Northwest Dive Club

WOOT! Bass Pro shops has announced their Northwest store will be in Tacoma! Cabalas and REI are going to have competition on a grand scale. They are even talking a restaurant and a bowling alley!

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/04/2 ... first.html

Eh... think Cabellas will have to compete... REI is still the stand-alone favorite though. But then again I can't fish or hunt so I stick to diving in the water to photograph the fish and climb the mountains just for fun...

I don't really think rei has to worry about it. It has its roots here, and there will always be the diehards to support it. BPS and Cabellas, however....

They are talking 250 to 350 jobs so that really helps the area. i visited the big one in Texas and it was an awesome candy store! worth visiting just to look at all the toys and all the cool displays.

That is good news for Tacoma. BPS sells my favorite socks in the whole wide world: Red Head..... If you dive a drysuit, they are worth the mulla. I've worn these in SE Alaska and have never had cold tootsies!!!

http://www.basspro.com/RedHead-Lifetime ... uct/34713/

I like to fish when I'm not diving, so I'll be sure to hit their store the next time I'm in Orting.

Dang it Dusty, now I've spent money on the Bass Pro site.....!!!!!

This is competition indeed for Cabelas, but I'm more worried for the smaller stores, like Sportco in Fife and the rest of the smaller local firearms dealer. This would really get a bite out of their sales. I know this for a fact cause I make phone calls quite a bit to different gun stores.

I have been to different Cabelas stores - Salt Lake City, Post Falls, Billings and our two branches (Lacey and Tulalip), and I have to say, the Salt Lake City was the best. Just a very nice layout on top of a hill. The best Bass Pro Shops I have been to is by far the Las Vegas store. Prices on both stores are comparable. As a matter of fact, I just called Bass Pro Shops in Houston the other day for my brother. They don't have a Cabelas there. The closest Cabelas is 263 miles away, but there's two of them 57 miles apart. Go figure.

Bass Pro Shops opening in Tacoma is a boost for the city, good for the shoppers, but bad for the local gun stores in the area. It's a dog eat dog world in business. It is, what it is.

sitkadiver wrote:Dang it Dusty, now I've spent money on the Bass Pro site.....!!!!!

I didn't do it! You can't blame me, no no no.

Yep, BassPro and Cabela's will certainly compete for customers, just like they do all over the country. BPS is roughly equivalent, I'd say, with perhaps better boating/fishing selections than most Cabela's and perhaps less in the way of hardcore hunting/shooting selections. It all averages out. There was an interesting comment from the owner (?) of the Sportco store that after people had visited the cool, "visitor experience" stuff at BPS and Cabelas, they would come to his store for the better prices.

Now, if they'd put the store over here in Gig Harbor, they could have upped the Narrows Bridge traffic enough to solve it's toll woes <grin>

Jim