Cabela's — Local services in Village of Richfield

This is my first time ever visiting this location and I was excited to check it out. Upon arriving, I was taken back at the size of this place! It looked amazing! When I walked in, I was immediately greeted by a smiling associate, asked if I needed guidance finding anything (which I didn't) and then asked if I was a Club Card member. So far, this was the experience I was expecting, no red flags here.

Then I arrive at the gun counter...

Upon arriving at the gun counter I immediately noticed a group of angry/confused looking customers, none of which were being helped, a queue system which I hadn't encountered before, and a more than impressive inventory of firearms. I signed into the queue where I found myself 4th in line. Not a problem at all, as I had some other items I wanted to check out in the meantime. Around 30 minutes later, I decided to check at my spot in line to see if I was next. To my surprise, the queue hadn't moved a single spot. I sparked up a conversation with some gentlemen who were also waiting, and they said they had been there for an hour, but they were the next to be seen.

Looking around, I noticed what appeared to be 2 employees working and a group of 3-4 employees just standing around talking to each other. (This group was right under the "gun checkout" sign). No one was being helped, and more and more customers were now standing around waiting to be seen.

I ended up waiting a total of 90 minutes only to see that I was STILL in the same spot in the queue as when I first checked in! I decided to just leave which was more than frustrating as I had already paid nearly $900 for my item, and I just wanted to pick it up (do my paperwork) and leave!

I took my ammo and other goodies to the front, checked out and left, figuring I'd just come by later when they weren't so busy...

About 30 minutes later, I get a text that I'm getting close to being seen, which would have put me at a TWO HOUR wait. 30-ish minutes later, I get ANOTHER text that I'm ready to be seen! 2.5 hour wait for something IVE ALREADY PAID FOR?!

Fast forward a few hours and I decide to try again. I arrive to the gun counter and immediately check in, putting myself at the #1 position in the queue. This has to be a good sign right? Not a chance.

About 30 minutes into my SECOND wait of the day, another customer asks me if there's a trick to getting help. I tell them about the queue and they check themselves in as well. They had been there longer than myself, but this was my second attempt of the day to get my item so I wasn't about to give up my spot and wait even longer. By this time, the lady I was talking to spotted an employee and tried to flag her down to see if she could get someone to help us, the employee (late 50s, short salt and pepper hair, with glasses) heard her, and immediately ducked behind a shelf and took off! What the hell is happening here!? At one point, two employees walked up to the "customer side" of the gun counter and started looking at guns themselves, all while ignoring the surrounding customers.

After nearly an hour I was finally called out in the queue by Luke. He was friendly, knowledgeable, kind, informative...all the attributes you would hope to have in an employee. He walked me through the process and 30ish minutes later, I was finally leaving with my item.

ALL THAT SAID...I completely understand what it's like to be short staffed, but the management at this location is brutal. A customer who has already paid for their item should not have to make multiple trips and wait FOUR HOURS in a store to get their item, even if it's a firearm. A manager should be available to assist in store pickups and expedite that process. There's no excuse for employees to be standing around, chatting amongst themselves while completely ignoring customers. This entire process of buying this firearm was a nightmare from day one, from the fulfillment team not shipping my order, being double charged for the item, and then the horrendous in-store experience. 0/10 would...

I recently had a friend come here, very exited, I will add - because they wanted to purchase a weapon. This facility was the only one that had the specific weapon in stock and we both have been wanting to check this store out for awhile to see if it’s worth the hype. I will say that from the parking lot to the inside of the entire building is gorgeous - the game displayed was beautiful. Here’s the issue, we live in Illinois and every experience we’ve had with looking at or purchasing a firearm in Wisconsin has been biased a rude and this place hit that standard on the nose. To be abundantly clear - neither of us have ever gone out of state and assumed that we would bypass Illinois laws or waiting period or anything of that matter. The only reason we were planning to purchase this firearm out of state is because it’s a very popular firearm and it is still out of stock everywhere but here and online. Neither of us had held this firearm before and even with all of our research, it isn’t cheap and we wanted to make sure it felt right for what we were going to use it for before we bought it (coyote hunting). We got inside and couldn’t help but to look around a ton before making our way to the firearm section of the store, when we got there we asked if they still had the one they said they did online and they said yes. They asked for our membership cards - we said we didn’t have a Cabela’s membership cards and that’s when the problem started. The employee responded with “oh you must be from Illinois.” We responded with “yes, you guys were the only ones with - in stock” and we were immediately cut off. The immediate judgement of “so you guys think you can come here and bypass laws” and “well you should probably move out of that commy state.” Yeah we get it, we hate Illinois too… not the point. They refused to sell us the firearm because it was “illegal” so we got inside the car confused beyond belief and called our personal gun range and started googling everything we could and the firearm wasn’t “illegal” to any stretch of the imagination. So we went back inside after doing all of that research (30 mins ish) and tried to explain what we found and they all huddled behind the counter and was whispering to each other then explained that they recently got caught selling a firearm to someone they shouldn’t have and “need to be extra cautious” along with telling us that some other sellers might not “care as much” and might “sell it to us even though it’s illegal.” 1. It’s not illegal by any means, we triple checked all the laws and got confirmation from our Illinois gun range/store 2. If you just got caught for selling a firearm to someone you shouldn’t have why would you suggest to us to go “around the law” with someone else?

We left in disbelief and have since ordered the firearm online and surprise surprise it’s not illegal… at all. It’s one thing to be unprofessional towards a calm, collected, and paying customer but it’s another to be an FFA and not understand the gun laws or at least how to look them up.

The facility is beautiful and the bathrooms are clean, other than that, steer clear. They have that “Wisconsin racist towards Illinois people”...

Beware of the deceptive sales practice when you enter the Richfield, WI, store! When I walked in, I was approached by what I thought was a greeter and asked him where I could find what I was looking for, and he helpfully told me.

Then he asked me if I was interested in their discount (he may have called it something else) card. I said no and started walking, but he persisted and listed off a whole number of benefits of the card and said I could save money on whatever I was going to buy today. I said O.K., and then he asked for my driver's license so he could scan it to save entering my information manually in the form that needed to be filled out.

Then he asked me to fill in the rest of the information in the form. At the very end, they asked for my Social Security number. At this, I balked and asked why they needed that. He said they just wanted to make sure it was me and not someone else. I said that was pretty invasive. Why do you need that? He again said they just want to make sure it is me. I asked a third time why that was necessary, and then a different employee who overheard this said that it was so they could run a credit check. I said, "Credit check, why are you doing a credit check?" Then the other employee said, "You are applying for a credit card." At that point, I said No, I'm not and erased my information on the form.

The first employee very clearly made it sound like I was signing up for a loyalty program. He never mentioned that I was signing up for a credit card, even when I repeatedly questioned him about the need for my Social Security number.

I was very close to unintentionally affecting my credit rating due to his blatantly deceptive sales practices.

I went to do my shopping, but remained outraged by what had happened. Therefore, I returned to the front of the store to ask to speak to a manager so I could complain. I learned that the second employee who finally told me that I was applying for a credit card was the "Credit Manager". I complained to her about the deception, and she said, "We train them to make it very clear you are applying for a credit card." She was standing nearby when the first employee was doing the deceptive sales pitch. I told her I wasn't satisfied she was going to do anything about this and that I was going...