Bass Pro is a Mecca for Men

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — This Ozark Mountain city doesn’t look like a tourist destination. But every year, 4 million hunters and anglers travel from all over the world to Springfield to visit America’s largest Bass Pro Shop. It’s the state’s No. 1 tourist attraction.

With four stories and 300,000 SF of floor space, Bass Pro calls it “The Granddaddy of All Outdoor Stores.” It’s a mecca for men, a temple of testosterone, where homage is paid to man’s history as hunter and gatherer.

And gather they do.

Men wander the maze of Bass Pro amidst stuffed grizzly bears and a 40-foot waterfall, weaving in and out of a thick underbrush of camouflage hunting jackets and dried pig ears. They squeeze fish-faced beer-can cozies like women squeeze cantaloupes at the supermarket to check for ripeness.

Customers are encouraged to bring their dogs inside instead of leaving them in a hot vehicle in the parking lot. Hunting hounds wait patiently while their owners shop inside the glassed-in Fine Gun Room or do some target practicing at the indoor firing range.

Last year, a group of men traveled from Japan to the United States just to shop at Bass Pro, said Eric Volmer, promotions manager for the store. And South African anglers stopped by during a cross-country flight in the middle of a fishing tournament to stock up on lures.

Bass Pro is a privately held company that doesn’t usually release financial figures, but The Wall Street Journal reported in December that the company’s revenue was about $1.25 billion in 2001, neck-and-neck with its rival Cabela’s in a retail war reminiscent of the much larger Wal-Mart/Kmart battle of the discounters.

Founded in 1961, Cabela’s of Sidney, Neb., has eight stores, including one that is the biggest tourist attraction in Michigan, reeling in more than 6 million customers a year. But Cabela’s relies primarily on catalog sales.

Bass Pro, founded in 1972, has concentrated more on retail, Volmer said. Bass Pro has 16 retail stores throughout the eastern half of the United States and is shooting for 25 by the end of the year. Future plans apparently include a store in Little Rock as well.

Although Bass Pro hasn’t officially announced plans for a store in Little Rock, Tommy Hodges went before the Little Rock board of directors on Feb. 28 to ask for tax breaks to build an $18 million Bass Pro store on 30 acres west of the intersection of Interstates 30 and 430. Hodges is president of Otter Creek Land Co. He told the directors that Bass Pro plans to build a 125,000-SF store at the site.

On March 10, state Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, proposed Senate Bill 847, which is aimed at bringing Bass Pro to Little Rock. If it passes, the bill would make large retail developments eligible for state tourism incentives that are currently reserved only for traditional tourist attractions.

Springfield is 118 miles from Fayetteville, a two and a half hour drive through the mountains. Little Rock, on the other hand, is 194 miles from Fayetteville.

Retailtainment

At the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, there are plenty of distractions to keep a family entertained. Besides the restaurants, waterfall and firing range, there are two aquariums, an archery range, a trout pool, a turtle pond, the Missouri Reptile Exhibit and two wildlife art galleries.

Cindy Hollar of Statesville, N.C., said she came to the Bass Pro Shop to kill some time. She was in Missouri for her son’s graduation from the nearby Fort Leonard Wood military base.

“It’s more entertaining than I thought it would be,” Hollar said as she shot pots and pans with a laser gun at the hillbilly-themed Shoot ‘N’ Arcade. As skillets clattered and cans spun around on fence posts, Hollar explained her precision shooting by saying she is a former employee of the sheriff’s office back home in North Carolina.

But the big attraction for kids is next door at Wonders of Wildlife.

Officially named the American National Fish and Wildlife Museum, Wonders of Wildlife was the brainchild of John L. Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops. But Wonders of Wildlife operates as a nonprofit attraction. Admission is $11.25 for adults and $7.25 for children ages 4 to 11.

The $52 million, 92,000-SF building opened in 2001. The museum features more than 160 species of live animals — from bobcats to bats — in realistic habitats.

