Cabela's Coming to Reno; Rednecks One Step Closer to Ruling Entire Planet
Cabela's is going to be opening one of it's shrines to Horn-Porn here in Reno, complete with stuffed elephants, faux bass lakes, the whole bit. Honestly, I'm really not sure what to make of it yet.
There's been enought written about the Red/Blue divide in this country in the last year or so to fill entire libraries. Nothing I can say by way of observation will really add to all this over-analysis in any meaningful way. But I do think that if you are like me, if you are a Blue American, the sort of person who stormed around for about a week or two after the last election talking about how it was "time for us to secede from the South", if you now find yourself trying desperately to understand the great swath of humanity out there in suburban and ex-urban and rural "Red" America that now apparently controls every element of your life from the moment of conception to the unspecified time in the future when God tells them that they can remove your brainstem from the life-support fluid-pod, Cabela's might be a good place to start.
In case you don't know, Cabela's is an outdoor enthusiast's supply shop. But of course, this is sort of like saying the Louvre is a place where some paintings are kept. For the truly devout, Cabelas is Jerusalem, Mecca, Rome and Salt Lake City all roled into one. It is THE Outdoor Supply Store.
But it's even more than that. It's also something of a tourist attraction. First off, if you aren't an outdoor enthusiast you probably don't know this, but like almost every other cultural element these days, "outdoor recreation" has taken on Red/Blue cultural connotations. I ask your forgivness if I start to sound like David Brock for a moment, but please indulge me. Blue outdoor enthusiasts like me favor stores like REI. The sports catered to by these sorts of outlets are the "Adventure Sports", the kind of non-aggressive, tread-lightly activities that seem to be entirely about personal performance, adrenaline and 'live for the moment' experiences. You know; skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, backpacking, mountain biking, rockclimbing, the sorts of thing you'd expect to find a lanky, upper-middle class college kid doing.
Cabela's is not about this sort of 'get in touch with the Earth-Mother' kind of nonsense. No, Cabela's is All Man, baby. It is the king of the 'other' kind of outdoor sports shop, the Cast and Blast variety. If it doesn't involve killing something or a machine that guzzles fossil fuels like a frat boy on a post-exam bender guzzles Mad Dog 20/20, Cabela's isn't interested. I got your "harmony with the Earth" right here, M-F-er! It's time to kill us some varmints!!!
The Crown Jewels of the Cabela's empire are the massive retail shops. Really they aren't so much retail outlets, they're more like Disneylands for guys with serious gun fetishes. Here's how Cabela's website describes their stores: "Massive wildlife dioramas, aquariums, plus entertianing (sic) and educational displays make every Cabela's store is (sic) a 'must-see' destination." Only eighteen of these behemoths currently exist or are planned for the near future, and the locations for these pilgrimage sites make it pretty clear that Cabela's eschews the East and West coasts, opting instead to locate their emporiums where the Real Men are; Buda, Texas; Kearney, Nebraska; Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; Gonzales, Louisianna; and now, at last, Reno, Nevada. The website promises that the newest of these "large-format destination retail stores" is scheduled to open in our fair city in late 2006 or early 2007. It will cover 150,000 square feet. That's well over 300 times the size of my home.
I am not anti-hunting, though I do not engage in it. I have been known to fish from time to time, and to enjoy it immensly. The thing that gives me pause about Cabela's is not the fact that it promotes these activites, but the arrogant philosophy (if it can be called that) that inspires such gigantic shrines to the myth of the Great White Hunter. Rather than be a part of the environment, why not bend it to your will, or better yet, crush it under your muy macho boot heel? The object isn't to experience or understand your place in Nature; the object is to make Nature your bitch. But more than that, shopping at a Cabela's is kind of the retail equivalent of paying to see The Passion of The Christ over and over and over again. In the minds of a lot of people, it's a statement of identity. In the age of Wal-Mart, this is how you show the world that you're a Real 19th-Century American; shopping as political expression.
When the store opens, I admit, I'll probably go check it out. I might find some stuff I want to buy, and what the hell, I've never seen a stuffed elephant. But the next time I go up into the mountains, I think I'll be able to find ways to enjoy myself that involve neither overgrown Tonka Toys nor firearms.
