So what explains Bass Pro Shops’s climb to the top? Bass Pro Shops’s ability to reel in hordes of otherwise reluctant shoppers to its stores is part of a double-hook strategy that dates back to the company’s beginning. First, each store guarantees a product assortment as wide as the Mississippi River and as deep as the Mariana Trench. In 1971, Johnny Morris—a tournament fisherman and avid outdoorsman—was frustrated by the lack of decent fishing tackle in sporting goods stores. With the ink on his college diploma barely dry, he rented a U-Haul trailer and headed out on a cross-country road trip, filling the trailer with the latest and greatest in premium fishing tackle. Returning to Springfield, he set up shop in his father’s liquor store near Table Rock Lake. With that, Bass Pro Shops was born.

That first Bass Pro Shops store quickly outgrew his dad’s liquor store, and within a few years, Morris’s vision for what he wanted Bass Pro Shops to become began to take shape. At the time, the sporting goods retail sector was fragmented with lots of independent retail shops catering to different outdoor activities. To meet the needs of customers across the country, Bass Pro Shops printed its first catalog in 1974. The company’s catalog business has been a mainstay ever since.

At the same time, the company moved to fill a gap in brick-and-mortar retail. With no national chain that could serve the outdoor-loving masses, Bass Pro Shops quickly moved beyond fishing, adding hunting, camping, outdoor cooking gear, outdoor footwear and apparel, and nature-themed gifts. During this expansion, Bass Pro Shops not only carried the leading national brands, it also developed a portfolio of store brands, including its first brand, Bass Tracker—the first and still-market-leading dedicated bass boat. By manufacturing and selling direct, Bass Pro Shops could not only pass on huge savings to customers, it could compete on price with just about any company.

As Bass Pro Shops grew rapidly throughout the 1970s, the second hook of its strategy solidified with the opening of the first Outdoor World showroom adjacent to its headquarters. From that day on, Bass Pro Shops became more than a chain of stores that sells lots of cool outdoors stuff—it became a place that provided engaging customer experiences for all who visited. Bass Pro Shops has now created what amounts to a natural history theme park for outdoor enthusiasts—the “Walt Disney World” of sporting goods.

Take the store in Memphis, Tennessee, for example—Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid. Former home of the Memphis Grizzlies, the 535,000-square-foot, 32-story glass-and-steel Pyramid now houses the largest Bass Pro Shops store. The store is dominated by various representations of wildlife, from the deer, duck, turkey, bear, bobcat, and wolf tracks imprinted in the concrete floors to the hand-painted murals from renowned artists depicting nature scenes reflecting local geography.

But the Pyramid brings wildlife to life in three dimensions. Each store features lifelike, museum-quality taxidermy animals in action poses—everything from prairie dogs, deer, elk, and caribou to brown bears, polar bears, musk oxen, and mountain goats—set in natural dioramas that make customers feel as though they’re on location in striking outdoor landscapes. And although the animals are stuffed, the Pyramid store boasts 600,000 gallons of water features stocked with live fish and other wildlife. Features include the cypress swamp with an 84,000-gallon alligator habitat (live feedings every Saturday) surrounded by 100-foot-tall trees and the Live Duck Aviary with a four-pond multi-habitat home to five species of ducks.

The carefully orchestrated wildlife displays set the structure for what amounts to one of the most dynamic and captivating retail adventures in the world. Visitors can ride the nation’s tallest freestanding glass elevator to the Lookout, a breathtaking glass-floored cantilevered observation deck at the top of the Pyramid. From there, they can survey the view outside the store as well as inside. And there is plenty to see inside, including the arcade shooting gallery, archery and pistol ranges, Beretta Fine Gun Center, interactive Ducks Unlimited Waterfowling Heritage Center, and the 103-room Big Cypress Lodge.

