Are You Prepared, Just in Case?

         

            As violent revolutions sweep across many parts of the globe it appears that Cabela’s, the “World’s Foremost Outfitter,” wants you to be prepared should catastrophic violence break out across America. Through the end of March Cabela’s is holding “Great Outdoors Days,” its largest event and sale of the season.

Some readers may not be familiar with Cabela’s.  The Company sells hundreds of millions of dollars each year in equipment and accessories for hunting, shooting, fishing, boating, camping, auto & ATV, clothing and footwear for home and cabin. In the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2010 total revenue reported was $934 million.  It’s a big outfit.

I found eye-catching a portion of the front page of a full-color, 20-page newspaper insert touting the “Great Outdoors Days” event and sale.” It offered $30.00 in savings on a Mossberg “Just in Case” shotgun that included a “survival kit.” What I found particularly eye-caching was the description that the 12 gauge shotgun with 3”chamber was a “Just in Case” model. Just in Case of what? I wondered, so I called the Cabela’s Superstore in Hamburg, PA and spoke to a man named Don in the gun department who told me it was a good shotgun to have “just in case you need it” but that still didn’t explain what you might need it for.  He did say it came with a cylindrical storage container “which you could even bury until needed.” Sounded a little scary to me.  Then again I would bet dollars against doughnuts that there are thousands of weapons owned by regular, everyday Joes and Janes buried in backyards for when they’re needed.  Don also didn’t know what the accompanying survival kit consisted of although the insert photo appeared to show a rolled-up plastic tarp and a tin that looked like it held sardines.

Since Don in the Hamburg, PA gun department was not very helpful I turned to Cabela’s corporate headquarters, which encompasses more than 250,000 square feet along Interstate 80 in Sydney, Nebraska.  I spoke with Corporate Communications Manager Joe Arterburn who said more and more people are preparing for emergency situations in which the authorities might be overwhelmed and you might have to take care of yourself and your family by yourself. Hence “Just in Case” shotguns and survival kits.   “Survival kits are very hot now,” Mr. Arterburn said. “There’s a drive to be well prepared, to be self-sufficient in case of an emergency,” he added.

Cabela’s has the goods you’ll need.  Mr. Arterburn told me that the World’s Foremost Outfitter sells thousands of rifles, shotguns, high-powered “Law-Enforcement Trade-In” assault-type weapons and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition each year.  According to the Company’s website nearly 100 different catalogs are produced each year and are shipped to all 50 states and 125 countries. Cabela’s seems to know just what you’ll need, just in case.

Elsewhere in the Cabela’s newspaper insert were items like a 12 gauge Mossberg 500 Home/Field Combo shotgun that included a home-defense barrel, and a Remington 870 high capacity Home Defense 12 gauge shotgun. There was $50.00 in savings offered on that one.

Violent, sometimes fatal home invasions are no laughing matter. Should a “revolution” spreads across America you’d have to imagine that there’d likely be lots of home invasions, which apparently has led good-citizen and weapons marketer Cabela’s to recommend  that if you haven’t already done so now is the time to strengthen home defenses, just in case.