RE: It's coming...
It's in the Tribune, it must be true! haha
Cabela's, a hunting, fishing and outdoor gear outfitter, is measuring Lehi as a potential store location.
"It's on our radar screen. Some of the people in the top levels of our retail division are from Utah," Cabela's spokesman Joe Arterburn said Friday.
Arterburn wouldn't name names, but did say a company vice president -- "somebody who would be in on the decision-making process" -- is from the Beehive State.
"We're definitely interested in Utah and that particular area, that Salt Lake area," Arterburn said. "The retail division definitely is in an expansion mode and they're starting to look farther and farther out."
The Nebraska-based company was founded in 1961 as a direct-mail company by ##### and Mary Cabela. Today, it employs more than 7,000 people and produces more than 30 catalogs annually, including spring and fall catalogs that have more than 500 pages. The company launched its Web site,
http://www.cabelas.com, in 1998.
Its nine retail stores are in Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Kansas. A full-line store in Hamburg, Pa., is set to open Sept. 18; another store is planned for Wheeling, W. Va., in 2004.
Utah County economic development director Russ Fotheringham said he and Utah County Commissioner Gary Herbert visited a Cabela's on Aug. 18 to get a feel for the store.
"We're one of maybe three [states] in the West" Cabela's is looking at, Fotheringham said.
Arterburn said Utah is attractive to the company because of its "great outdoors atmosphere and the people there definitely live the Cabela's lifestyle," with an enthusiasm for hunting and fishing.
The state had 178,000 hunters and 424,000 anglers in 2001, according to the Utah portion of the 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.
"They want to locate along a major highway, so you're looking somewhere along the I-15 corridor," Utah County Commissioner Jerry Grover said. Cabela's also has approached Pleasant Grove, Grover said.
Arterburn acknowledged the company is considering other Utah locations.
Lehi's strong customer base and its proximity to the Interstate 15 corridor are among reasons the company would consider that area, Arterburn said.
"[Cabela's stores are] really built with all the amenities for travelers," he said. "They are destinations within themselves. [Customers will] drive many hours, hundreds of miles" to come to a sale. "We've had them camped out a week before some of our annual sales here in Sidney [Neb.]."
That loyalty may come, in part, from amenities the stores provide to people traveling with animals.
"A lot of people travel with horses and mules on their way to hunting trips," Arterburn said, so corrals for exercising the animals and hay for feed may be found at some locations during hunting season.
Stores range from 40,000 to 225,000 square feet. Larger stores include an interior mountain dotted with taxidermy animals indigenous to the area, Arterburn said.
"It's kind of a tourist attraction," Grover said of Cabela's.
If a store is built in Utah, it probably will be a full-line store and not an outlet, Arterburn said. Cabela's doesn't look for a particular mix of neighboring retailers when choosing a location, he said.
"We have a little bit of an advantage because we have a mail-order catalog and we can easily determine where our customers are coming from by ZIP code, so it's logical to build a store to service those loyal customers," he said. "We're a stand-alone sort of store. A lot of development grows out around us," such as lodging to accommodate travelers.
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