"Bass Pro Shop"--Portage, In.

[bdesavage]

Here's a short review of the New "BPS" in Portage, In.:
Needing new summer waterproof work boots(Bouncing around in a truck all day with wet toes never used to bother me till I passed 50) they had a sale on some and needing some hooks we decided to chevk them out...Also Portage is only about 105 miles away versus 150 for the one in Detroit. Nice store, very friendly people, got the boots I wanted at a good price. Also got some new shorts and shirts also on sale. Now for their fly shop... 1 person working in it Not very much there, next time will drive the extra miles to the one in Detroit. Oh Yeah had to stop at "Anglers Inn" for lunch in Edwardsburg, Mi. on the way back, so I could run into "Lunkers" for the Hooks.
This is my humble opnion your mileage may vary!
Bill

[SilverMallard]

BPS stores are all different and planned based on the demographic and market research of that particular location. Their in-store fly shops tend to be the most obvious example of this. High overhead and low mark-ups in fly shops. So they are very conservative with them. They tend to expand over time as the in-store data comes in. But even at their flagship store here in town, the fly shop rarely has more than one guy staffing it on weekdays. First of all, the knowledge level required is the highest in the store. Secondly, they just don't get the foot traffic or sales volume to require more than one person working the dept. except on weekends.