The Old Times (October 2006)

Cashing in on Cabela's?

by Britt Aamodt

In January 2005, when construction of Minnesota’s third Cabela’s was announced in Rogers, controversy erupted. Though perched at the intersection of I-94 and Highway 101, the city had retained a small-town atmosphere only gradually eroded by the truck stop and big-box plaza located north of the interchange. But change was coming, and fast.

As the nation’s largest outfitter, Cabela’s promised an annual influx of six million customers. The 185,000 square-foot structure would hold a 45,000-gallon aquarium, a mountain diorama and 75 wild game mounts—and all of that competing with the largest selection of outdoor gear to be had in central Minnesota.

What Rogers’s antiques and collectibles industry wanted to know was: Was this going to be good for business?
Cabela’s opened October 14, 2005. A year on, the area’s four antiques stores and Ellingson Car Museum, which sells collectible cars, are still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“When Cabela’s first opened, we wondered how it would affect traffic, which was bad. We also thought, ‘Oh, how wonderful. It’s going to increase business,” said Evie Sandberg, owner of USA Antiques in historic downtown Rogers. “But we really haven’t seen a difference.”
Not yet anyway.

Highway 101, which cuts through Rogers and links the two halves divided by I-94, is experiencing a boom. Cub Foods, Lowe’s and Best Buy are all underway. Other retailers are planned, as are housing developments, which could either mean more customers for Rogers’s small businesses or just more traffic.

“We’re in a transitional period,” said Kathleen Poate, president of the I-94 West Chamber of Commerce. “It’s like flowers in the spring. There’s always something popping up.”

The question faced by Rogers’s antiques market is one shared by many throughout Minnesota, as they grapple with the seemingly contradictory aims of bringing in new customers while retaining a sense of community and local charm.

“The historic feel of downtown is one of its draws,” said Sandberg, whose USA Antiques shares downtown with the Antique Mall of Rogers, both of which are large, roomy structures with enough nooks to keep a browser occupied for hours. Both put out coffee and cookies, and pride themselves on knowing their customers’ first names.

For 11 years, Barb Olson, with husband Wally, has run The Antique Mall of Rogers, a stout red-brick building on the east side of Main Street. She has witnessed the city’s growth from farm town to bedroom community, and the increase in traffic, with most of it driven not by Cabela’s but by Minnesota’s great outdoors. Rogers sits at the crossroads of northbound and westbound lake traffic.

A situation which is not all bad, according to Olson. “In the summer we always get a lot of travelers, people stuck in traffic who come off the highway because they know we’re here.”

Gateway Antique Mall, Vintage Cupboard and Ellingson Car Museum make up the other half of Rogers’s antiques and collectibles scene. Located across I-94 from downtown, they sit in the sprawl of commercial development that has cropped up around Cabela’s. The owners and dealers on this side have become familiar with a new crowd of customer.

“The couples come together, but a lot of wives are dropped off at the antiques stores while their husbands go to Cabela’s,” noted Tiera Marsh who purchased Gateway Antique Mall from her aunt Elaine Storck in July. Marsh bought Gateway because it was a familiar business, another aunt and her mother have both been dealers there, and because it allowed her to bring her son to work.

“Rogers is a good place for antiques, and having other stores nearby helps. It’s got its growing pains, but we’re getting people who come over from the other businesses, and locals coming in saying, ‘We didn’t know you were here.’”

The trick for antiques buyers, advised Ellingson Car Museum manager Patty Zachman, is to time your trips to Rogers, avoiding Friday nights and Saturday mornings; and the trick for store owners is to stay loyal to customers.
“Collectors are so specific,” she said. “The car people have been true to us. I’ve been at Ellingson a long time and we have a group that always comes back to get their car fix.”

Journalist

http://www.theoldtimes.com 

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