“West Virginia is full of people who live the Cabela’s lifestyle, people who are passionate about the outdoors, which makes this a marvelous fit,” per Cabela’s Chief Executive Officer Tommy Millner. We couldn’t agree more with the CEO with high hopes that the economy and general good will generated by the Great Outdoors, its fish, game and all other wildlife continue to promote West Virginia in the positive light it truly deserves. Cabela’s coming here is thus both a homecoming of sorts and further testament thereof.

It’s thus no coincidence that Cabela’s in its 50th Anniversary Year makes its debut in the southern sector of the Mountain State. “Cabela’s Incorporated, headquartered in Sidney, Nebraska, is the world’s largest direct marketer, and a leading specialty retailer, of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor merchandise. Since the Company’s founding in 1961, Cabela’s® has grown to become one of the most well-known outdoor recreation brands in the world, and has long been recognized as the World’s Foremost Outfitter®.”

With folks already traveling from as far as Virginia to shop the Gander Mountain at the Southridge Shopping Complex, the giant Cabela’s retailer is very likely to bring even more visitors and thus business to all points in between, the Logan Area included. Gander Mountain, a competitor is doing some major alterations to their Southridge facility, so let the competition and price battles begin!

I recently stopped by the nearly completed Cabela’s site (just aside the Home Depot) for a look see. I ran into several familiar faces that will be working there. One of them indicated that there were some 300 construction, stocking and in-training folks busily working inside the store! A related news release indicates some 175 full and part-time “outfitters” will be working there, nearly all hired locally.

The new Charleston, WV store will officially open its doors Thursday, Aug. 9. A ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Cabela’s executives and local dignitaries will begin at 10:45 a.m. with the store opening for business at 11 a.m.

I must confess that I’ve been a mail order customer since the pre internet days of the late 1970’s. While living in the coalfields of the Cowboy State of Wyoming where the nearest retail outlets were some 40 to 50 miles, the fledgling day Cabela’s catalogue became a mainstay. Just a few years earlier, a couple of outdoor brothers out of Nebraska had started out selling fishing flies via a local newspaper add; but they’ve come a long way since.

It’s no wonder then that I get umpteen varied mail order catalogues a year sometimes including the hard-bound, bible-sized versions possibly reserved for just such outdoor “stockholders” in the purchasing sense. Or who knows, maybe they’re just glad I’m still alive and buying stuff.