I Hate BPS

[justfishin]

I would like to reiterate my statement about BPS. I was only speaking of the bad experiences I had in the Baltimore MD location. I am not alone in this judgement. Many of the other guys that I know have experienced the same thing at this store. I have been to the BPS in Harrisburg PA and had a wonderful experience with them. Everyone was polite and it was stocked well. So, I guess it was a Baltimore management problem, not BPS as a whole entity. I will say one thing. If you are ever in the Harrisburg PA area be sure to stop at the Cabelas there. It is fantastic. Its a great place for a family outting because it will take you all day to see everything and the kids will love it. The only bad thing with Cabelas is like what was said in the above post, the shipping is ridiculous. Its just not worth it but going to the actual store certainly is.

[senile1]

I like small Mom and Pop stores.  I also realize that none of us would have the standard of living we now enjoy if small operations had not become big corporations.  I realize that corporations like Wal Mart have some problems they need to address, but they also provide some benefits to society.  If you look at the facts you can't paint big business with one broad stroke as either completely bad or good.  They are both.  Comparing BPS to Wal Mart is a big leap.  Go to BPS.com and click on their store locations link.  They have 35 - 40 stores now with 20 - 25 future stores planned.  That's no Wal Mart.  

[Catt]

The Mom & Pop stores are in no way exempt from blame here, they pay at best minimum wage, offer little or no benefits, and while the may not hire illegal's they will hire high school kids keeping them part time avoiding having to offer any compensations.

Then we get into the discussion of the Mom & Pop stores can't afford to offer wages & benefits the large corporations do yet they will hire 2 or 3 kids instead of an adult who needs to support a family. Why?

Far the Mom & Pop stores and the corporations it's all about the all mighty dollar.

[Dan:]

I don't know about your mom and pop tackle shops, but BPS has a WAY bigger selection than any mom and pops around me...I'd rather go to a store where I can get what I want for a good price than go to one that doesn't have what I want and charges more for stuff...

[Guest the_muddy_man]

I had one bad experience with an uninformed service person from the on line BPS and stopped ordering But when I looked at it, I had a role because after a few call I lost patience and got rude. Eventually it could have been resolved . I order BPS brand rods and reels b/c they work. I get most every thing else from Cabelas especially sine they opened a stoe less the 40 min from my house Truthfully BPS and Cabelas are well staffed and fun to shop at I get a few more catalogs than needed I give them to my barber he puts them out for customers to read.

 BPS has notified of stuff I had been saving for that went on sale so it saved me money and made one of thier customers happy No foul

[SPEEDBEAD.]

See, I have to agree about the workers at the Baltimore store. The management, IMO, is top notch though.

Let me explain:

Last winter, my friend and I took a trip to BPS in Baltimore, just for something different to do for the day. We each purchased a combo, lures and line. The reel on my combo lasted for about two trips and then took a crap. I called the store, spoke to the "kid" in the fishing department, and was told to package up the reel (at my cost, with my new line on the reel) and send it to them to be replaced. I decided that this was not good enough for me. I got on the website, emailed the store manager and told him my issue. The next morning, I received an email from the asst. store manager stating that all he needed was my address and he would take care of the rest.  Two days later, I received another FULL COMBO in the mail and an email from him asking if I was satisfied. I got to keep the original fishing rod, which was fine, and a whole new combo because they want people to use their product.

That is exactly why I will continue to shop with them. Period.

Wayne

[Guest the_muddy_man]

This is too funny. I just went to check my email and I got one from BPS : Christmas Sale  

Hey Wayne you ever go to the Cableas in Hamburg I go there way toooo often

[dodgeguy]

just a question, but is it only because of the emails and catalogs that they "suck", or did you have a bad experience sometime?

Jason

No real terrible experience to speak of really. I'm a fan of local tackle shops and online shops. I just don't like to support monolithic companies like wal-mart and bps that push regular people out of business. I would never done business with them had I not had a gift card.

do you have any idea how many people have jobs because of wal mart and other big companies?do you have any idea how many people have retirement accounts invested in stocks in "monolithic companies like wal-mart and bps"?they pay over minimum wgae which a lot of mom and pop stores don't.this idea that big companies like wal mart are evil is absurd.

