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NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
November 10, 1999
Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University
©1999 Plains Folk
Earlier generations of North Americans and Europeans wrote and talked about the northward march of humanity--how the northern latitudes were better for thinking and human activity in general, and thus the future of civilization lay to the north. It hasn't worked out that way, of course. It's the sunny, warm places that have waxed.
One notable business of the Great Plains, though, is marching north as we speak: Cabela's, the world's greatest outfitter. For years the Mecca of outdoor enthusiasts has been Cabela's anchor store in Sidney, Neb., especially since the company built its big store out on Interstate 80. Sidney was where Dick and Mary Cabela got started selling trout flies by mail order in 1961. They didn't open a second retail store until 1986, in Kearney, Neb., which also became their center for catalog operations.
Now Cabela's has launched a new store in East Grand Forks, Minn. It anchors the west end of a northern tier of stores that also includes Owatonna, Minn., and Prairie du Chien, Wis. Mitchell, S.D., is slated for opening in spring 2000, and after that Dundee, Mich.--which will be the largest store of all. This will complete a great arc stretching up the plains from the Platte to the Red, thence east across the northern Midwest to Lake Erie.
There has to be a logic to this, which I'm convinced has to do with selling fleece and all the other winter wear. There are college kids today who can't remember a time without fleece, when people had to wear winter gear made from plants and animals. Now I've proposed renaming the university where I work Polar Tech, in recognition of the predominant student garb for most of the year.
Talking with marketing people in Sidney confirms that sales of outdoor apparel are good up north, but another sales leader is marine products. Now it makes perfect sense to stretch the northern stores from the great lakes of Upper Missouri to the Great Lakes of Michigan. This also positions the stores for Canadian border trade, although I'm told that with the exchange rate as it is now, most of the Canadian visitors are just "tire kickers."
Meanwhile, back in East Grand Forks, Cabela's is leading an urban renaissance, coming back from the Big Water of 1997, that makes neighbor Grand Forks across the river burn with envy. Cabela's was looking north strategically, but the specific location in East Grand Forks came as a result of local and federal incentives--not to mention the absence of a sales tax on apparel in Minnesota.
Naturally, I took in the opening. The people all around were saying, "Oh, it's so big," but the store did not seem big to me, probably because I've been to the Sidney store. East Grand Forks replicates much of the Sidney formula--beamed and vaulted ceilings, aquariums, a lot of animal mounts, a little mountain with bighorn sheep and mountain goats on it, the Bargain Cave. But it doesn't have the cathedral-like feel of the anchor store (a conscious architectural consideration at Sidney).
There's one other reason for the appeal of Cabela's on the northern plains, and those stocking the shelves had better take note: We have lots of big guys up here, you bet. Lay in those XX and XXX Tall sizes, folks. I noticed you were running short already the first day!
And as for folks down south--well, Kearney isn't that far, is it?
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Source: Tom Isern (701) 231-8339
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136
Click here to download a photo of Tom Isern suitable
for printing.
(isern.tif - 512KB b&w photo)
Click here to download a photo of Tom Isern suitable for printing.
(isern-h.tif - 426KB b&w photo)