As far as fly fishing, I think the Cabelas / Bass Pro comparison would change each time by looking at different locations.
On my way to Montana, I made it a point to stop in Sydney, NE and do some shopping at the Cabela's store there. Since Sydney, NE is where Cabelas has their headquarters, I reasoned it should offer a wide selection of everything. Boy, was I disappointed. I've been to other big Cabelas locations and the selection was far superior. Sometimes it's tough to make that comparison.
I worked in the Fly Shop in the local BPS when it opened here. At first, the local shops were worried about their business, but it soon became apparent that BPS is no threat to the local stores, especially in the area of fly fishing. BPS here is overloaded with trout related gear, and no matter how hard I tried, they wouldn't budge to move to more bass and saltwater gear. I got so frustrated with them that I walked out. When I did that, one of the local shop owners asked me to go back because I sent them so many customers asking for things that BPS didn't have.... LOL
No Cabelas in my state to compare them to, but one of the complaints I used to hear quite often was how high BPS prices are compared to the local shops.
I've never cared for Bass Pro; it always seemed to be more "bass tournament/NASCAR/bubba" oriented (no offence intended). Nothing wrong with that; just not my thing. Cabela's on the other hand I've always liked, and back when Jim and Dick were still involved it was a great company. Not so much now, but I'm still glad there's one near me and I sure hope it stays. The fly shop, while not great, has most of what you need and is a good complement to the one real fly shop in town, and since I'm a bird hunter too I appreciate that aspect as well.
There have never in history been so many opportunities to do so many things that aren't worth doing. - William Gaddis
A lot of the merchandise in those two stores is the same stuff, with different labels. Clothing especially (which is where they make money). I used to buy a lot of stuff at Cabelas, but that has gone down over the years. The retail locations offer poor selection and mediocre customer service (nine people will ask you to get a credit card but two will actually help you if you need it). Prices in the retail stores are higher than catalog prices usually, so that I buy stuff online (almost always on sale, and with a coupon) and either get free shipping when offered, or ship to store for free and then pick it up next time I am in town. They also steal a lot of ideas from people, sell cheap store versions of other people's products, and the quality has gone down immensely in the past 25 years. I tend not to buy Cabelas rods, for instance, because I have had to take back almost every one for worn out guides or reel seats or some other cheap component issue. Every reel of theirs I have used has failed at some point.
Bass pro not so much, I still use and like their Hobbs Creek reels, and haven't had a failure yet.
Will wait and see what happens. If they drop merchandise selection by 40% as noted above, it will pretty much kill the retail outlets in my opinion.
I don't like either. Their fly fishing/fly tying is very limited. I much prefer brick and mortar retail and internet retail "shops" that are strictly for fly tying/fly fishing materials and equipment.
My personal favorite is Blue Ribbon Flies in W. Yellowstone. They ship your order the same or next day. Very good selection and customer service. You can call them and describe the particular hair (for example) you want and they will go to the bins and select a patch that meets your needs and then ship it out to you.
There are other such outlets, of course, but much better than those big chains that do not cater to the fly fishers....in my opinion
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