How Bass Pro Shops Hacks Your Brain

People drive across state lines to visit a fishing store. Some get married inside one. And Bass Pro didn’t accidentally become that kind of place.

*Retail isn’t dying. This is how billion-dollar brands are making money in places experts wrote off:* https://clickhubspot.com/5tpt

The reason comes down to a three-rung ladder that pulls customers in deeper with every visit — and it explains why REI’s version of the same idea lost money for 40 years, why cities hand Bass Pro the kind of subsidies usually reserved for NFL stadiums, and why its Memphis location ended up printed on the Tennessee driver’s license. We spent a day inside one to figure out how a fishing store becomes the kind of place people build their lives around.

0:00 The fishing store that looks like a theme park
1:40 How Bass Pro’s layout makes you spend more
3:18 Boats: the secret high-ticket business
4:38 Turning a quick errand into an all-day outing
5:04 The craziest Bass Pro location in the US
6:07 Retail “isn’t dead” – the new store playbook
7:59 The copycats: Dick’s House of Sport, L.L.Bean, and Scheels
9:09 From store to life event: weddings and Santa’s Wonderland
10:56 Taxpayer support and lifelong superfans

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