about MT, of course) won't force anything if they fix it immediately. They would, but you'd have to get the Sheriff there or something and the stores always fix it before then. I have been unsuccessful in getting the Evil Empire to honor a clearly posted price several times on various items at multiple locations in 2 different states. I really hate them most of the time...

I have had tremendous customer service at Cabelas. Salesmen have gone way above and beyond to help me. On-the-other-hand, I know somebody that said he had horrible service at the same store. Personally, I'll continue to go there whenever possible because of my own great experiences.

They are good, but have become way overpriced on many of their items.... Unless there is a killer sale, if you bought a gun recently at a Cabela's store, you have spent way too much.

Jim

My wife and I have visited Bass pro and Cabela's. We prefer Cabela's. Though some of the prices may be higher than Wal-Mart, we've found many prices to be better than what was available at Bass Pro. We've also found better bargains on sale items at Cabela's.

I placed an order with Cabelas and got the wrong item. Sent it back twice and still got the wrong item. On the next call to customer service I told them that the item number was right but the part was a different item. They called the wharehouse and had them check. sure enough all where in the wrong package. she told me that they no longer had the item I was after and to send it back and they would credit me.

She ask if there was anything else that I needed and I went a head and spent the credit plus a couple of dollars. They then told me that don't worry about the couple dollars and to go a head and keep the other item if I would like. After the third time they said it wasn't even worth sending it back.

I told them that if I didn't find what I was looking for local that I was going to order this one anyhow, but she said well now you have two of them and appoligized for the mix up.

Customer service has always been top notch with me from Cabelas. I have always said that I will pay a little more for better service.

I like the idea that the will wait on the first one through the door not the one behind you that has on a tux.

Most successful retail businesses have decent customer service most of the time. Any of the retail stores I've worked at would have done the same thing for you.

However, I don't like Cabela's delving into the real estate market. They have actually advertised, in Montana, property that had previously been part of Montana's "ranching for wildlife" program - I'm not sure what the proper name for the program is. Anyway, they were taking property that was once available for the public to hunt and offering it to the highest bidder. They have now renounced this practice, but only because of the outcry of Montana's sportsmen.

I prefer to spend my dollars elsewhere.

They have now renounced this practice, but only because of the outcry of Montana's sportsmen.

The thing about this is they have enough dough that they could have keep on doing this, But insted decided to listen to the people that it affected.

Might not been the total reason but then again might have.

I've worked in retail before and the price on the sign always stands. That's why you make sure to change the signs in the morning before the store opens.

I'm originally from Southwest Nebraska so it wasn't too unusual to find myself in the original Cabela's store in Sidney, NE from time to time, and I always liked what I found there in terms of merchandise, price and service. Unfortunately, I think that in the last few years Cabela's has found themselves mired in their competition with Bass Pro and any other outfitter out there, and have changed some things in an effort to be competitive and to continue to grow, so it doesn't surprise me that people have recently had some disenchantment with them.

As for Bass Pro, I'm no fan of them at all. I had a very negative experience in their store near my home in Maryland and have vowed to never give them a single dime of my future service if I can help it. Cabela's is most definitely the better of the two in my opinion.

original Cabela's store in Sidney, NE
Kearney, NE was the original place opened around 1987 then sidney came about 4 or 5yrs later.

Sidney was the first location my wife and I visited. We had a VERY pleasant experience there. We'd love to stop by and visit there again some day.

In order of opening:


