South Carolina government officials recently approved a package of incentives to be used to attract Cabela's to the North Charleston area. This has local outfitters fit to be tied. The way they look at it, their elected officials are paying someone to try to put them out of business.
'To subsidize someone to come here to compete with local businesses, I find it abhorrent,' Barton said."
Personally, having worked for a "big box" type retailer for many years, I think that these things tend to sort themselves out. The mega stores are a fact of life that you just can't hide from. Competitors have to constantly react and change in order to keep up. There will always be things that the big boys can never do as well as the small company. Smaller businesses have to make service so good that you don't mind price. The big boxes have a tough time doing this with their high employee turnover rates. The best tend to remain, survive, and may even thrive. Hopefully, the ones that fall by the wayside are the shops that go out of their way to make the average fisherman feel like they are doing you a favor by speaking to you.
This is a great time to mention that as anglers we really should be giving business to the local shops that give great service and advice. You may have noticed that I shamelessly promote affiliates on this site who offer fly fishing equipment. However, I rarely email them and ask them where to find the best fishing hole. If I did I don't really think they would answer even if they knew. Likewise, I don't go into a fly shop and ask for the best fishing information without spending some loot first. Fly fishing, just like life, is about the relationships we forge. (Link to the Post Courier article)
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