Cabela’s opens its outdoors ‘experience’ this week

“Just that word — experience,” Miller said Thursday. “When you walk in here, it is an experience. You see all of it. It feels like you’re in the wild. It feels like you’re in the outdoors.”

Hunting, boating, camping and more are “huge in Ohio,” she said. So are turkey- and deer-hunting, as well as canoeing and kayaking.

The Sidney, Neb.-based company opened a store in Butler County’s West Chester Twp. last August and plans to open another store in Avon this fall. A Columbus store opened in 2013.

The new store at 5500 Cornerstone North Blvd. just outside of Centerville is a more “central location” between Columbus and West Chester, Miller said. The store will employ about 140 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers, said Mike Adlesh, general manager.

Customers will find a replica of a mountain, an artificial waterfall, an aquarium, an archery range, firearms library, clothing, gear, some books and more.

“What we sell is fun,” Adlesh said.

An opening ceremony on Thursday is slated for 9:45 a.m. with a ribbon cutting. Hours of opening-day events are planned, with scheduled appearances by Eva Shockey, co-host of “Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures,” and others.

Cabela’s is joining a crowded, competitive market, but one that has embraced outdoors stores. Local customers can choose from Gander Mountain in Huber Heights, Woodbury Outfitters near the Jefferson Outlet Malls in Jeffersonville, several Dick’s Sporting Goods stores and the Field & Stream store that opened last year in the Austin Landing development in Miami Twp.

The store opening this week will be Cabela’s 81st location in North America.

It will open in the “Cornerstone of Centerville North,” which mostly is focused on retail. It will be just east of the Costco Warehouse store that opened in November 2014.

Last spring, Oberer Cos., Cornerstone’s developer, broke ground on two 10,000-square-foot retail centers near Costco. Last November, Kroger submitted building plans to the city of Centerville for a proposed 125,000-square-foot grocery store between Cabela’s and Costco. And earlier this month, Oberer said Kroger, Cornerstone Developers, Ltd., and Oberer affiliates successfully closed on the sale of 15 acres at the site.

Cabela’s calls itself the “the world’s foremost outfitter.” In February, it reported that for fiscal year 2015, its net income was $204.7 million compared to $207.1 million the previous year. For the final quarter, total revenue increased 10.5 percent to $1.4 billion.