Front of storeLocation Opening date Area
Square feet m²
1 Kearney, Nebraska October 1987 35,000 3,000
2 Sidney, Nebraska July 1991 85,000 8,000
3 Owatonna, Minnesota April 1998 150,000 14,000
4 Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin September 1998 40,000 4,000
5 East Grand Forks, Minnesota September 1999 60,000 6,000
6 Mitchell, South Dakota March 2000 80,000 7,000
7 Dundee, Michigan August 2000 225,000 21,000
8 Kansas City, Kansas August 2002 180,000 17,000
9 Hamburg, Pennsylvania September 2003 250,000 23,000
10 Wheeling, West Virginia August 2004 175,000 16,000
11 Fort Worth, Texas May 25, 2005 230,000 21,000
12 Buda, Texas June 30, 2005 185,000 17,000
13 Lehi, Utah August 25, 2005 150,000 14,000
14 Rogers, Minnesota October 14, 2005 185,000 17,000
15 Glendale, Arizona July 28, 2006 160,000 15,000
16 Boise, Idaho August 25, 2006 132,000 12,000
17 Richfield, Wisconsin September 26, 2006 165,000 15,000
18 La Vista, Nebraska November 3, 2006 125,000 12,000
19 Hazelwood, Missouri April 13, 2007 130,000 12,000
20 Hoffman Estates, Illinois September 21, 2007 185,000 17,000
21 Gonzales, Louisiana October 5, 2007 165,000 15,000
22 East Hartford, Connecticut October 19, 2007[3] 185,000 17,100
23 Hammond, Indiana October 19, 2007 185,000 17,000
24 Post Falls, Idaho November 9, 2007[4] 125,000 11,600
25 Reno, Nevada November 16, 2007 150,000 14,000
26 Lacey, Washington November 16, 2007 185,000 17,100
27 East Rutherford, New Jersey on hold [5] ~180,000 16,700
28 Rapid City, South Dakota spring 2008 80,000 7,400
29 Scarborough, Maine May 2008 130,000 12,000
30 Billings, Montana 2009 80,000 7,400
31 Wheat Ridge, Colorado on hold [5] ~200,000 ~18,500
32 Greenwood, Indiana on hold [5] 125,000 12,000
33 Winnipeg, Manitoba 2008 (purchase of SIR) TBD TBD
34 Montreal, Quebec on hold [5] TBD TBD
35 Mercedes, Texas on hold [5] TBD TBD

Kearney, NE was the original place opened around 1987 then sidney came about 4 or 5yrs later.
That's what it says on Wikipedia, but I assure you, I went INTO a Cabela's store in Sidney, Nebraska when I was still in High School and we did our yearly marching band competition there. I would have marched my last show in Sidney in 1988 because I graduated from high school the following May. Our buses were parked a short walk away and I remember how big of a deal it was to go into the Cabela's store. Of course at the time it was just a portion of the bottom floor of the building they occupied in downtown Sidney and not the big store that it is now.

I've read the Wikipedia article about Cabela's and have always wondered about the timeline because as I recall it in my memory, the Cabelas in Kearney didn't open until after I was in the Army. We made a big deal about going out to the "new" Cabela's when I was home on leave one Christmas and I was visiting my sister and her husband who lived in Kearney. (Keep in mind that in Nebraska, a place will still be referred to as "new" as much as 10-15 years later. :D)

I could certainly be mistaken, but I'm fairly certain about the Cabela's retail store in Sidney because I know I have been there and I also know I haven't stepped foot in Sidney since I got out of high school. Besides, why would they open their first store in Kearney - almost a 4 hour drive some Sidney, when they were headquartered right there in Sidney?

Ahhh - sorry to beat a dead horse here, but I always do as much digging as I can when I'm presented with something that doesn't jibe with how I remember things. Quoted from Wikipedia:

The company expanded in 1968, moving 30 miles (48 km) west of Chappell to a 50,000-square-foot (5,000 m²) building near downtown Sidney. The next major phase of expansion was in the mid-1980s, when a former Rockwell International plant in Kearney was acquired and in 1986 became home to a customer care center as well as a second retail store."

I knew I wasn't going nuts about remembering going into the original Cabela's store in Sidney. It wasn't the huge complex that we all know and love today - it was just a big sporting goods store on the base floor of the building there in Sidney - almost an afterthought.

It wasn't the huge complex that we all know and love today - it was just a big sporting goods store on the base floor of the building there in Sidney - almost an afterthought.
If that was a brick building in town on a corner, we saw it. I wanted to drive into town to see what other wonders Sidney had to offer.

If that was a brick building in town on a corner, we saw it. I wanted to drive into town to see what other wonders Sidney had to offer.
Yep - that's the one - about a block over (might have been more - it has been almost 20 years after all) from the grocery store where the band buses were parked, and it wasn't really that big of a store.

Yep - that's the one - about a block over (might have been more - it has been almost 20 years after all) from the grocery store where the band buses were parked, and it wasn't really that big of a store.
No it wasn't, and Sidney isn't that big of a town either. At least not from what we were able to see. It surprised us to find such a fine store in such a small town. And the best part was that the motel we stayed in was right next door to Cabela's.:D

I'm not sure those dates are right on that list either. I'm sure the Wheeling store opened about 9 months before the Hamburg, PA store opened.

I'm not sure those dates are right on that list either. I'm sure the Wheeling store opened about 9 months before the Hamburg, PA store opened.
It just goes to show you that you can't trust everything you read online, even when it comes from what's supposedly a fairly reliable source such as Wikipedia.

All I know is that it was a point of slight irritation to me to be told that I couldn't have gone into the original Cabela's store because some article online said that the Sidney store didn't open until the early 90s, when I know for a fact that I was physically inside of a Cabela's store in Sidney in the mid 80s.