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Originally posted by 2000Z-71:
Unfortunately I've watched the slow motion sad demise of Cabela's. We used to take the annual pilgrimage, the guy's trip to Sydney every year driving 3-1/2 hours from Denver to Sidney. If there was any big ticket item we needed for hunting/outdoors we'd wait until that trip to buy it. It was always a great trip, spend most of the day in the store, have dinner in the little greasy spoon in town and buy Powerball tickets when gassing up since they were'n available in Colorado.

The sales staff was fantastic, friendly and knowledgeable. The year I bought my insulated Danner Canadian boots for hunting, the salesman working the department was a huge help in deciding what to buy. We had a long conversation about where I hunted, what I hunted, time of year, hunting style etc. Based on that he brought out 3 pairs of boots, left them at the end of the bench with instructions to try on all three, walk around the store extensively while we re there and see what the most comfortable was. I met Jeff King, Iditarod champion musher there once and had a long conversation with him and heard stories from the Iditarod. My best friend and I one year in the Bargain Cave found the Colt continuation black powder pistols of the 36 Navy and took those home. Even the Cabela's branded merchandise they had was high quality.

Then they started expanding and building stores all over. They opened one in Arizona after I moved down there and I was stoked. Then I went there and wasn't impressed. Lots of Cabela's made in China branded stuff of lower quality and a lot fewer of the big name hardcore gear. The sales staff was mostly high school kids who didn't have a clue. Then came the merger with Bass Pro and it went further downhill in the quality of merchandise offered. Then there were the policy changes, trigger locks on all of the firearms displayed, no more lay a way programs for firearms. Their archery department became an absolute joke, no longer carrying premium bows and equipment but low end, "Volume" items.

Talking with Jeff King a few years ago here in Alaska he provided some additional insight. He used to be sponsored by Cabela's and designed some of their specialized outerwear. When the Cabela family gave up ownership and went public, his sponsorship ended as well as his work in designing gear for them.

Sadly, it's the demise of a company that forgot about what made them great and abandoning their customer base in the chase for more market segment.

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The story isn't really about that though. It's about how the free market allows people with money to nuke towns & destroy the lives of residents.

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Originally posted by ubelongoutside:
Sad story, but that's free market for you.

Now Singer could have re-invested in the area, but it sounds like he cut and ran. Again his money, his decision.

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Money that does go back to the community is in the form of employee salaries and most 'Mom & Pop' stores only have a handful of employees while the big box stores have dozens.

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Originally posted by Doc H.:
A substantial part of Nebraska's business woes are directly related to it's very business-unfriendly tax structure and policies. It's consistently rated as one of the least tax friendly states, to businesses and individuals, with some of the highest property taxes in the country. TD Ameritrade just jumped ship as well. No matter what tax breaks they give businesses to move in, that's pretty much overcome by long term financial hostility, with Nebraska's legislature apparently oblivious to the most basic tenets of even self-preservation. It's a table top example of what eventually happens when you think you can tax your way to prosperity - Democrat candidates should pay close attention. But they do have good weather, mountains and beaches. Oh, wait....

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Originally posted by jhe888:
This report is "fake news" in some ways. The investment fun did not destroy Sidney. The investment fund did what investors do and moved to maximize its return. That had the unintended and collateral effect of damaging the local economy by shuttering a large employer. "Destroyed" implies purposeful action.

Also, other factors were at play in the "destruction" of Sidney. First, and most important was the fact that one company was such a large part of the local economy. Shuttering Cabelas would not "destroy" the economy of a moderately large city. As DocH noted, Nebraska's policies toward corporations made it hard to stay in Nebraska. Yet, no one says "Nebraska destroyed Sidney."

Finally, what should we do about this? Such a report implies that someone should "do something." No, that is the way free markets work. If you interfere by strengthening anti-trust laws, for example, you will have some other consequence that you can't even anticipate now. Government intervention in markets rarely improves things in the long term.

Fake news.