There's been enought written about the Red/Blue divide in this country in the last year or so to fill entire libraries. Nothing I can say by way of observation will really add to all this over-analysis in any meaningful way. But I do think that if you are like me, if you are a Blue American, the sort of person who stormed around for about a week or two after the last election talking about how it was "time for us to secede from the South", if you now find yourself trying desperately to understand the great swath of humanity out there in suburban and ex-urban and rural "Red" America that now apparently controls every element of your life from the moment of conception to the unspecified time in the future when God tells them that they can remove your brainstem from the life-support fluid-pod, Cabela's might be a good place to start.
In case you don't know, Cabela's is an outdoor enthusiast's supply shop. But of course, this is sort of like saying the Louvre is a place where some paintings are kept. For the truly devout, Cabelas is Jerusalem, Mecca, Rome and Salt Lake City all roled into one. It is THE Outdoor Supply Store.
But it's even more than that. It's also something of a tourist attraction. First off, if you aren't an outdoor enthusiast you probably don't know this, but like almost every other cultural element these days, "outdoor recreation" has taken on Red/Blue cultural connotations. I ask your forgivness if I start to sound like David Brock for a moment, but please indulge me. Blue outdoor enthusiasts like me favor stores like REI. The sports catered to by these sorts of outlets are the "Adventure Sports", the kind of non-aggressive, tread-lightly activities that seem to be entirely about personal performance, adrenaline and 'live for the moment' experiences. You know; skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, backpacking, mountain biking, rockclimbing, the sorts of thing you'd expect to find a lanky, upper-middle class college kid doing.
Cabela's is not about this sort of 'get in touch with the Earth-Mother' kind of nonsense. No, Cabela's is All Man, baby. It is the king of the 'other' kind of outdoor sports shop, the Cast and Blast variety. If it doesn't involve killing something or a machine that guzzles fossil fuels like a frat boy on a post-exam bender guzzles Mad Dog 20/20, Cabela's isn't interested. I got your "harmony with the Earth" right here, M-F-er! It's time to kill us some varmints!!!
The Crown Jewels of the Cabela's empire are the massive retail shops. Really they aren't so much retail outlets, they're more like Disneylands for guys with serious gun fetishes. Here's how Cabela's website describes their stores: "Massive wildlife dioramas, aquariums, plus entertianing (sic) and educational displays make every Cabela's store is (sic) a 'must-see' destination." Only eighteen of these behemoths currently exist or are planned for the near future, and the locations for these pilgrimage sites make it pretty clear that Cabela's eschews the East and West coasts, opting instead to locate their emporiums where the Real Men are; Buda, Texas; Kearney, Nebraska; Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; Gonzales, Louisianna; and now, at last, Reno, Nevada. The website promises that the newest of these "large-format destination retail stores" is scheduled to open in our fair city in late 2006 or early 2007. It will cover 150,000 square feet. That's well over 300 times the size of my home.
I am not anti-hunting, though I do not engage in it. I have been known to fish from time to time, and to enjoy it immensly. The thing that gives me pause about Cabela's is not the fact that it promotes these activites, but the arrogant philosophy (if it can be called that) that inspires such gigantic shrines to the myth of the Great White Hunter. Rather than be a part of the environment, why not bend it to your will, or better yet, crush it under your muy macho boot heel? The object isn't to experience or understand your place in Nature; the object is to make Nature your bitch. But more than that, shopping at a Cabela's is kind of the retail equivalent of paying to see The Passion of The Christ over and over and over again. In the minds of a lot of people, it's a statement of identity. In the age of Wal-Mart, this is how you show the world that you're a Real 19th-Century American; shopping as political expression.
When the store opens, I admit, I'll probably go check it out. I might find some stuff I want to buy, and what the hell, I've never seen a stuffed elephant. But the next time I go up into the mountains, I think I'll be able to find ways to enjoy myself that involve neither overgrown Tonka Toys nor firearms.
posted by Yukon Sully | 11:46 AM
1 Comments:
Never heard of this store. Sounds scary. But then, IKEA is a huge store and it's not scary to me. Guess it just depends on what you think is cool. --mombo
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