The building has a 220,000-gallon aquarium that contains a variety of salt water fish including sharks. The museum holds a total of 700,000 gallons of water, which are circulated through 10 miles of pipe three times per hour. It also features a 19-foot waterfall. Wild turkeys roam free through the lower level of the museum.

Wonders of Wildlife attracts 472,000 visitors a year. Honorary co-chairs on the board of directors are former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

History

A life-sized statue John H. Willey, also known as “Uncle Buck,” greets visitors at the front door of the Springfield Bass Pro Shop. Willey, who lived from 1899 to 1964, is holding a large bass in his hands.

Morris credits his Uncle Buck for getting him interested in hunting and fishing when he was a boy.

By 1971, Morris was a young tournament fisherman. But he was frustrated because he couldn’t buy the lures he needed locally. Morris approached the owners of Gibson Sporting Goods store in Springfield about carrying the specific fishing tackle he wanted, but they said no.

So Morris talked his father into giving him eight feet of shelf space in the back of his Springfield liquor store. There, he stocked lures that bass tournament anglers needed, and a year later he officially began Bass Pro Shops.

In 1974, Bass Pro mailed out its first catalog. The company now sends out 35 million catalogs a year.

In 1984, Morris bought the Gibson Sporting Goods building, tore it down and built Bass Pro’s Outdoor World Showroom in its place. That store has served as the model for the other 15 the company has built.

Bass Pro basically has two categories of retail stores: Outdoor World stores, which range from 150,000 SF to 200,000 SF; and Sportsman’s Warehouse stores, which are between 75,000 and 125,000 SF in size. On the north side of Springfield, Bass Pro has a 1.7 million-SF headquarters complex that includes warehouses and a distribution center.

Bass Pro currently has retail stores in Springfield; Chicago; Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Detroit; St. Louis; Baltimore; Cincinnati; Memphis; Nashville, Tenn.; Charlotte, N.C.; and three cities in Florida — Islamorada, Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando. A Bass Pro Shops Outlet Center is also located in Springfield.

The company has announced future stores to be located in Bossier City, La.; Destin, Fla.; Las Vegas; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Hampton, Va.; and Savannah, Ga.

Currently, the closest to Little Rock is an 83,500-SF Sportsman’s Warehouse on the east side of Memphis. It is not considered a tourist destination and didn’t receive tax incentives for locating there, said Larry Henton, vice president for research at the Memphis Chamber of Commerce.

“Retail in Memphis doesn’t get tax incentives unless it’s downtown,” Henton said.

People may think hunting is a Southern thing, but the leading states for deer hunting (and number of licensed hunters) are Pennsylvania (1,299,372), Michigan (1,005,000), Wisconsin (894,543), New York (812,446) and Texas (645,000). The leading deer kill states (and number of deer killed last year) are Wisconsin (469,555), Texas (442,000), Michigan (440,000), Pennsylvania (430,583) and Georgia (375,100).

Natural Selection

In the decade that ended in 2001, the number of U.S. hunters declined by 7 percent, while expenditures pertaining to hunting increased by 29 percent. During the same time period, the number of anglers stayed flat.

But Bass Pro seems to have plenty of room for growth. The hunting and fishing market appears to be grossly underserved.

Hunters and anglers spend about $59 billion per year on their leisure activities, according to Bass Pro. Of that amount, $30.2 billion is spent on equipment. There are 106.2 million “outdoor enthusiasts” in the United States, including 35.2 million anglers and 14 million hunters.

Yet there is no national chain of stores devoted just to serving them. The $25 billion toy industry, however, has given rise to Toys ‘R’ Us Inc., which had revenue last year of $11 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

As Bass Pro grows, it takes market share from smaller stores, including everything from mom-and-pop bait shops to the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

With hunters and anglers, Bass Pro wins out over Wal-Mart because of selection. Bass Pro’s inventory of hunting and fishing gear is six to 10 times deeper than that of Wal-Mart, especially on the more expensive items.

To read more about Bass Pro Shop, click here.