Cabela's Abuzzed For August 15th Opening of Its Colorado Stores

Cabela's, the World's outfitter for hunting, fishing and outdoor gears, is getting ready for the opening of its two new Colorado stores located at Thornton and Lone Tree on August 15. Over at its Thornton store, the retailer chain giant is busy stocking shelves and training employees. The Thorton outlet is at Interstate 25 and 144th Avenue and covers 90,000 square feet with 175 full-time, part-time and seasonal employees.

The Lone Tree location is at I-25 and RidgeGate Parkway has 110,000 square feet and about 200 workers. It has also adopted a trail right at the back of the store, in partnership with Douglas County, as well as other trails around the store. Cabela's intend to improve these trails as part of its sustainability program, and giving back to the community. The back trail will be used as field where customers can test equipments. Cabela's Karen Koon said, “We will help maintain that trail with our outfitters … as well as we are recycling all of our plastics hoping to reduce our carbon footprint.”

It is the first time ever that Cabela's is opening two stores in the same area on the same day; hence, excitement is running high. Store operations manager at Thorton Tim Ells estimated crowds may exceed the 4,000 to 5,000 typical at Cabela's openings elsewhere. "We're going to be insanely busy," Ells said.

Both outlets are the first for Colorado's Front Range. They are Cabela's 46^th and 47^th stores respectively, and 19 more outlets are in the development stage and will open in the next two years. There were about 2,000 applicants for the 375 job openings at both stores.

For its 2^nd quarter financial standing, Cabela's posted a revenue of $757 million, an increase of 21 percent from the same period last year. Net income was $44.5 million, an increase of 31.5 percent.