The long-awaited day is right around the corner! ----09/20/2006
Cabela's slated for Nov. 3 Opening Mark your calendars - the great outdoors surges indoors in a big way when Cabela's opens to the public on Nov. 3.
Many moons have passed since city officials and company honchos huddled over plans for this promised land. Many rains have fallen since contractors, electricians, bricklayers and forklift drivers began their labor on the mammoth structure.
But each day's toil has realized steady progress and when the mountain-sized boutique-for-the-rugged launches its opening at 12703 Westport Parkway that Friday morning, La Vista may never be the same.
According to a press release last week, Cabela's expects 1.5 million people to visit the store annually and, in turn, campers, hunters, hikers, fishing people, birdwatchers, outdoor fashion buffs and the simply curious can expect a tourist and retail paradise - nearly three football fields worth of education, entertainment and shopping.
Along with aisles and aisles of Cabela's catalog items, two major attractions await visitors.
A 22-foot Conservation Mountain stands inside the front doors, with dozens of wild game mounts from Alaska, the Yukon Territory, Wyoming and Canada displayed among waterfalls, streams, a trout pond and even a beaver dam.
A 34,000-gallon walk-through aquarium stocked with hundreds of fish indigenous to the region will sport information kiosks with interactive touch-screens that identify and explain each species.
Company statistics show that half of Cabela's customers come from more than 100 miles away and that an average visit lasts three and a half hours.
Take those numbers and apply some Marketing 101 concepts - it's a turkey-shoot conclusion that since shopping tends to make fellers and gals tired and hungry, nearby hotels and restaurants will prosper and area retailers will be blessed by the accompanying while-we're here-let's-see-what-else-there-is-to-do attitude.
An imperfect but revealing calculation of income generated just by sales taxes shows why city and state officials might also feel economically exalted.
Estimate on the paltry side that each customer (1.5 million of them, remember) purchases $25 of merchandise. Do the math figuring in city and state sales tax - La Vista's at 1.5 percent and Nebraska's at 5.5 percent - and $2.6 million dollars ostensibly clang into city and state coffers.
Unless you're a mayor, a city administrator or an economic forecaster, knowing how government entities will split this enormous amount probably doesn't cruise front and center in customers' minds.
Here's a more understandable concept - only days 'till you can cruise through Cabela's.
Other adventures at Cabela's:
· Displays of hundreds of big-game trophies and other wildlife mounts throughout the store - including western prairie, northern woodlands, Alaskan tundra and Arctic ice settings.
· Walking path through landscaped grounds with native trees and plants.
· An indoor archery range where archers can test their equipment.
· Full-service fly-fishing shop
· World-class gun library
· Dog kennels so customers can shop while their animals are cared for.
· Conference rooms and educational center for school groups, seminars, conferences and conventions.
· Bargain cave of discounted merchandise, laser arcade, specialty furniture store, art gallery, country store with homemade fudge.
By Jennifer Meyer, Times Staff Writer
# posted by
Angela May @ 11:10 AM
