Thread regarding Cabela's Inc. layoffs

Blaming the customer is absolutely what got tommy's direction in trouble - critically important to offer the customer what they are looking for and not what we thought they wanted. The Tractor project was a disaster at every level- Tommy and crew were smarter than everyone else - nope - quite the opposite

Land and Wildlife Management was innovative, but our customers were too stupid to buy our overpriced tractors.

The previous post is absolutely right. Blaming all the crappy merchandise on the execs is a cop out.

They rearranged a lot of the stores and put North Face, Under Armour, and other brands at the front because they were selling way better than Cab brand. So instead of changing our merchandise or marketing it differently, they just moved it to the back of the department (they thought that would work?). They were so pompass that it must have been the location of the products, not the actual products.

Cabelas also blamed the weather on bad sales sometimes. While I get that, I see that other retailers (with easily shopped web sites) had no such issue with weather. Cabelas said they knew the customer but instead treated them like they were idiots...especially in this day and age of the savvy shopper.

Catalogs being sent to the same customers ever single year with no new acquisition...despite what the marketing and brand team said. That costs money to do and they didn't want to spend it and then complained about sales and not landing new customers (make sense?). That is more on the marketing team than the merchants, I know.

While I get that the execs were "driving" the overall direction, if the merchants did any research, presented their proposals with solid stats and direction, and worked with the catalog designers and visual merch people to make sense of the locations, they could have made a difference.

Instead, most did what they always did because it was easy and then met at the bar at 2 pm every Friday.

The merchants were just following directions given from the top down. As someone mentioned in a previous post, it was a disaster with b. Lineman in charge. You didn't dare argue his decisions! Sell guns and ammo!!! Flood the market with Cabela's private label (high margins) products, that didn't sell. That was the thought process.

I don't understand this viewpoint either - the whole so called direction by Tommy - out with the old, in with the new, we will show everyone - b Linneman was placed in charge which was a disaster- huge leadership mistakes that continue to multiply

This post and attached comment is interesting in that it puts blame on the merchants, most who were new - what is missing is the leadership that held the merchants feet to the fire to ensure development of new and exciting - that is the true baseline cause, getting directly back to Tommy it is core leadership and expectations lead by the vision and direction of passionate vision supporting the brand

It was easy to be a merchant during the Obama years, they leaned on firearms and ammo to carry the load. As long as Cabela's was in stock on guns and ammo, no one gave a second thought about the other categories. Yes softgoods had a few small minor wins along the way, but like most Cabela's private label, they copied the competition and sold it at a lower price to show some sort of value/savings. No real thought or effort, just wait for UA or north face to roll out there assortment and cherry pick the best and copy it. Now that firearms can't carry the company and Cabela's lacked innovation, they are a sitting duck!

The GM at our south store is firing everyone that helped open the store that past three weeks, and keeping the new hires that normally have no experience in the outdoor's, or outdoor products. It's the big box store mentality everyday now. And the customer base is in the decline.