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Hey Dodge guy I had oredered the ricky clunn reel from them It didnt fit my hand so a friend bought it from me He had an extreme which at first I didnt like but I didnt set it up right So I think my last outfit is gonna be a BPS Exterme combo cant beat it for 99 bucks

[dodgeguy]

i know a guy called rebbasser in texas who loves those reels.

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Thanks DG a few of my friends who fosh mostly Walleye and Northerns have them and they use them hard with minor problems.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

This is too funny. I just went to check my email and I got one from BPS : Christmas Sale

Hey Wayne you ever go to the Cableas in Hamburg I go there way toooo often

I have been there a few times, it is definitely an all day affair. Drop me a line sometime and maybe we could meet up and greet Mr. Bait Monkey.

[Guest the_muddy_man]

yea next time me and Ron go should be right after Christmas. I would also enjoy fishing with you at Mauch Chunk next season Ill PM when the Cabelas Monkey needs feeding In Jan

[Keithscatch]

I rarely if ever go to local mom and pop bait shops. Why? Because they charge WAY TO MUCH for their stuff. Why would I want to pay an extra $1-$2 on everything for the EXACT SAME THING? The only thing I can think of is if this local bait store was owned by someone in my family or a real good friend. But I am sorry, if they want my business they have to get realistic with their prices first.

I hear this comment all the time about supporting local bait shops etc. Why? Not to be mean, but what have they done for me? Am I obligated to overpay them for basic items just because they are a local store in the community I live in? I just don't get it. Now, if they where a friend of mine then I could see overpaying for stuff just to help them. But beyond that, I think I would rather pay Wal Mart prices for the lures and terminal tackle that I buy.

Personally, I am thankful for Wal-Mart, BPS, Cabela's, or any other large retail chain that will deliver products to me at low prices.

[fourbizz]

Why Wal-Mart is evil is too philosophical a question for the likes of me, but I can produce some evil-sounding data. Keep in mind, however, that you may like the Wal-Mart world; cheap carbonated water may rank above healthy unions and livable wages in your personal priorities. I doubt it, but I want to recognize that each of us is a unique person with unique thoughts and opinions.

Wal-Mart's impressively effective business practices have led to the spread of Sam Walton's Arkansas discount store to 5,000 locations in 10 countries, with $256 billion in global revenue in 2003. Wal-Mart prides itself on (and sells itself on) low prices. You yourself are swayed by them, and they constitute the only argument anyone has been able to muster in favor of the chain.

Sadly, in our economy, low prices and wide profit margins are considered good, while work conditions and environmental and social impact are seldom considered at all. If they were, we would have a very different assessment of Wal-Mart's business model, considering the company's enormous adverse impact on: industry wages and state health care programs (more on this below), on sprawl (with its attendant problems of impervious surfaces, destruction of open space, miles driven, air quality, petroleum production, and the death of downtowns), on agriculture (size and sustainability of farms worldwide), on international manufacturing plants and their environmental ramifications (one word: China), on small-business ownership (adieu, ma 'n' pa) -- I could go on. All of these are environmental issues of the most essential kind -- issues, that is, about the physical terrain of our daily lives.

Although the directly observable environmental downsides of giant international outlets sited in strip malls across the world are certainly plentiful enough, I think the success of Wal-Mart has a meta-impact of similar magnitude. I believe Wal-Mart, and the businesses forced to follow its lead or die, are creating a culture of scarcity in the United States.

Consider this: If Wal-Mart, the country's largest employer, offers unlivable wages and shoddy benefit packages, a giant group of employed people -- Wal-Mart workers -- are struggling to make ends meet. (It's a strange feedback cycle, to tout your own low prices while expanding the numbers of the working poor.) In California, Wal-Mart is exacerbating rather than easing health care and welfare burdens on individuals and taxpayers. A study [PDF] out of the University of California at Berkeley found that California Wal-Mart employees earned significantly lower wages than average large retail employees in the state, and employee families used higher proportions of public welfare programs. Berkeley researchers and several other Wal-Mart watchers pieced together the company's wage structure [PDF] from testimony in a class action lawsuit against the behemoth. Cashiers earn annual wages that fall below the federal poverty line for a family of three. Families of California Wal-Mart workers used health care programs at rates 40 percent higher than large retail employees as a whole.

