Bass Pro Shops Retail Security Systems and Strategies
This paper reviews the security components employed by Bass Pro Shops, one of America's leading sporting goods retailers. Beginning with an overview of the company's expansive retail model — characterized by large-format stores, a national catalog presence, and a high-traffic website — the paper examines the unique security challenges posed by the sale of firearms, ammunition, and other potentially dangerous merchandise. It then details the in-store security measures observed across multiple outlets, the Intermec wireless LAN system used for real-time inventory tracking and employee productivity monitoring, and the encryption technologies protecting online catalog transactions. The paper concludes that Bass Pro Shops' layered, unobtrusive security approach has contributed meaningfully to its competitive success.
- Introduction: Paper scope, purpose, and research approach
- Bass Pro Shops: Company Overview and Market Position: Company history, store format, and market leadership
- Security Challenges in Sporting Goods Retail: Unique risks from firearms, ammunition, and dangerous goods
- In-Store Security Measures and Surveillance: Physical security, plainclothes staff, and video surveillance
- Wireless Inventory Tracking and Distribution Security: Intermec wireless LAN and real-time merchandise tracking
- Online and Catalog Sales Security: Encryption technologies protecting digital transactions
- Conclusion: Security as a driver of competitive retail success
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds abstract security concepts in a specific, named company, making the analysis concrete and verifiable through cited sources and personal observation.
- Layers multiple security dimensions — physical surveillance, wireless tracking, and digital encryption — to show that retail security is a multi-front challenge rather than a single problem.
- Acknowledges the sensitivity of security details honestly, noting the company's reluctance to disclose specifics and supplementing with manufacturer case studies and empirical observation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively combines primary empirical observation (personal visits to four retail stores) with secondary sources including peer-reviewed scholarship, trade press articles, and manufacturer case studies. This triangulation of source types strengthens credibility where official company documentation is unavailable, a useful technique when researching proprietary corporate practices.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief framing introduction that states purpose and scope, then moves through a sustained review-and-discussion section covering the company's market context, the specific security challenges unique to sporting goods retail, observable in-store measures, wireless distribution-center tracking, and online encryption. A short conclusion synthesizes the findings. The structure is essentially a single extended literature review organized thematically rather than by separate headings in the original, making it suitable as a short analytical case study at the undergraduate level.
Introduction
Today, many Americans are becoming increasingly obese as a result of lifestyle changes that have contributed to more sedentary habits at work and play. These trends make the continuing success of sporting goods companies such as Bass Pro Shops all the more intriguing and worthy of study. One of the biggest challenges facing such retail growth industries is the need for in-store security to prevent customer and employee theft, as well as to ensure secure transactions for online catalog sales. This paper provides a review of relevant peer-reviewed, scholarly, and organizational resources to identify, detail, and outline the security components that are currently being used — and could be used in the future — in a Bass Pro Shops outlet offering both catalog and online sales. A summary of the research and important findings is presented in the conclusion.
Bass Pro Shops: Company Overview and Market Position
Today, an increasing number of manufacturers and sellers of outdoor recreation equipment have targeted a higher-end market for their more expensive sporting goods products (Michman & Greco, 1998). These authors report that such retailers share a number of common operational methods, including "targeting a particular market segment of consumers, carrying a wide assortment of merchandise, and offering services deemed important by their customers such as an experienced sales force, delivery, repair, alterations, demonstrations, and special orders" (Michman & Greco, p. 121). This approach to sporting goods marketing is congruent with Bryan's (2001) observation that "the message is that buying high quality and refined equipment insures not only rapid proficiency, but also high recognition and status" (p. 344).
One of the industry leaders in high-quality sporting goods sales is Bass Pro Shops, established in 1972 and voted the number one "Outdoor Retailer in America" by Sporting Goods Business magazine in 2007 (By the numbers, 2008). According to the company's promotional literature, "With its Outdoor World, Sportsman's Warehouse, Sportsman's Center, and World Wide Sportsman super stores, Bass Pro Shops has established itself as a prime destination for the outdoor enthusiast. Almost invariably, Bass Pro Shops retail stores rank among the top tourist attractions in their respective states" (Company overview, 2008, p. 4). As Bryan (2001) emphasizes, the retailer's name should not mislead prospective customers into thinking the company's stores feature only bass fishing supplies; rather, they cater to the entire spectrum of outdoor sporting activities. As he notes, "The industry offers other examples as well, a most notable one being Bass Pro Shops, which has increasingly promoted specialized, high quality equipment across a number of sports, not just to the estimated 30 million bass anglers in this country" (p. 344).
