Cabela's Inc. is an American retailer that specializes in

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

, boating,

camping Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more na ...

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles ...

and other outdoor recreation merchandise. The chain is based in

Sidney, Nebraska Sidney is a city in and the county seat of Cheyenne County, Nebraska, United States. The city is north of the Colorado state line. The population was 6,757 at the 2010 census. History The city was named for Sidney Dillon, president of the Uni ...

. Cabela's was founded by

Richard N. Cabela Richard Neil "Dick" Cabela (October 8, 1936 – February 17, 2014) was an American entrepreneur, best known as a co-founder of Cabela's, a leading outfitter of outdoor sporting and recreational goods. He stated that his business was inspired by h ...

in 1961. Cabela's was acquired by

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

-based

Bass Pro Shops BPS Direct, L.L.C, doing business as Bass Pro Shops, is an American privately held retailer which specializes in hunting, fishing, camping, and other related outdoor recreation merchandise. With headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, Bass P ...

in 2017 and has been a subsidiary since then. Cabela's

mail-order catalog Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...

s are shipped to 50 states and 120 countries. More than 120 million catalogs were mailed in its first year as a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

. It also has "Trophy Properties LLC" (a real estate market), the "Gun Library" (for buying and selling new, used, and collectible firearms). Cabela's water tower at Buda, Texas

History

The company that would become a sporting goods reseller and chain was started in December of 1961. Richard (Dick) N. Cabela purchased $45 worth of

fishing flies An artificial fly or fly lure is a type of fishing lure, usually used in the sport of fly fishing (although they may also be used in other forms of angling). In general, artificial flies are an imitation of aquatic insects that are natural food ...

at a furniture expo in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

which he then advertised for sale in a local newspaper advertisement. When his first effort produced only one response, he placed an ad in a national magazine, ''

Sports Afield ''Sports Afield'' (SA) is an American outdoor magazine headquartered in Huntington Beach, California. Founded in 1887 by Claude King as a hunting and fishing magazine, it is the oldest published outdoor magazine in North America. The first issue, ...

'', which was more successful. Included with each order was a catalog of other products for sale by Cabela. As the business grew, Cabela and his wife Mary moved their operation to Sidney, Nebraska in 1963. Dick's brother Jim also joined the business. From those beginnings, the company has since grown to a publicly traded corporation with over $3 billion in annual sales. On February 17, 2014, founder Dick Cabela died at his home in Sidney, Nebraska, at the age of 77. About half of Cabela's sales come from hunting-related merchandise with about a third derived from the sale of firearms, ammunition and accessories in 2012. Additionally, in 2012 30% of revenue came from direct sales (through catalog and online orders), and 59% from physical retail stores. The remaining 11% of revenue came from its financial subsidiary and credit card business. In 1996,

Gander Mountain Gander Mountain, later known as Gander Outdoors and Gander RV, headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, was a retail network of stores for hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor recreation products and services. History Gander Mountain Inc ...

, prior to declaring bankruptcy, sold its mail order business to Cabela's with a non-compete clause. In 2007, Cabelas brought suit against them to prevent their re-entry into the mail-order business. Gander Mountain won the lawsuit and began selling online as well. In February 2013, Cabela's sued

for patent infringement over a fold-up cot that Gander was selling. In December 2013, Gander sued Cabela's for

cybersquatting Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The term is derived ...

. In March 2014, Cabela's sold their recreational real estate division,

Cabela's Trophy Properties Sports Afield Trophy Properties, formerly Cabela's Trophy Properties, LLC. is an independent real estate listing subsidiary of Sports Afield, an outdoors magazine. It was founded as Cabela's Trophy Properties, LLC by Cabela's, American specialty r ...

, to ''

''. In December 2015, Cabela's sold their Outdoor Adventures & T.A.G.S. divisions to Worldwide Trophy Adventures. On October 3, 2016, Bass Pro Shops announced an agreement to acquire Cabela's for $5.5 billion.

Retail stores

Currently, the largest Cabela's retail facility is in

Hamburg, Pennsylvania Hamburg (Pennsylvania German: ''Hambarig'') is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 4,270 at the 2020 census. The town is thought to have been named after Hamburg, Germany, but this is likely to have been a c ...

, with more than of floor space. In 2007, Cabela's purchased family-owned S.I.R. Warehouse Sports Store in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

. In 2010, the Canadian Head Office and Distribution Centre moved across the city, leaving the original location as only a retail store. The company had intended to be a part of the Lac-Mirabel project near

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, which was to include of retail space, and was planned to open in 2008. But instead, rival chain

became one of the mall anchors. In 2011 Cabela's opened a store in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

and a store opened in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

in 2012 another store in Calgary,

opened in 2015. In early 2012, Cabela's unveiled a new retail initiative called Cabela's Outpost Stores. The first outpost store opened in Union Gap in the fall of 2012. Cabela's stores have been a target of gun thieves over the years. One store alone in South Carolina had guns stolen from it on three occasions within a one-year interval between 2017 and 2018.