Because visitors to Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid often make a day of it, the store has two full-service restaurants on site, including Uncle Buck’s Fishbowl & Grill, one of six company-owned restaurant chains. Uncle Buck’s offers a nautical-themed dining experience with a saltwater aquarium that weaves in and around the restaurant, offering diners full views of exotic and tropical fish. And before or after the meal, diners can work up an appetite or work off calories in the Fishbowl’s 13-lane ocean-themed bowling alley where the balls are returned through a shark’s gaping jaws.

Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid is larger and more fantastic than any of the chain’s other stores. But each Outdoor World store is designed to shower shoppers with the same captivating experience. Most stores are just under 200,000 square feet—about the size of the average Walmart Supercenter—with only one restaurant and no hotel. But the rest of the Bass Pro Shops formula plays out in magnificent splendor across its many North American outlets. One mother sums up the Bass Pro Shops experience this way:

We recently had a visiting family group that included two 5-year-olds. They thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Bass Pro Shops! It’s half retail store and half wildlife museum. There was plenty to see for any outdoor sports enthusiast. The kids loved seeing real fish and ducks, as well as plenty of inanimate displays. There were boats they could sit on and “trees” they could hide in. The store includes a restaurant. They offer plenty of merchandise for every budget, but you don’t really have to spend money to enjoy the visit. Highly recommended!

With its retail design that builds theater and entertainment into every store, Bass Pro Shops is not only a haven for the reluctant male outdoorsman, it’s enjoyable for everyone else. “First off, I am not an outdoor person so Bass Pro isn’t a shop for me,” says a recent store visitor. “That being said, I loved this store. I felt like I was in a museum and aquarium.”

Bass Pro Shops provides even more reasons to visit, with various special events such as Family Summer Camp, Professional Bull Riders Event, Fall Hunting Classic, and Halloween Bass Pro Style. Each event is filled with demonstrations and activities, including fishing and hunting seminars featuring national and local experts. But no other Bass Pro Shops event compares to Santa’s Wonderland, a six-week extravaganza that transforms each Bass Pro Shops outlet into a veritable Christmas village featuring rustic cabins, moving model trains, animated Christmas characters, interactive talking caribou, and live elves set among snow-covered hills and illuminated Christmas trees. Kids can hang out in the play zone and get their hands on old-time model trains, RC trucks, slot cars, and both laser and foam-dart guns. Families can spend time at various activity tables and make decorations and crafts to take home. They can also enjoy one of various seasonal goodies. And, of course, Santa’s Wonderland wouldn’t be complete without a visit from the jolly old elf himself, the event’s main feature that includes a free studio-quality photo.

As amazing as Bass Pro Shops’s retail design is, the company is not alone in its approach to marketing the great outdoors. Nebraska-based Cabela’s started its own operations just before Bass Pro Shops. Cabela’s has almost as many stores and pulls in nearly as much revenue. The Cabela’s retail experience is nearly identical to that of Bass Pro Shops, down to the aquariums, animal-filled dioramas, and shooting galleries.

However, the two chains have at least one major difference: Whereas Bass Pro Shops is thriving, Cabela’s long and successful run has been dogged in recent years by declining sales and losses. Falling victim to the intense competition from online vendors, Cabela’s was recently ranked by Forbes as the nation’s second-most troubled retail chain, trailing only the now-defunct Radio Shack. As Cabela’s has explored options to escape bankruptcy, the most prominent option at this point appears to be selling the company—to Bass Pro Shops. That’s right. The ­number-two outdoor retailer is currently entertaining an offer from number one. And if it goes through, Bass Pro Shops would not only double in size (the two chains rarely have stores in the same market), it would gain economy-of-scale advantages including cost savings and greater leverage with manufacturers.

But even if the acquisition of Cabela’s doesn’t pan out, Bass Pro Shops will keep doing what it has been doing for decades—wowing customers with the unsurpassed retail experience of its nature theme parks. “People spend time there when they go,” Morris says of Bass Pro Shops stores. “They can’t wait to see what’s around the next aisle. It’s an experience. It’s about creating memories. It’s about being with friends and family. It’s about having fun.”