BASS PRO SHOPS

'Bass Pro Shops' is a privately held sporting goods and outdoor goods store headquartered in Springfield, Missouri. The original Outdoor World store, referred to as the "Grand Daddy" is located at the corner of Sunshine and Campbell in Springfield. Bass Pro Shops rings up an estimated $1.9 Billion in sales in over 43 large retail stores in the United States and one in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It also owns and operates subsidiaries such as Tracker Boats, Big Cedar Lodge, RedHead, XPS, and American Rod and Gun. Bass Pro Shops is known for a large selection of hunting, fishing, and other outdoor gear. Its major competitors operating in the US, include Cabela's, Camping World, Eastern Mountain Sports, Gander Mountain, L. L. Bean, R.E.I., Sierra Trading Post, Sport Chalet, and Sportmans's Warehouse, as well as national sporting goods retailers such as Sports Authority, Big 5 Sporting Goods, and Dick's Sporting Goods, web retailers such as Moosejaw.com, Altrec.com and Backcountry.com, and a host of other local independent retailers. While Bass Pro operates some stores with "Sportsman's Warehouse" as part of the name, it should be noted that the company is not affiliated with the retailer simply known as Sportsman's Warehouse.

Contents

History

Retail Stores

Tracker Marine Group

Locations

Affiliation with NASCAR

See also

External links

History

The owner, John L. Morris, began his career in sporting goods with a fishing section in the back of a Brown Derby liquor store owned by his dad, located in Springfield, MO on the road to Table Rock Lake and Branson, Missouri. That small fishing department sold homemade bait and worms, proving popular enough that Bass Pro Shops incorporated in 1972. These homemade baits were so popular that many people wanted the opportunity to buy these when they had returned home. Thus began the Bass Pro Shops catalog first mailed in 1974. Soon, it became the world's largest mail order sporting goods store. In 1975, to meet the burgeoning demand for Bass Pro Shops exclusive products, American Rod and Gun [[1]] was established. Acting as a separate wholesaling entity ARG serves more than 7000 independently owned retail stores world wide. In 1977, Bass Pro Shops introduced the first fish-ready complete boat motor and trailer package with the Bass Tracker. In 1984, construction began on the Outdoor World Catalog Showroom in Springfield, MO. Big Cedar Lodge opened in 1988 on Table Rock Lake. In 1995 Bass Pro Shops Sportsman's Warehouse opened in Atlanta, GA, this is the first store outside the state of Missouri. In November of 2001, the State of Missouri made use of Outdoor World's popularity as a tourist destination, and opened the Wonders of Wildlife museum next door to the store in Springfield.

Retail Stores

A Bass Pro Shops store ranges from 300,000 square feet all the way down to 42,000 square feet, many of them have two levels and are around 150,000 square feet. Around the stores, you will see taxidermy mounts native to the area. All of the stores have an indoor water feature that showcase fish species that are indigenous to the area with the larger stores having more than one water feature. In some of these aquariums professional anglers and store pro-staff hold demonstrations showing the use of an artificial bait. Bass Pro Shops is also known for its Outdoor Skills Workshops. These classes are free and open to the public on a first come first served basis. They teach skills as varied as fly-casting, Dutch oven cooking, archery hunting, and GPS navigation. The stores offer people any kind of outdoor equipment they could ever want in one store. Bass Pro has published one-page ads in outdoor magazines that claim their stores are “so big, you might need to hire a guide."

Tracker Marine Group

In 1978 Bass Pro Shops introduced the first "fish ready" professionally rigged boat packages and in so doing changed the way the marine industry sold boats. The Bass Tracker came complete with motor, trailer and optional marine gear. The Tracker Marine Group produces more recreational boats then any other company in the world. It's brands include Tracker Boats, Nitro, Sun Tracker, Tahoe, Fisher, Procraft, Kenner, Mako, Myacht and Sea Craft. It sells these boats in showrooms attached to every Bass Pro Shops store, in stand alone Tracker dealerships and to independent marine dealers through out the United States.

