Will Bass Pro Shops’ New Mega Store Change the Retail Store Experience?

Bass Pro Shops recently announced a “new mega outdoor world destination retail store to serve the Tucson area.”

Tucson news reported that the company “plans to build a 100,000-square-foot ‘destination’ retail store at The Bridges development on Tucson’s south side, its first in the area and third in Arizona.”

According to Tucson City Manager Michael Ortega, “Bass Pro Shops’ Outdoor World draws more than 200 million visitors annually across its locations in the U.S. and Canada, and more than half travel more than 30 miles, attracting significant numbers of out-of-town guests.”

As part of its successful formula, Bass Pro Shops has been pioneering the idea of its stores being a full-on experience for shoppers. Many of its stores “feature large aquariums and water features stocked with native fish species and used for live fishing demonstrations, as well as local antiques and artifacts, trophy fish and wildlife mounts, and murals depicting local scenes.”

The new Tucson location will generate high expectations, especially if it’s compared to Bass Pro Shops’ 32-story metal pyramid located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. According to The Atlantic, “The mammoth structure once held an arena for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. Now it houses the largest Bass Pro Shops in the world, a hunting-, fishing-, and camping-gear store that has been merchandised with Disney-level production values and expanded to encompass a hotel with more than 100 rooms, a wild-game-themed outpost of the Wahlburgers restaurant chain, several enormous lake sturgeon swimming in shallow pools between departments, and at least three live alligators, among other things.”

Impressively, that particular location is nearly five times the size of an average Walmart and is approximately 535,000 square feet of filled retail space. The very top of the pyramid also holds monthly “Parties at the Pyramid” that rival high-end clubs all over the country.

But The Atlantic also argues that grand stores like these are more likely to open in higher-income areas. This may be because “the math of building a pleasant store is just more likely to work out if you’re selling more expensive products. Consumers who are less price-sensitive can handle higher markups, and better margins mean more money sloshing around to ensure that stores always look good and are generously staffed with pleasant salespeople.”

The new Tucson location might not be quite as grand as the Memphis Pyramid, but it should help Bass Pro Shops meet its goal of providing people with “the widest selection of quality products at the best prices around, providing genuine, friendly expert service,” according to its press release.

The mega store will include a gift and nature center with a vast assortment of outdoor-themed items, and “a team of talented artists and craftsmen will design the store’s localized imagery to reinforce its immersive outdoor theme.” Bass Pro Shops also plans to host events with interactive activities and hands-on demonstrations throughout the year to help connect people — especially children — to the outdoors.

Ultimately, this new store seems on par with other Bass Pro Shops locations, which blur the line between retail, entertainment, and education in hopes of turning stores into experiences.

The Atlantic noted that around the turn of the last century, “stores such as Macy’s, Wanamaker’s, and Marshall Field’s not only sold stuff but also positioned themselves as centers of city life, with in-house restaurants, lavish concerts and entertainment, even free child care. Today, most of these stores no longer exist.” Maybe Bass Pro Shops will continue to keep this once-historic tradition alive and usher forth a new era of destination shopping stores worth going to in person.