Countdown to Cabela’s under way

By Heidi Bell Gease, Journal staff | Friday, July 25, 2008

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Fourteen days and counting.

With exactly two weeks to go until the Rapid City Cabela's store opens its doors, the sporting goods store along Interstate 90 is a beehive of activity.

At first glance, the store's cavernous interior looks ready to go. Mannequins posed near the front door wear Cabela's sweatshirts. Racks of camouflage clothing await purchase. Overhead displays of a chuckwagon and a small herd of buffalo are perfectly in place.

Straight ahead, at the rear of the store, all 81 mounted animals on Conservation Mountain -- the heart of every Cabela's store -- are posed and marked.

But then, the cardboard boxes catch the eye. So do the dozens of employees working to get things ready for the Aug. 7 ribbon cutting.

On Wednesday, several women were busy hanging clothing. Others unpacked shoes. A man in a Cabela's shirt schooled several employees on the fine points of archery equipment. Tim Huebner, a Texas biologist here to help open the store, awaited the trout that would soon be stocked in the 10,000-gallon coldwater aquarium.

"Eight days ago, there wasn't anything on this floor," general manager Mary Bollock said as she surveyed the scene. She credits the new store's nearly 200 employees. "They've put their heart and soul into it."

More than 600 people applied for those jobs. They ranged from employees at nearby call centers and discount stores to outdoorsmen from other states. Some came from other Cabela's stores.

Good customer-service skills are key to landing a job here, Bollock said, but an interest in the outdoors is obviously important, too.

"If you can get somebody excited about what you're excited about, that's what we're selling," she said. "We're selling passion for the outdoors."

Even people who don't hunt or fish are likely to find something interesting at Cabela's, she said. The store sells clothing for all ages, shoes, camping gear, gifts and outdoor-themed toys such as popguns and butterfly nets.

For those who do hunt and fish, there's merchandise geared to every level of expertise.

In the fishing section, Spider-Man and Barbie fishing kits await children headed for the lake with grandpa. Rows and rows of shiny bright lures are ready for anglers seeking a prize catch. Nearby, $400 reels will tempt the most serious.

There's more: a try-before-you-buy archery range, a gun library, a fly fishing shop, dog kennels and horse corrals for your animals, and computer kiosks where you can order from the catalog.

There's also a cafe where customers can grab a wild boar sandwich and a latte or sample one of its 30 varieties of fudge (orange cream swirl, anyone?).

John Castillo, who handles public relations for new Cabela's stores, said Cabela's also aims to educate its customers about wildlife. For example, exotic game mounts on one wall are paired with maps showing their native range in Africa.

"We try to make sure that you learn something, as well," said Castillo, who still remembers making his first Cabela's catalog purchase -- some fishhooks and a rubber frog -- at age 12. "Cabela's is a retail store wrapped around a museum wrapped around an aquarium."

Bollock, who worked in the Mitchell store for six years and grew up in Watertown, knows what the opening of pheasant season is like East River. But like other Cabela's officials, she doesn't know what to expect from having opening day during the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

There's something else Bollock doesn't know: What will be depicted in the original bronze sculpture to be unveiled outside the store on opening day.

"They don't even tell me," she said with a smile.

Whatever opening day brings, store officials say they're looking forward to it.

"We want it to be perfect," Castillo said.

The opening

- The Rapid City Cabela's store, just off Interstate 90 Exit 61, will have a ribbon cutting starting at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7. The store will open at 5 p.m. that day.

-  Cabela's will provide free UPS shipping for bikers who buy merchandise during the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

-  Regular store hours will be from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

The building- Rapid City's Cabela's, at 3231 East Mall Drive, was built in four months and one day. 

-  Construction crews averaged 635 square feet per day -- far more than the 570 square feet per day completed by crews on ABC's "Extreme Home Makeover."

-  The Rapid City store is about 80,000 square feet, similar to the Mitchell store. The local store doesn't have a bargain cave but can stock about 8 percent more merchandise than Mitchell.

-  The store is fronted by 18,000 square feet of concrete sidewalk.

-  There are more than 30,000 concrete blocks in the store's exterior walls.

-  The interior contains the equivalent of 2.6 acres of drywall.

-  The building has two large conference rooms and an educational center for school groups, seminars, conferences and conventions.

-  The store features an indoor archery range, gun library, general store, fly shop, a country store serving homemade fudge, and an express cafe with a menu that includes wild-game sandwiches.

The wildlife

- Rapid City's Conservation Mountain features 81 mounts posed in their simulated natural surroundings. It includes South Dakota's state record non-typical mule deer and state record pronghorn, the world's second-largest moose, and South Dakota's No. 2 non-typical whitetail deer, which was shot in 1870. That mount has been "recaped" with a new hide, but the antlers are the real thing, said John Castillo, who handles new store public relations for Cabela's.

-  The record game mounts share Conservation Mountain with mountain goats, a grizzly bear, a polar bear, rattlesnakes, prairie dogs and other animals.

-  A huge aquarium is stocked with trout, which came from the McNenny State Fish Hatchery near Spearfish. The acrylic viewing panels of the aquarium are 4 inches thick.

Cabela's Factoids

- The average Cabela's customer spends between three and four hours in the store, according to company officials.

-  In 2007, Cabela's stores sold a total of 236,000 pounds of fudge.

-  Cabela's began in 1961, when Dick Cabela began selling hand-tied fishing flies from his Chappell, Neb., home. The business has grown to include 28 stores.

-  According to the annual report posted on Cabela's Web site, catalogue and Internet sales accounted for $1.13 billion in revenue in 2007, and retail sales totaled $1.04 billion.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com