Locations

★ Springfield, Missouri (headquarters, Catalog Outlet, and main store)
'Alabama'

★ Leeds, Alabama (planned, near Birmingham, Alabama)

★ Spanish Fort, Alabama (planned, near Mobile, Alabama)

★ Prattville, Alabama (near Montgomery, Alabama)
'Arizona'

★ Mesa, Arizona (near Phoenix)
'Arkansas'

★ North Little Rock, Arkansas (Plans approved and awaiting ground breaking ceremony)
'California'

★ Bakersfield, California (planned, construction pending)

★ Manteca, California (planned, construction pending, east of Oakland)

★ Rancho Cucamonga, California (opened on July 18, 2007 Victoria Gardens (shopping center), east of Los Angeles)

★ Sacramento, California (planned, construction pending)
'Colorado'

★ Denver, Colorado (in Northfield Stapleton)
'Florida'

★ Destin, Florida (east of Pensacola, Florida)

★ Dania Beach, Florida (near Ft. Lauderdale)

★ Fort Myers, Florida

★ Islamorada, Florida (World Wide Sportsman, Islamorada)

★ Miami, Florida (under construction)

★ Orlando, Florida (International Drive)
'Georgia'

★ Lawrenceville, Georgia (in Discover Mills, near Atlanta)

★ Macon, Georgia

★ Savannah, Georgia
'Illinois'

★ Gurnee, Illinois (in Gurnee Mills north of Chicago)

★ Bolingbrook, Illinois (in The Promenade Bolingbrook southwest of Chicago)
'Indiana'

★ Clarksville, Indiana (across the Ohio River from Louisville)

★ Portage, Indiana (near Gary, Indiana)
'Iowa'

★ Council Bluffs, Iowa (across the Missouri River from Omaha)
'Louisiana'

★ Bossier City, Louisiana (near Shreveport)

★ Denham Springs, Louisiana (under construction near Baton Rouge)
'Kansas'

★ Olathe, Kansas (near Kansas City)
'Maryland'

★ Hanover, Maryland (in Arundel Mills near Baltimore)
'Massachusetts'

★ Foxborough (currently under construction near Boston, Opening November 2007)
'Michigan'

★ Auburn Hills, Michigan (near Detroit)
'Minnesota'

★ Bloomington, Minnesota (300,000 sq ft store in Mall of America, near Minneapolis) {opening to be announced}
'Mississippi'

★ Pearl, Mississippi (near Jackson)
'Missouri'

★ Branson, Missouri (a major tourist area)

★ Columbia, Missouri

★ Independence, Missouri (under construction near Kansas City)

★ St. Charles, Missouri (near St. Louis)
'North Carolina'

★ Concord, North Carolina (in Concord Mills near Charlotte)
'Nevada'

★ Las Vegas, Nevada

★ Reno, Nevada (planned)
'New York'

★ Auburn, New York (near Syracuse)

★ Buffalo, New York (planned, demolition set to begin in 2006/2007, will be located downtown on the Inner Harbor at site of old War Memorial Auditorium "The Aud" and will be Bass Pro's first urban store)
'Ohio'

★ Fairfield, Ohio (in Cincinnati Mills near Cincinnati)

★ Rossford, Ohio (near Toledo; announced 10-17-06, construction began with ground breaking 30 October 2007, opens 2008)
'Oklahoma'

★ Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (near Tulsa)

★ Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (in Bricktown entertainment district)
'Ontario'

★ Vaughan, Ontario (Vaughan Mills, near Toronto)
'Pennsylvania'

★ Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
'South Carolina'

★ Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (a major tourist area)
'Tennessee'

★ Memphis, Tennessee

★ Nashville, Tennessee (in Opry Mills)

★ Sevierville, Tennessee (Kodak community; near the Smoky Mountains tourist area)
'Texas'

★ Garland, Texas (near Dallas)

★ Grapevine, Texas (between Dallas and Fort Worth)

★ Katy, Texas (in Katy Mills near Houston)

★ Pearland, Texas (under construction) near Houston, Texas

★ San Antonio, Texas (Largest store in Texas. Fourth largest in USA.)
'Virginia'

★ Hampton, Virginia (the Peninsula portion of the Hampton Roads area)

★ Richmond, Virginia (planned)

Affiliation with NASCAR

Bass Pro Shops and its owner John L. Morris have had a longtime interest in NASCAR racing. Bass Pro Shops has sponsored such racers as Dale Earnhardt, Kerry Earnhardt, and Martin Truex Jr. Truex won the 2004 and 2005 Busch Series championships in the #8 Bass Pro Shops Chevy, and currently drives the #1 Chevy in the NEXTEL Cup series when the team moved up in 2006. Bass Pro Shop also sponsors the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 during the regular NASCAR season.

See also

★ Fishing

★ Hunting

★ Backpacking

External links

★ Bass Pro Shops