Bass Pro Shops: A Big Space Chocked Full of Stuff
By Breanne Boland October 23, 2003 Issue

The Bass Pro Shops is big. You’ve probably noticed as you drive by. It feels even more gargantuan when you wander around inside. It’s true. It’s a large place—50,000 square feet of racks and shelves to wander through—but the Destin location—the 16th store they’ve opened—is the third smallest shop in the United States.

It’s not just because of space restrictions, either. Since they were the first arrival to Destin Commons, presumably they had dibs on space. The company chose to put a smaller store in Destin as an experiment. “Destin is a proving ground,” said Sid Braunstein, publicity manager for the Destin store. “If it works here, which, thank God, it is, the company will open a number of smaller stores.”

In the past, Bass Pro Shops have popped up in places like Orlando, Dallas and Chicago. Future locations include Hampton, Va. and Bossier City, La., with the stores’ sizes more appropriate to the modestly sized cities they’ll call home. The stores will still be large compared to most everything around them, but they won’t be as enormously jaw-droppingly huge as the older stores are. The aquarium at the Destin store is impressive— 10,000 gallons—but it has nothing on the story-tall fish enclosure in Springfield, Mo.

“We chose Destin because of its reputation for fishing,” Braunstein said. “Also, it’s accessible by driving, and not just by flying. Someone from Montgomery wouldn’t consider Destin too far out of his way.”

The store has embraced Destin for more than its cozy location. The store celebrates the town’s history almost more than the town itself. A long glass case by the front door is the temporary home of the Destin Fishing Museum, for now a collection of newspaper clippings, old equipment, and souvenirs that are clearly direct ancestors of those now populating the shelves of area souvenir shops.

The chandeliers and railings were all made expressly for this location, and each animal featured on them can be found in the area. However, more lightly tropical touches that can be appreciated without carrying a guide from the Audubon Society are visible everywhere, such as in the boat-shaped checkout lanes and the pink shell-shaped lights by the elevators. The store’s decorators have tried to bring the outside indoors while still sticking to the decorative staples found in every Bass Pro Shop—lots of pictures, larger than life reproductions of the local wildlife, and of course lots of stuffed mounts.

Taxidermy is a mainstay of Bass Pro Shop interior design. However, in keeping with the careful balance between the eager hunter and the gentle conservationist that makes up the philosophy of the stores, 95 percent of the animals are donated by people who can’t or don’t want to maintain them anymore.

That’s reassuring, but it’s still an odd tightrope to walk: that of being a supporter of those who want to take advantage of nature with bows and arrows and knives and guns, and also of those who want to be conservationists with a “leave only footprints” approach to nature. The store wants to, and does, serve both camps, which makes visiting Bass Pro Shop a somewhat surreal experience. On the first evening the store opened its doors, they raised $40,000 for local conservation. Yet much of the decoration of the store is made of animals killed not for meat, but as a prize, another head for the den.

However, their efforts are not without good results. Braunstein spoke at length about many local projects they have on tap. This includes Harbor Docks Take-A-Kid Fishing Day when 500 kids will be equipped with fishing rods and taken out into the ocean for a day of fishing. “We are extremely interested in working with youth to develop future outdoors people with conservation in mind,” Braunstein said. They’re also working with the Boy Scouts on fundraising. The store is trying to become part of the community fast.

While only open for a few months, it’s settled well into its spot on U.S. Highway 98. There’s already a dirt path worn into the grass by the now-well-known shark out front, which has been robbed of an eye. While the crowds aren’t as thick as they were during the grand opening—when the police had to sit outside to direct traffic—the parking lots are usually full. The hullabaloo is understandable, though. The store has everything for surviving the wilds of Destin (film, can cozies) or the wilds of anywhere (knives so big you’ll think of the trial of the century). What they don’t have on the shelves, “We can confidently tell you we can get it,” Braunstein said.

That’s good for the amateur, the professional or just the curious shopper.

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