Cabela’s Stamp of Approval

When Cabela’s picks your town for a retail store there is a certain aura that goes with their choice. After all, the company only has 10 retail stores in addition to their catalog business, but did over $1.6 billion in sales in 2004. These are BIG stores! In fact they are often the major tourist attraction in some states.

Cabela’s picked Dundee, MI a town of 2,800 in 1999 (3,522 population in 2004) for a new 225,000 sf store. The town is midway between Ann Arbor and Toledo, OH on route 23 (not an interstate). It’s a young town with a medium age of only 30.7 years compared to the national average of 35.3. But it was a sleepy town until then.

Cabela’s has hired 600 employees, but Chuck Drexler, of the Dundee Businessman’s Association estimates that more than 1000 jobs have been created since the retailer opened their doors, “People now know where we’re at. In Cabela’s first year of operation, it brought 6 million people to town.”

Recently Global Engine Alliance, a joint venture of Daimler Chrysler, Mitsubishi and Hyundai announced the building of two automobile-engine plants in Dundee that will eventually hire another 800.

Dundee is a town on the move. It got a break and is making the most of it.