Link to Story by Twincities.com
The big to-do with the Bass Pro/Cabelas merger got nixed in the courts recently. Dicks Sporting Goods has filed for bankruptcy along with Sport Authority. Now Gander Mountain is tossing its hat in the ring. Sign of the times I guess, eh? In reality I seldom get my nose past the front door of these places so if they go away its not a big upset in my life. But stop and look at what these places focus on for sales leaders and it certainly is not hunting or fishing equipment. Women's and sports fashion yes....the guy cave no. All of this makes me happy I make mu own tackle for the most part and for what I use in shooting and hunting I can get at shops specific to those needs.
I remember when Herter's was a Minnesota business only 50 miles from home in Waseca, Minnesota. I'd skip school to drive over there and spend the day just dreaming as I looked everything over. My first fly tying kit was ordered from Herter's and those trips to Waseca saw me leave with a couple bags of tying materials each time I got there. They folded years back. I remember when Cabelas was a garage-based mail-order outfit. I remember Carole and I coming across Nebraska while on vacation and going out of our way to stop at both of the big Cabelas stores. Bags again. Now e have Cabelas stores all over creation and what's happening to them? Same with Bass Pro in Springfield, Misery. My opinion of Bass pro was that it was the pits. What a junk hole that place was while all of the outlying properties were dressed in their finest while what was supposed to be the real draw was a dive. I'll never go back there. The Twin Cities here in Minnesota had several Holiday Gas stations that had outstanding fishing and hunting departments where deals could be had every day. The Twin Cities also had a couple of Berger Brothers Sporting Goods stores. The Holiday stations sold the sporting goods side to a very young Gander Mountain. Eventually the Berger Brothers stores were sold to Gander. Gander got huge and today is in the tank. The Twin Cities was also home to a couple largish sports specialty stores called Galyons. Galyons was by far my favorite of the more modern stores and had hunting and fishing departments that were HUGE and the people working in those departments had years and years of collective knowledge in the areas they served. Dick's Sporting Goods popped up out of no-where and bought the two Galyons stores and changed the mission and now Dick's ship is sinking.
What seems to be the common thread leading to the demise of all of these places is laying in of clothing and footwear and golf and the peripheral water sports. Walk into any of these stores and the first thing you see is what's the latest and greatest in women's wear. Then men's and kid's wear and golf clothing. Fishing and hunting, non-clothing, related goods have gotten their areas shrunk in size while the clothing boom just marches on. Every one of these big retailers have changed their mission and today are in dire straits. The mighty are falling.
So in light of that, I am sooooooooooooooooo happy to be a tackle crafter. On this Do-It forum everyone is a master of his own design, everyone has something to offer and everyone is thriving on nothing more than personal ingenuity and broad imaginations. In many ways, this stuff we do is still old school, but we all have everything we need to fish successfully. And in most instances we have baits that cannot be found on store's hooks or pegs or shelving. People helping people....that's first and foremost here and that's what keeps this ship sailing.
