Cabela’s Deal Spurs Uncertainty for Small Nebraska Town

The small town’s biggest success story and biggest employer, outdoor-gear retailer Cabela’s Inc., was being sold to rival Bass Pro Shops for $4.5 billion. The combination, which had been rumored for months, set off fresh fears about job losses at Cabela’s headquarters and what it could mean to the area’s future.  “When Cabela’s thrives, the town thrives,” said the 61-year-old. “It means there are more people who are going to buy more products here. We have car dealerships. We have a Wal-Mart.” Sidney, which is three-hour drive northeast from Denver, was founded in 1867 by the Union Pacific Railroad and became a frontier town filled with saloons and brothels that boomed during the gold rush. But since the 1960s it has been best known as Cabela’s country. The company, which started as a family-run catalog retailer, moved its operations into a vacant John Deere building in downtown Sidney. Over the next four decades it opened wildlife-bedecked megastores around the country. The company went public in 2004 and last year it booked sales of $4 billion. The area has more jobs (about 8,000) than residents (about 6,800) with nearly half those workers commuting from within 60 miles, according to city statistics. Cabela’s employs roughly 2,000 individuals from the surrounding area, said Sidney Mayor Mark Nienhueser, himself a former Cabela’s worker. It operates a large distribution facility and a call center in Sidney as well as its administrative offices.