I remember when I was a kid, I was nuts about hunting, bows, knives, anything outdoorsy. I remember saving up grass-cutting money all summer, then making my dad drive me halway across the globe to the nearest archery pro shop where I bought my first bow (a plastic, round-wheeled PSE). That was around 1992.

At that time, that archery shop was it. It was the only choice - everybody went there. If you didn't like it, you were either ordering from the Gander Mountain catalog, or going without.

I also remember anxiously waiting for the latest Cabelas catalog, Smoky Mountain Knife catalog, Gander Mountain, among othersto come in the mail, so I could rip through the pages, gawking at all the great things that I would never own. LOL

Enter 2007: There are at least 3 gander mountain stores within a 35-minute drive. There are probably 5 Dikk's Sporting Goods stores within that same distance(each with a huge hunting/outdoors section). I know of at least a dozen archery shops, and there's a gigantic Cabela's an hour down the road.

Seriously, have that many more people taken to hunting since 1992?

Are there that many merchandising dollars to be made, that a single 50-mile area can bear that many brick-and-mortar stores and shops?

Granted, Iprobably do live in the Hunting capital of the World, with more hunters per square mile than anywhere else in the country, but still.

Does anybody knowoff hand how Gander Mountain has fared since they stopped the catalog business and went strictly brick-and-mortar? It just seems to me like these companies are racing to buildand increase their market presence, but that the market might not actually be able to bear it.

Just something I was thinking about...