Dear Jim and Dick Cabela,

Thank you for sticking with your plans to build a Cabela's here in Rapid City. As founders of Cabela's, you have had to defend your company against attacks from those who opposed the progress represented by your store and its related development.

Sure, we all would be more excited if Rapid City gave Boeing the land and nice incentive package to build a high-tech manufacturing plant that would employ thousands and pay every employee sixty grand a year. But that's unlikely in any event, and Cabela's is a suitable substitute that fits the character of our community and its prime source of revenue.

We argued locally about the amount of sales tax revenue your development would create. Will it be $4 million, and even if it is, how much of that amount will be from new sale? Only time will answer the debate, but the evidence we have seen seems to show it's worth the chance. Economic development incentive packages, like any business venture, require risk-taking. If Rapid City did not have a buyer lined up for that land, it makes economic sense to start generating revenue with a project that will most likely be successful, as Cabela's stores have been across the country.

We also argued about wages. Some opponents of the project said we don't need more low-paying service jobs in Rapid City. Rapid City's unemployment rate stands at 3 percent, which is basically full employment. If Cabela's wants the best workers, won't you need to offer better wages and benefit packages to lure workers away from other businesses? If current Rapid City employers want to keep their best employees, they will need to take steps to make those jobs more attractive. If they don't, they place themselves in peril, just as you would if you hired the cheapest labor available. We can see this happening in Gillette, Wyo., where fast food joints are paying upward of $12 an hour to people who make tacos and cheeseburgers.

Outside of what appear to be clear economic reasons to support the Cabela's development, sportsmen have selfish reasons as well. Cabela's is a great store.

My bride rarely shops aimlessly, and I never wander around stores looking for things to buy. Except at Cabela's. We plan our travel to Denver, Sioux Falls, and the East Coast with scheduled stops at your stores. You stock quality merchandise in beautiful buildings staffed by knowledgeable employees who can answer questions and who seem like they actually want to help. That's a refreshing change from the trend in customer service these days. I hope your new Rapid City store delivers that important lesson to local merchants who are concerned about Cabela's impact on their businesses.

It's your job to make money, but you know that locally owned stores and franchises can thrive in the Wal-Mart era, but only if they offer something big stores like yours cannot. Businesses need to make customers feel welcome. They must make customers know they are wanted. Businesses are required to treat every customer like their only one, and stores need to know their products better than anyone else. People will pay more for that kind of service and expertise. But go into a store where employees are surly and unhelpful, and it won't take long before you will start going elsewhere. But that's the thing about Cabela's stores and part of the reason you have been so successful. Cabela's stores operate like local mom-and-pop shops, and you should be congratulated for creating that kind of culture. Your stores also serve the best roast elk sandwiches, and I can't wait to have one during a lunch break sometime in the next year or so.

So, thank you again for not allowing our sometimes-ingrained South Dakota negativity keep you from building your store in Rapid. And keep an elk sandwich warm for me.

Steve Buchholz lives in Rapid City. Reach him at sportsmans.life@yahoo.com.