My Cabela?s trip
My wife and I drove 6 ? hours to The newly opened Cabela?s Store in Post Falls Idaho.
First let me say that I have never been to a Cabela?s and was more than a little excited. I was driving my wife nuts counting how many sleeps it was till I could get on the road to Post Falls. She is a patient woman that I am lucky to have.
We arrived in Post Falls tired and weary but still game to shop.
The crowds I had been warned about were not there. We wandered around aimlessly for about 4 hours looking at neat stuff.
Man if that store had no roof we would have gotten sunburned on the roofs of our mouths from looking up and saying WOW. ( remember I live 6 ? hours from anything like this. ) This is the big city to us country hicks.
Finally tiredness took over and we could do no more so retired to our hotel room.
Up at 7 am for the free breakfast at Howard Johnson?s place in Post Falls a mile and a half from Cabellas. My wife yells at me to go back to bed it was too dammed early. ( It wasn?t! they opened at 8am a short hours hence but she’s the boss ) So I turned on a lamp and sulked while reading my Dutch oven recipe book. Well with one thing and another it was 8:30 am a half hour late till we finally once again darkened the Cabellas door.
I have to say that every single sales person in the place was more than nice to us. They are just still quite green at the new store. Lets just say all the glitches were not yet ironed out yet. I asked a nice young man in the boot dept where the Chotas were kept. He advised me that he had never heard of Chotas. I advised him they were wading boots for fishing. He said they probably were not in the shoe dept. but probably in the fishing section. At this point I spotted a pair of Chota STL?s about 4 feet from him and pointed them out. We both laughed at that.
Now while I am not noted for doing much effective planning on trips of this type , this trip was the exception. I have been pouring over Cabela?s catalogues for over a year in expectation of the opening day.
I made a list of everything I planned to buy when I arrived. Plus a list of just plain neat stuff to look over. I copied and pasted the Catalogue numbers for each item so I would have a ready reference to show the clerks. Major bonus, several times I needed that number because the staff hadn?t a clue what I was talking about. It sped up my shopping considerably. And wonder of wonders I remembered to bring the list!!!
One really nice helpful older staff member who admitted that He was learning on the job didn?t know how to find anything on the computer. So I took 5 minutes and showed him a couple of things and together we found what I was looking for in the Cabela?s online catalogue. He said You should apply for a job here. I laughed and said it was a 7 hour commute.
We then went over to the Sportsman?s Warehouse in Spokane about 22 miles away from Cabela?s . I liked it as much as I liked Cabela?s. Slightly different stuff and some unique stuff I couldn?t get at Cabela?s made me happy as a clam.
We shopped Spokane then went back to Cabela?s to meet with Lotec Joe and Linda, also with road hog
( Joe and Heidi Clark ) . First we had to go directly to the fish tank because it was feeding time for the fishes. They wouldn?t let me and Joe drop a line in to show the tourists how to properly play a fish.
How selfish of them, right? It was fun watching those big trout grab those worms. Who knew trout would eat worms??? It was even more fun watching them feed live gold fish to the warm water fish . The Bass and Pike snatched up the hapless gold fish with abandon. Got yer heart racing for sure. Then we toured the Central Mountain and looked at all the fine realistic mounted animals. Very well done. My wife didn?t particularly like the rattle snake but ya can?t please everyone. It gave us an appetite so we went for dinner at The Cabela?s restaurant . It is a cafeteria style and everyone said they enjoyed it, the prices were good.
In my opinion there are a lot of better places to eat nearby in Post Falls even a restaurant that has a wild game menu like Cabela?s so I will pass on Cabela?s restaurant on future trips.
We sat in the restaurant for over an hour enjoying each others company telling lies and stories till finally it was time to say goodbye. What a fun night we had.
I bought tons of cast iron , Dutch ovens, camp stove, Heavy camp grill, fly tying supplies, hooks, a line, a reel, some dubbing although they didn?t have October caddis color , the clerk actually asked me what dubbing was and also what October caddis was. As I said earlier , the staff are green as grass. My wife bought some jewellery , cloths and souvenirs . I got a really cool raincoat at $50.00 bux off in the bargain cave. Color me happy
My biggest disappointment with the whole trip was that they are not yet set up to let you cast any of the fly rods. One clerk in the flyshop thought there was no real need to cast a rod because they were all the same. The other guy said Oh no they are not! He explained that they had some fully lined rods en-route and expected to have a casting area in hopefully a month or so. This of course did me no good.
A huge bonus was when we hit the border with $1000.00 bux worth of stuff and the border guard waved us on by with out having to pay any duty at all.
I know some of you guys live near Cabela?s , Bass pro , and the worlds best fly shop , but for us who don?t a trip like this is like an early Christmas present because they have almost everything and you don?t have to wait 3 weeks for it to show up in the mail.
Gnu! What fun!
You gave such a great rundown, I don’t think I need to visit any Cabela’s stores, now!
I’m surprised, that Cabela’s didn’t have some better trained personnel, as “Customer Service oriented” as they are, but with a large staff like they employ too, maybe that’d be hard to do,get all the inventory in and the store opened on time, who knows!?
LOVED the guy, working the fly fishing dept. that told you… “No, need, to cast fly rods, they all cast the same!” God, wait until he runs into some guy that’s had a hard day!?! Did he still have a red mark on his forehead, where his McDonald’s visor used to sit? Hilarious!
Sounds like you had a great time and I’m impressed with your “cut and paste” shopping list!
Gnu Bee Flyer,
I’m glad you had a good trip, but Cabela’s should have hired you to train those young, inexperienced Employees! You gave them a good workout!