The company's retail outlets are widely known for their expansive qualities, and most feature a specialty attraction such as large aquaria (Stewart, 2000) or even lakes in which customers can fish and artificial mountains that visitors can climb to test newly purchased equipment (Hepner, 2001). Each store devotes almost 40% of its retail space to interpretive areas that provide information concerning the conservation, education, and history of the area in which each store is situated, and the retail chain experiences more than 100,000,000 cumulative visits per year (By the numbers, 2008). As the company states, "Impressive indoor waterfalls, giant aquariums, wildlife mounts, delicious food and more make each Bass Pro Shops store a must-see attraction for the sporting family" (Company overview, p. 5). The company also supplements its brick-and-mortar retailing with a substantial catalog presence across the country (Mueller, 1998) and receives more than two-and-a-half million visits to its corporate website each month (By the numbers, 2008). According to the company's promotional literature, "Today, Bass Pro Shops is the world's leading outdoor retailer; in addition to operating stores, the company makes its products and services available to customers via high-quality catalogs and a truly dynamic website" (Company overview, pp. 5–6).
Security Challenges in Sporting Goods Retail
Security issues represent a fundamental area of concern for the managers of sporting goods stores in general, and particularly so in the post-September 11, 2001 environment. This concern is heightened by the wide range of powerful firearms, ammunition, and other types of weapons — including knives, machetes, and archery equipment — as well as high-tech devices such as infrared night-vision goggles and high-powered scopes available at these sporting goods outlets (Gerstein, 2005). Likewise, most large sporting goods stores such as Bass Pro Shops also sell black powder, making them a ready source of homemade bomb-building supplies (Schlosser, 1998).
Clearly, although a visit to a Bass Pro Shops store is intended to be an uplifting and positive experience, the open, multi-story, and spacious store design reveals that these retail locations are full of potentially dangerous materials and equipment. The security considerations for sporting goods retailers extend beyond dangerous merchandise, however, encompassing visitor and employee theft more broadly, as well as security for online sales.
Conclusion
The research showed that while some sporting goods stores are struggling to survive in the Age of Information, the Bass Pro Shops approach to marketing has proven highly effective. The company has emerged from its humble beginnings four decades ago to become the nation's leading sporting goods retailer today. The research also showed that the company did not achieve this position by allowing customers and employees to pilfer merchandise unchecked. Rather, its success is the result of carefully considered and implemented security procedures and processes that are unobtrusive and do not detract from the visitor's shopping experience, yet provide the company with the level of security needed to remain competitive in an increasingly globalized marketplace.
References
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Bryan, H. (2001). Reply to David Scott and C. Scott Shafer, recreational specialization: A critical look at the construct. Journal of Leisure Research, 33(3), 344.
By the numbers. (2008). Bass Pro Shops. [Online]. Available: http://vocuspr.vocus.com/vocuspr30/Newsroom/ViewAttachment.aspx?SiteName=basspro&Entity=PRAsset&AttachmentType=F&EntityID=112488&AttachmentID=7f9f9eb0-2281-4066-b382-c00619b835c8
Company overview. (2008). Bass Pro Shops. [Online]. Available: http://www.onlinepressroom.net/basspro/
Gerstein, D. M. (2005). Securing America's future: National strategy in the information age. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International.
Hepner, R. (2001, July 6). A surge in growth for county. The Washington Times, 8.
Michman, R. D., & Greco, A. J. (1995). Retailing triumphs and blunders: Victims of competition in the new age of marketing management. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
Mueller, G. (1998, December 2). It's easy to find the right gift — just read on. The Washington Times, 5.
Privacy and security statement. (2008). Bass Pro Shops. [Online]. Available:
Schlosser, E. (1998). The bomb squad: A visit with the members of a police unit whose workload may be growing. The Atlantic Monthly, 273(1), 23.
Stewart, L. (2000, March 31). She swims with the fishes: Melissa Cnare loves her job caring for creatures in waters of Bass Pro Shops. Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), 1.
Unique retail adventure, innovative RF solution. (2008). Intermec Technologies Corporation. [Online]. Available:
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