Bass Pro Shops

In 1972, 24-year-old Johnny Morris started selling fishing tackle out of his dad's Brown Derby Liquor Store in Springfield, Missouri. His father, John A. Morris, was a World War II veteran and often took the family hunting and fishing, which Johnny Morris cited as what taught him to love the outdoors. People who bought tackle from Morris in Springfield continued to request specialized gear from him even after they left the area. To meet their demand, Morris created the first Bass Pro Shops catalog in 1974. In 1978, Morris introduced Tracker Boats, the first boat, motor, and trailer package designed for anglers. Later the boats sold through Tracker Marine Group, owned by Bass Pro Shops.

In 1981, Morris opened the first Bass Pro Shops outdoor store in Springfield. A few years later in 1987, Morris bought an empty plot of land on Table Rock Lake in Missouri's Ozark Mountains. One year later, at that location, he opened Big Cedar Lodge resort. The resort has five golf courses, and an outdoor arena.

The second Bass Pro Shops location opened in Duluth, Georgia in 1995. From then until 2004, the company opened 3–4 stores a year, and 7–9 stores a year from 2005 to 2008. In 2006, the first store was opened in Colorado, and the first Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Arkansas opened in 2013. In 2015, Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid opened in Memphis, Tennessee. The location includes interactive conservation exhibits, a giant cypress swamp, an alligator habitat, a hotel, restaurants, shopping, a bowling alley, a 28-story free-standing elevator, and an arcade.

The company acquired Cabela's Inc. for $4.5 billion in 2016.

In 2017, Morris opened the Wonders of Wildlife Museum & Aquarium adjacent to Springfield's Bass Pro Shops, which is considered the largest wildlife attraction in the world. In 2022, Bass Pro Shops announced a new Bass Pro fishing resort would be built in Marathon, Florida, on Valhalla Island. In July 2025, Bass Pro Shops and Big Cedar Lodge officially opened a new par-3 18-hole golf course called Cliffhangers, located in Hollister, Missouri.

Starting in 2010, and continuing through 2025, Bass Pro Shops has been repeatedly accused of benefiting from billions in subsidies from taxpayers while failing to deliver on their promises of tourist and economic activity.

Retail stores

Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's operates retail locations in the United States, as well as in Canada. The most common stores are Outdoor World stores. Their largest store is the Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. As of March 2026, the company operates 181 Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's stores combined.

Store types

At every Bass Pro location, there are names on the front of the buildings to represent their theme and location, commonly named based on the local area. As of 2022, there are five types of stores: Outdoor World, Outpost, Stick Marsh Outpost, Sportsman's Center, and White River Outpost. All locations contain an aquarium as well as animal statues, waterfalls, etc. Fourteen of the stores have replica natural habitat displays created by TreeScapes & PlantWorks.

Outdoor World: Themed around a cypress forest. Features wood and rock architecture, faux rivers, animal displays, trees, foliage, and murals of outdoor scenes. The Outdoor World in Harrisburg has a 60,000 gallon aquarium. The Denver location was created with a "great lodge" theme. It includes a log and rockwork entrance, a gabled clerestory, outdoor-themed chandeliers, concrete flooring imprinted with dinosaur fossils and wildlife tracks, and a 21,000-gallon freshwater aquarium.

Outpost: Themed around a wooden outpost similar to a cabin or cottage. Intended to feature less theming in the aisles than Outdoor World. The stores include aquariums and water features, local antiques and artifacts, trophy fish and wildlife mounts, and murals of local scenes. One Outpost was designed with a lobby that resembles an old boat yard warehouse and blacksmith's shop.

In 2016, the company acquired Cabela's Inc. for $4.5 billion.

The deal was financed via preferred equity financing from Goldman Sachs and Pamplona. Goldman Sachs contributed $1.8 billion towards financing and Pamplona contributed $600 million.

In 2019, Bass Pro Shops sold eleven of Cabela's stores to Sansome Pacific for $324.3 million in a sale-leaseback program. The acquisition of Cabela's resulted in 2,000 jobs lost in Sidney, Nebraska, Cabela's headquarters at the time of the acquisition. Since the acquisition, three stores have closed and eight new stores have opened. As part of Cabela's acquisition, the company agreed to sell the assets and liabilities of the World Foremost Bank to Synovus and Capital One, a transfer of over $1 billion in assets.

In 2020, Great Outdoors Group, the parent company of Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's, attempted to acquire Sportsman's Warehouse. However, the deal was canceled in 2021 after the Federal Trade Commission indicated they were not going to provide clearance.

Lawsuits

In 2011, Bass Pro Shops was sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for failure to hire Hispanic and black applicants. In court filings, Bass Pro Shops denied all of the allegations and in 2014, Bass Pro Shops appealed the lower court's ruling, but was rejected by the court. In 2016, Bass Pro Shops tried again and the U.S. EEOC asked the Fifth Circuit Court to reject Bass Pro Shops' appeal because Bass Pro Shops engaged in the practice of "reckless indifference" when it came to hiring minorities. In 2017, Bass Pro Shops settled its discrimination lawsuit with the U.S. EEOC for $10.5 million. The court noted that any payments Bass Pro Shops made as part of the settlement "should not be construed as an admission of liability." The case was settled by a consent decree, and the court issued no findings on the veracity of the claims of the EEOC that there had been discrimination. As part of the settlement, Bass Pro Shops agreed to strengthen its diversity hiring and recruiting practices by posting job openings at schools with a significant minority population, participating in job fairs held in communities with large minority populations, posting job openings in publications that have been historically popular with Black and Hispanic audiences, and develop a diversity and inclusion section of its website that lists job opportunities and discusses inclusion efforts.

In 2022, Bass Pro Shops was sued for not honoring a lifetime warranty on "RedHead Lifetime Guarantee All Purpose Wool Socks."

In June 2025, a proposed class-action lawsuit was filed against Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's, accusing the companies of conspiring with manufacturers and distributors of archery equipment, as well as the Archery Trade Association, to engage in price fixing that harmed consumers through artificially inflated prices.