Doug
GnuBee,
Linda and I really enjoyed our visit with you & Dotty and Shad & Heidi. I wish I could share the convenience of having a Cabela’s just 5 miles from my back door with everyone. Thanks again for dinner by the way. If you can’t find any Aunt Lydia’s rust colored yarn somewhere near you, PM your snail mail address to me and I’ll send you some. Makes great dubbing for October Caddis.
The “new” must have already worn off…I was in this Cabela’s yesterday. I suppose I was there for nearly an hour. I walked the entire store at least three times, stopped within arm’s reach of a sales person to look at items a dozen times and was never spoken to. The sales people were more interested in visiting with each other than anything else. I’ll wait a week and try it one more time. Fortunately, I can almost see the store from my house.
Best Regards…
I used to live in Post Falls ~~ long before the Cabelas. I know the restaraunt you are talking about with wild game on the menu ~~ that is a great place to eat.
Thanks for the report ~~ the excitement and enthusiasm came through every word.
VEE and I hit the new Caabelas in Lacey, WA yesterday, opening day. Huge store, the fish were great, but very beat up looking, mangled fins and tails, loose scales, etc. The mountain was packed with stuffed animals, not my cup of tea, and had people taking pictures left and right. Lots of goodies in the store, but nothing that really caught my eye (well, except for that really nice Stetson for $119). Somethings went on a wish list.
Hit the fly shop first and was really disappointed in the amount of material for tying and the selection of rods available. Like Post Falls there was no place to cast a rod to see if it was really what you had in mind. The one guy in the shop that was really busy knew quite a bit about fly fishing, not sure of the others. The one guy answered most of the questions.
Ate in the Cafeteria, and it was, well, all right. Opening day and they were overloaded with customers. Long lines for food, not enough room at the tables.
Over all, I was not impressed with the store or the prices, neither was VEE. maybe after the holidays, we’ll go back and see how things are.
The Cabelas in Dundee, MI is a fabulous store. Huge, well stocked, and full of helpful people. It is well worth the trip. And they have the best gun room I have ever been in.
It blows Bass-pro away - even the new one in Fort Meyers, FL.
Now I admit, I have been negative on Cabelas on-line and their attitude. I also do not recommend their own Cabelas boots which are made, for the most part, in China. But the store is an experience. Plan on spending the day.
All I can say is “WOW”!!! I am not even sure how far away the nearest Cabelas is to me here in New Brunswick in terms of driving hours, but I do love to drool over the catalogues when they arrive. The Missus and I are planning a trip to Kittery (about 6 driving hours) and I am going to give the Trading Post the once over while the wife has a frenzy at the clothing stores.
I have been to two Cabela’s…Dundee, Michigan (most recently today), a 3 1/2 hour trip, & Wheeling West Virgina, a sub 2 hour trip. Both are wonderful & the folks working at both have been very helpful…Here is a fine example: I have been looking for a nylon jacket with fleece lining & decided to check the Cabela’s website this past Thursday. I found a jacket reduced from $49.95 to a range of $24.95 to $39.95 & figured I would look for it in the store. The man I talked to took me over to a rack with nice fleece lined nylon jackets marked $49.95. When I told him what I had seen on line, he keyed the jacket into his computer & verified they were $49.95 as the sign on the rack stated. About 1/2 hour later, he approached me & said, “I’ve been looking for you.”. He had gone back to the rack, rung up one of the jackets, & told me they rang up as $19.95! Is that outstanding effort & customer service on his part or what??? Ended up with me buying 2 (1 for me & 1 for my son), Joe bought 1, & Jim Flamming bought 1. I am not sure if any of the others did, but we had a great day. I will say that I like the Michigan store, which is some 50,000 sq feet bigger than the West Virginia store, but I actually like the layout of the WV store better. Service in both has always been great, so give that new store & staff some time…they have high standards to achieve.
Mike
Gnu Bee Flyer,
Glad you and the wife had a great time!
We are fortunate to have one of the biggest Cabela’s to date in Hamburg, Pa. Despite what you may hear their fly shop is on a par with the local fly shops. No, they don’t stock everything under the sun but neither does the local fly shop. 250,000 square foot retail area. I don’t go into to Cabela’s and expect them to be my “local” fly shop, nor to the “local” fly shop and expect them to be Cabela’s. That is just being unreasonable to both. Each has their own unique things to offer. Just proof positive that you cannot please all of the people all of the time, however you can please the majority. Cabela’s does a good job of that.
By the way I was reading that Bass Pro Shops is trying to build a very large facility near Washington, Pa.
Glad you had a “usuall” first time at Cabella’s :lol: .
As our local one here in Kansas City was going up I would give my Dad in Vermont weekly updates of the building progress. Nearly got disinherited (Dad Doesnt have one any where close ).
As for myself, its sooooo old hat by now (I live 12 minutes down the road) and am familiar enough there that most of the fly shop guys know who I am (good thing? , bad thing? not sure :shock: )
Living a ways away it will stay a treat for you.
(I agree about the restaraunts , certainly not ‘Haute Cousine’ are they? :lol:
Tell your dad that they are still planning on building the 2.2 million, yes I said million, square foot retail area Cabela’s in the Montreal area! :shock:
2.2 Million square feet, Good grief! does it inclose one of the Great lakes and a third of Maine?
[quote=“nighthawk”]
Tell your dad that they are still planning on building the 2.2 million, yes I said million, square foot retail area Cabela’s in the Montreal area! :shock: :D[/quote]
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