Employees of Colorado’s first Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World are busy arranging the stuffed elk and stocking the fish tank in preparation for the store’s grand opening next week.
The Springfield, Mo.-based retailer of hunting and fishing equipment and other outdoor gear opens its doors the evening of Nov. 9. The 186,000- square-foot store will serve as an anchor to the 1.2 million-square-foot NorthField at Stapleton retail and entertainment center at Interstate 70 and Quebec Street.
Company officials expect 15,000 to 25,000 people to pass through the doors on the first full day – drawn as much by the store’s reputation for outfitting avid outdoors enthusiasts as its museumlike setup featuring dozens of trophy animals, a towering waterfall and a 21,000-gallon freshwater aquarium stocked with more than 200 fish.
“A lot of people just come to look,” said Don Watts, general manager of the Denver store, as he pointed to the store’s 64-foot- high entryway lined with elk, bear and bison.
The rapidly expanding retailer operates 29 stores in the United States and Canada and will open five more before Thanksgiving. The stores often prove to be tourist draws, with the company’s Springfield store attracting 4 million visitors a year and ranking as a top tourist attraction in Missouri.
Generally, visitors spend two to two-and-a-half hours wandering the stores, Watts said.
In Denver, store employees will lead tours through the two-level mountain-lodge-styled center. Officials have worked closely with the Colorado Division of Wildlife to present educational and historical displays about Colorado’s game industry.
The store has hired 250 full- and part-time employees.
Shoppers will be able to attend daily fishing demonstrations alongside the store’s giant tank. The store includes a host of interactive features, including an outdoor casting area, 25-yard archery shooting range, a coin- operated shooting arcade, 35-foot-tall climbing wall and golf simulator.
To encourage customers to linger, the store will be among the first in the company to include a full-service Starbucks. A 190- seat casual restaurant, Islamorada Fish Co., will open inside the store in March. The restaurant, which will provide indoor and outdoor seating, is to include a 13,000-gallon saltwater aquarium.
The privately held company would not disclose how much it spent to open the Colorado store.
Company officials said they are confident they’ll do substantial business with the state’s hunting, fishing and hiking enthusiasts.
Participants in hunting, fishing and wildlife-related recreation spent $1.5 billion in Colorado in 2002, according to the most recent data available from the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Equipment sales accounted for 27 percent of that spending.
Nonetheless, the giant store will face competition from “big-box” retailers including Sportsman’s Warehouse and Gander Mountain, which in recent years have begun expanding in the city. Additionally, the company’s biggest competitor, Sidney, Neb.-based Cabela’s, plans to open its own gigantic store in Wheat Ridge in 2007.
The new store, expected to be roughly 200,000 square feet, would put the two companies in one of their closest competitive situations yet. Historically, Cabela’s has opened stores in the Midwest while Bass Pro Shops concentrated on the South. More recently, however, Cabela’s opened a store in Fort Worth, Texas, putting it in close proximity to an existing Bass Pro Shops in the Metroplex market.
“Overall we’re very comfortable with a competitive situation,” said Cabela’s spokesman James Powell.
Stapleton’s NorthField development also includes a SuperTarget and Circuit City store, which opened this month. The project also will include a Foley’s, an 18-screen Harkins Theatres and an outdoor retail district. Those are under construction.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
If you go
What: Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World grand opening.
Where: NorthField at Stapleton, near Interstate 70 and Quebec Street.
When: 6 p.m. Nov. 9.
The details: Event will include a free performance by Hootie and the Blowfish and appearances by former Denver Broncos John Elway and Ed McCaffrey. Ten percent of sales from the evening will be donated to support Colorado fish-habitat improvement.
The store will begin operating with regular hours Nov. 10, with grand-opening events running through Nov. 13.