Acquisition by Bass Pro Shops

On July 5, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission approved the acquisition of Cabela's by Bass Pro Shops. The acquisition was complete on September 25, 2017. The acquisition resulted in 2,000 jobs lost in Cabela's headquarters of

Banking and finance

Founded on March 23, 2001 (FDIC Certificate #57079), Cabela's financial subsidiary was named World's Foremost Bank (WFB, a play on Cabela's marketing moniker, World's Foremost Outfitter). The bank's primary activity was as a credit card issuer for the Cabela's Club Visa card, a branded rewards card. With 11% of total sales attributed to the subsidiary, in 2013 it ranked as the 13th largest issuer of credit cards in the US. Around a third of Cabela's customers have this Visa card. The subsidiary consisted of a single-branch bank with a deposit market share in the state of Nebraska of just under 1.2 percent, with $505 million in deposits as of 2011. At the end of 2012, the bank claimed to have $3,731,567,000 in assets. Sean Baker was appointed president of World's Foremost Bank and chief executive officer on January 1, 2013. Baker replaced Joseph M. Friebe, whose planned retirement was announced in June 2012.

2011 FDIC settlement

In its annual report, Cabela's announced that it has reached a settlement with the

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cr ...

(FDIC) regarding its credit card policies and practices. It was ordered to repay wronged cardholders $10 million plus a $250,000 penalty. The subsidiary did not admit to or deny the FDIC's finding, but agreed to do the following:

* Refrain from the Bank's prior practice of contacting a cardholder at the cardholder's place of employment for purposes of collecting a debt after a verbal or written request is made by either the cardholder or the cardholder's employer to cease such contact because the cardholder's employer prohibits such communications. * Refrain from the Bank's prior practice of assessing a penalty interest rate on balances that existed prior to the event that caused the penalty interest rate to be imposed. * Refrain from the Bank's prior practice of assessing late fees when periodic payments are due on Sundays or holidays and the payment is posted the following business day. * Refrain from the Bank's prior practice of assessing a second over-the-credit-limit fee (OL fee) on the first day of a billing cycle when a cardholder exceeded his or her credit limit during the prior billing cycle, was assessed an over limit fee during the prior billing cycle and was over limit at the end of that billing cycle and through the beginning of the next billing cycle. * Refrain from the Bank's prior practice of imposing an over limit fee if such fee is imposed as a result of applying a cardholder's reduced credit limit to balances that preceded the date of a credit line decrease, or imposing an over limit fee if such fee is imposed solely as a result of a credit line decrease at the end of the billing cycle without adequate notice. * Refrain from the Bank's prior practice of establishing a minimum periodic payment amount that is insufficient to avoid recurring OL fees. * Refrain from the Bank's prior practice of implementing an increase in penalty rates without providing adequate notice to cardholders, as required by 12 C.F.R. § 226.9.

Additionally, the FDIC required WFB to make certain changes in their management policy to increase oversight of their credit card business and to prevent further unfair practices.

2011 Royal Bank of Canada loan

The Bank entered into a $411.7 million commitment with the Royal Bank of Canada under a series of variable funding notes issued by Cabela's Credit Card Master Note Trust. The loan is for three years and accrues interest at a variable rate of commercial paper plus a spread.

2017 Sale to Synovus & Capital One

As part of the merger with Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's sold the World's Foremost Bank aspect of their business, including over $1 billion in assets, to Synovus who then proceeded to immediately sell Cabela's CLUB

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

program to

Capital One Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in McLean, Virginia with operations primarily in the United States. It is on the li ...

Video games

Cabela's has produced several series of video games for a variety of gaming platforms, including ''Cabela's Legendary Adventures'', '' Cabela's Big Game Hunter'' series, ''

Cabela's Dangerous Hunts ''Cabela's Dangerous Hunts'' is a 2003 video game published by Activision in conjunction with Cabela's for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows. Gameplay ''Cabela's Dangerous Hunts'' is a first-person shooter where the player goes on h ...

'' series, and '' Cabela's Outdoor Adventures'' series.

Sponsorships

Cabela's Legendary Adventures sponsors Richard Childress Racing driver

Daniel Hemric Daniel Hemric (born January 27, 1991) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 11 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing and part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving ...

in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in partnership with

. Cabela's also has a deck lid space on

Martin Truex Jr. Martin Lee Truex Jr. (born June 29, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Serie ...

's Bass Pro Shops car.

References

External links

{{Commons category
Official website
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange American companies established in 1961 Retail companies established in 1961 1961 establishments in Nebraska Companies based in Nebraska Online retailers of the United States Sporting goods retailers of the United States Cheyenne County, Nebraska Firearm commerce 2017 mergers and acquisitions American corporate subsidiaries