Gander Mountain

Gander Mountain's 2017 bankruptcy and partial acquisition by Camping World demonstrated how outdoor retail was consolidating around survivors who could achieve scale advantages. The company operated 160 stores selling hunting, fishing, and camping equipment but couldn't compete with Cabela's/Bass Pro Shops' destination stores or Amazon's selection and prices. The mechanism failure was subscale positioning in a consolidating market. Gander Mountain was too small to achieve the purchasing power and brand recognition of Cabela's but too large to function as a specialty retailer with deep expertise. When Cabela's merged with Bass Pro Shops in 2017, the combined entity achieved scale advantages that made independent competitors like Gander Mountain increasingly unviable. Camping World acquired Gander Mountain's brand and reopened some locations as Gander Outdoors, demonstrating how brands can survive corporate death through acquisition. But the original company's infrastructure—distribution, workforce, vendor relationships—was dismantled. Gander Mountain became a cautionary tale in how industry consolidation can make mid-sized players unviable even when demand remains strong.