The store is scheduled to open Sept. 21. Four hundred employeeshave already been hired for the store. The Cabela's will haveoutdoor sporting products in addition to a 16,000-gallon aquarium,museum-like dioramas and other wildlife displays and a two-storyConservation Mountain with waterfalls, a stream and a trout pond."I like to say it is a retail store wrapped around a museum,wrapped around an aquarium," the spokesman says. The store willalso have a restaurant, two conference rooms, laser arcade, indoorarchery range and dog kennels for customers to leave their dogswhile they shop.

Cabela's chose Hoffman Estates for its first Chicagolandlocation because it is a "premier retail spot," the spokesman says."It has high visibility, strong traffic patterns from eitherdirection and, most importantly, it is located in an up and comingtourist and shopping destination area." The store will be locatedin the Prairie Stone Business Park, a 780-acre business park atI-90 and Route 59. Also located in the park is the Sears CentreArena, which has seating for up to 11,000 people and hosts morethan 100 events a year such as concerts and sporting events suchsoccer, lacrosse and football. The Sun Island Hotel Water Park willalso be constructed there.

The location is expected to have four million people visit thestore annually, the spokesman says. The number of visitors isestimated based on current customers in the area for Cabela'swebsite and catalogue in addition to the area's population density.The Hoffman Estates location is part of a nationwide expansionplanned for this year. The Sidney, NE-based company, which hastypically concentrated its stores in the Midwest, plans to openseven additional new stores this year in Hoffman Estates; Gonzales,LA; East Hartford, CT; Hammond, IN; Reno, NV; Post Falls, ID; andLacey, WA. Stores are additionally planned to open next year inGreenwood, IN and Scarborough, ME.