In short, Wal-Mart disables and replaces small businesses that may have provided health care coverage and higher wages to employees, forcing people to ask the government for assistance or go without health care -- ultimately the costliest solution. Meanwhile, those businesses able to survive around a Wal-Mart are joining the race to the bottom. Grocery megastores involved in long union strikes in California over the past year repeatedly cited the need to compete with Wal-Mart as the central problem on their side of the battle over wage and benefit packages.

Income level is no indicator of support for environmental preservation, but in this culture of scarcity that Wal-Mart has helped to create, too many of us are left feeling as though there is not enough to go around. One consequence is that environmental programs become easy prey for pollutocrats, who cast them as costly anti-business hindrances. Whether this cumulative environmental impact of Wal-Mart, at both the meta- and micro-level, is worth cheap bait is yours to decide.

-Umbra Fisk

[Pa Angler]

Strange I don't get any spam and I do 90% of my buying over the internet I think when I opened my account some 8yrs ago I opted out of the emails. It may take some time for them to stop my advice is that every time you get one do the unsubscribe till they stop.

Chow

[Michael H]

I love bps. I see no real benefits to shoping at little tackle shops they have nothing they have unbelivable prices($11 for a rapala and $6-$7 at bps)and they close to early to get to and the closest one to me wouldn't return any thing no matter what and and they still care more about money then anything else. And i have to disagree about wal-marts and bps wages my local tackle shop pays the kid who works there under the table so he can give him $1.75 under minimun wage.

[Cousin Eddie]

I mostly use BPS for a source of reference and then go buy it at my local tackle shop.  There is usualy not much price difference and they always have the lowdown on the local waters.

[Keithscatch]

It is a falsity (Is that a word?) to assume that Wal-Mart employees would earn a higher wage at other retail outlets. Have you seen some of the folks who work at Wallie World? The way I see it some of them are making about what they can. So believe me without Wal Mart providing some of these folks with jobs, who else would? Where else would they work?

Not everything "evil" on the surface is evil.

Plus. California is a strange place anyway. So I take things out of that state with a large dose of salt   ;) JK.

[fourbizz]

As I recall, you're from Texas, that takes us to the whole " CALI: fruits and nuts, TEX: steers and.... well you know. ;D It basically boils down to this. I don't like BPS or wal-mart and it would please me no end, to have them stop spamming me. Which it appears, might actually be happening!

[dodgeguy]

people who work at wal mart are not skilled to work at higher paying jobs.that is why they work at wal mart.it is at most an extra income type of job and unless you're management should not be a full time living to raise a family on.if you want more pay you need more skills.

[Replica.]

I wish a BPS was located near me so I would have more choices. Competition is good for the consumer, Communism is bad for the consumer (remember Russia). Good or bad customer service has nothing to do with the size of the business, I have recieved poor customer service equally from mom and pop and large companies. And citing research from Berkeley is misleading. Given the same set of data two research groups could come to two completely different conclusions. I hate spam, but the customer service I recieve over the phone or in person is more important to me than e-mail.

[nightbow]

the new store in ont is always out of stock and do not carry everything the staff seems to help but you have to wait in line to talk to someone.

[Minuteman]

After reading the this thread it seems the anger has little to do with BPS service and is all about the evils of Capitalism and free market.  

With union wages and demands on retailers , Johnny Morris (BPS) would still be selling tackle out of his fathers liquor store and I guess that would make some people happy.

Not me!

[Dan:]

it's the trouble of capitalism. It has enormous rewards for many, but in those rewards, some fall through the cracks. It doesn't mean capitalism is bad, but it sure seems to work better than any other system.