For eight decades, Mack’s Prairie Wings of Stuttgart has been more than just a waterfowl gear retailer.
“Mack’s Prairie Wings has firmly established itself as a cornerstone of the waterfowl hunting community,” said Deke Whitbeck, president of the Arkansas Game & Fish Foundation. “It supports hunters with high-quality products, fosters community and conservation efforts and contributes significantly to the local and broader Arkansas economy.”
And now it has a partnership with Bass Pro Shops of Springfield, Missouri, which is known for its wide selection of outdoor gear in a setting mirroring the wilderness.
It’s unclear what the partnership that was announced in May will mean long-term for Mack’s. The “specific terms of the agreement between the two private companies are confidential,” a Bass Pro Shops spokeswoman said via email.
Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris said in the statement announcing the partnership that his privately held company admires the team at Mack’s Prairie Wings for its commitment to serve the waterfowl community.
“By uniting, our hope is to amplify the impact of our combined expert knowledge to better serve customers and increase our shared commitment to conservation,” Morris said in the statement.
The companies said partnering “presents a ‘win-win’ opportunity for outdoor enthusiasts everywhere.” Bass Pro Shops, which recorded $7.6 billion in 2022 sales worldwide according to the National Retail Federation, acquired competing outdoor retailer Cabela’s in 2017 and now operates roughly 200 stores.
Mack’s didn’t respond to messages from Greenhead.
Sales Drop, Bounceback Awaits
But the partnership between the two iconic brands comes at a difficult time for outdoor retailers. Outdoor retail sales fell 3% to $27.5 billion in 2023 from the previous year, according to the Outdoor Industry Association of Boulder, Colorado.
And at least half of the independent outdoor speciality retailers saw a double-digit drop in sales.
“It’s bad,” said Kelly Davis, director of research for the association, describing the retail sector.
While more people are participating in outdoor activities, “they’re participating relatively casually,” meaning they might go for a hike or fish a few times a year, Davis said.
“These are not the core outdoor consumers that speciality shops normally cater to,” Davis said.
And those who do participate in the outdoors the most aren’t spending as much money on outdoor supplies as they did previously, for several reasons including the nationwide economy.
“So we’ve got a problem in the sense that we’re losing those participants as consumers who tend to spend the most money, especially in independent outdoor specialty shops,” Davis said.
Sports that are dominated by men, such as hunting, “tend to be declining, especially in core participation,” she said.
But there is a “huge opportunity” for outdoor retailers to attract those casual participants.
“I’m estimating that that part of the base is about 90 million strong out of 175.8 million,” Davis said. “And if we can just get them to participate one more time, think of the economic impact of that. That’s 90 million more outings.”
McCollum Family Founding
Meanwhile, hunters nationwide are drawn to Mack’s, which proclaims itself “America’s Premier Waterfowl Outfitter.”
Before entering the 125,000-SF store at 2335 U.S. Highway 63 North, many shoppers first pause to have their photo taken with the giant mallard statue close to the front entrance.
Whitbeck said the company’s success is because of Marion McCollum, the head of the company for nearly 60 years. He died in 2023 at the age of 81.
(Mike Kemp)
“Under his leadership, Mack’s expanded significantly, growing from a local sporting goods store … into a nationally recognized waterfowl hunting destination,” Whitbeck said. “For every hardcore duck hunter, a trip to Mack’s is a bucket-list item.”
The roots of Mack’s Prairie Wings date back to the 1930s, when duck hunters swarmed McCollum’s Hardware Store to buy equipment for duck hunting, according to Mack’s website.
“Business was so good that owner M.T. ‘Mack’ McCollum decided to take the sporting goods out of the hardware store and open a separate store in 1944,” the website reads.
That store was called Mack’s Sports Shop, possibly making it the first sporting goods store.
McCollum’s son, Marion, joined the company in 1961.
The retailer moved into a 3,200-SF building on Highway 79 in 1970, and the store was “decorated with various animal and fish mounts and filled with every item for the duck hunter, becoming a tourist attraction during the hunting season,” according to the website.
The company continued to grow, and in 1992 decided to try the mail-order business, according to Marion McCollum in a video on the company’s website. The mail-order business became Mack’s Prairie Wings, McCollum said.
“Our first catalog we mailed out was like 55,000, and then we kept growing and growing, and now we mail out about 2 million catalogs,” he said in the video that was posted in 2017.
The catalog was a key to the company’s continued growth and success in Stuttgart, a city with less than 10,000 people.
“To have a business like this in this town of this size, in this county, would be impossible if we didn’t have the mail-order business,” McCollum said. “But, also, it’s like an advertising arm out there to people who will come to this destination to shop.”
He also credited employees for success.
“My people here are more educated about product knowledge than anybody else – but they’ve been here for years,” McCollum said. “We keep our people.”
In 2000, Mack’s Prairie Wings held a grand opening for its 55,000-SF location on Highway 63. Since then, the store has expanded to 125,000 SF, and it includes 40,000 SF of showroom space.
“The new store is world-known as The Waterfowl Mecca in the heart of the ‘Rice and Duck Capital of the World,’” the website said.
But Mack’s is more than just a retailer. After a hunt, duck hunters gather at Mack’s to discuss their achievements.
“It’s just the watercooler … for duck hunting,” Whitbeck said said, “and that’s what is special about it.”
