Posted on 02/17/2014 3:24:50 PM PST by Red in Blue PA
Cabela's Incorporated (CAB) announced that Richard N. Cabela, Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus, passed away today at his home in Sidney. He was 77.
Dick, along with his wife, Mary, and brother, Jim, founded Cabela’s somewhat inadvertently in 1961 when he purchased $45 worth of hand-tied fishing flies while in Chicago on a furniture and housewares buying trip with his father for the family’s Chappell, Neb., furniture store. With the flies not moving off the store shelf, Dick came upon the idea of selling them through the mail. His first ad, in a Casper, Wyo., newspaper, produced one sale. Rethinking his situation, Dick placed an ad in Sports Afield magazine: “FREE introductory offer!!! 5 popular Grade A hand-tied flies. Send 25c for postage and handling …” Orders started coming in and Mary typed the names and addresses of each customer on recipe cards and placed them in a shoebox. Realizing the potential for mail-order sales, Dick purchased more fishing gear and he and Mary produced a three-page mimeographed catalog which was mailed with each order.
Today, Cabela’s is a $3.6 billion company with a worldwide catalog and Internet business and 50 stores in the United States and Canada.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Beau and I have whiled away many an hour on-line and in their stores. We’re getting a new one 15 miles from us; so excited!
You done good, Mr. Cabela! Love your products.
Great company.
RIP.
Off topic...
But do you think PA could be red if voter fraud were eliminated?
Or is it too far gone already?
He DID build that!
I bought my last 2 firearms from Cabelas in Illinois.
I’ve gotten to the age where 77 seems still too young to die. Do wish comfort for his family.
When I lived in Kansas in the 80s, I used to order from them a lot. I did not know they even had a store.
A couple of years ago, I got one of their catalogs and thought they had gotten a lot more expensive.
Sun Prairie, WI is getting one! Wa-Hoo!
PA is red with the exception of Philly and Pittsburgh. Eliminating voter fraud would be huge.....if any political powers were serious about it.
RIP.
I totally enjoy the Gun Libraries.
He and his family didn’t build that....
My grandfather was a gunsmith over 50 years in West Port, NY, and died last year at the ripe age of 94. Cabela’s bought his entire gun collection from his estate.
A new Cabela’s is being constructed 10 minutes away in Garner, NC. Can’t wait.
Around here they’re eating everybody’s lunch on ammo availability, and at non0inflated prices.
Everything but .22LR. That stuff’s rare as an honest democrat*, even in Cabela’s.
*You can sometimes find it, but it gets bought too quick.
Used to go to the original store in Sidney back in the 70s. Great folks, great company. American exceptionalism at work, and if you don’t like it Putin, that’s just tough.
In keeping with my working philosophy of the time, I bought as much ammo in dollar value as I paid for the gun.
I should have plenty of .22LR.
Besides, both 12 ga and .22LR have the most choices of ammo so there is plenty of need to try various offerings.
Love going to the Hamburg, PA store.
Some little known facts about the Hamburg, PA store. It is the largest Cabela’s store both in terms of sq ft and sales and is the largest gun store in the world.
Also passed the $1 Billion sales mark not too long ago after opening in 2003.
What’s even more amazing is that Cabelas didn’t open its 2nd store until 1987, and then it was in Kearney NE, just 150 miles down I-80. All the growth to #1 ranking in the industry has come during the past 25 years, from a company that started on a kitchen table.
You can still get Eley Tenex Biathlon .22 LR... guaranteed reliable and accurate down to -20.
Only $24.00 for a box of 50.
;)
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