I managed to spend a few hours at Bass Pro Shops in Bristol Tennessee today. It was the third day I have been at the Pinnacle retail development site this week. I ate lunch in the restaurant and then set out thru the maze of departments and specialty areas. This piece is not about promoting Bass Pro Shops or retailing in Bristol. It is about bringing birders awareness of what has moved into your neighborhood and how it might make your birding experience a bit more convenient. The most often question new and inexperienced birders ask is where to get a pair of binoculars. I have struggled to give advice and confidence about the advantages of online or on-the-phone shopping with Eagle Optics. New birders barely know the difference between binoculars and bingo. They are often easily intimated. They hope there is a local Target or Walmart that will make the first pair less expensive, less painful, less frustrating and less uncertain. I have enjoyed spending a great amount of time in the sales area where Bass Pro Shops display their binoculars. For those who know the field of view, they stock and sell Swarovski, Zeiss, Steine (German product), Leupold, Vortex, Nikon (high end), Bushnell, Redhead and Bass Pro Shops own "high end" brand called Occulus. They have maybe a hundred on display and a hundred more in the house inventory. Avoid the spotting scopes. They are all target shooting-range models for hunters and such. They are not designed for birding. They only have a few on display. In a day and time when you can easily buy a pair of Bushnells for up to $10,000, the fact that Bass Pro sells binoculars priced from as low as $17.95 to a $3,179 pair of Swarovski and a $2,800 pair of Zeiss, it is easy to see they have something most birders may want. However, you will find many pairs in the $200 to $500 range which new birders are more comfortable purchasing. What they do have, that many of you might want, is the opportunity to hold a variety of possibilities and look thru them. To feel the grip and weight. A way of knowing if a certain pair and design is for you. To read the fine print on the box. To compare one pair to the next within seconds. Better still, their people can talk to you and give you advice and opinions. I found them good at both. Nothing replaces shopping around for who gives the best service and has the best prices and delivery. While prowling among the new "associates" who are getting the feel of things for themselves, I did pick up a few pointers about how to shop Bass Pro Shops. It is about pricing: If you are looking at price tags that have prices such as: $50.99 -- the .99 is a code that reveals it is the regular store price for the item. $50.97 - the .97 is a code that reveals it is a marked down price on sale. $50.77 - the .77 is a code that reveals it is a permanently marked down price. So let that last number on the price tag talk to you. Memorize what 9 or 7 or 77 means on the end of those prices. Keep in mind that binoculars are sold in the hunting department in glass cases in front of the rifles. This means they are mainly selling binoculars to sportsmen. If a pair of Swarovski are labeled as EL RF 10X42, EL means technology that stands for a unique, optical total package: razor-sharp display up to the image periphery for capturing important details at high speed; high-contrast, color-neutral observation, enabling you to make out crucial details even better; 100% field of view - even for those who wear eyeglasses; optimized coatings for the best transmission values and impressive viewing experiences, even in poor light conditions. The RF is a horse of a different color. RF stands for a Range Finding feature that actually measure the distance to the object you are viewing. That is for hunters that need to determine how far they will need to shoot at game. You can buy the same pair (maybe in the store or elsewhere) without the Range Finding feature and probably save many good dollars. The take-a-way on this point is that, when pricing between items, be mindful that you have to make sure you are comparing apples to apples and not just dollar for dollar. Of course, for those who know me, I enjoyed the fact that Swarovski, Zeiss and Nikon had factory reps in Bristol for a few days and you could stand shoulder-to-shoulder and ask all kinds of questions about binoculars and features and what is going on with birding optics. That is what Bass Pro Shops brought to the Pinnacles development this week. You had to wait your turn the past few days. I talked with fishermen and hunters and general outdoor enthusiasts from Roanoke, West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. They had driven in to shop the new opening of a Bass Pro Shops. They were not here for the NASCAR races but, obviously, lots of people are shopping there who are in town for the races. Virginia has Bass Pro Shops in Hampton and Richmond. Tennessee has stores in Bristol, Nashville, Memphis and Sevierville. They will likely get the first store open in Chattanooga next spring. There are no stores in Kentucky or West Virginia and only one in North Carolina (Charlotte). Bass Pro Shops is an enormously different animal than a fin and fur sportsman store selling mostly to males with guns, boats and fishing lures. They sell everything from candy, cookies, snacks, drinks, popcorn and moon pies to shoes and boots, women's clothing, to an array of boats, camping and hiking equipment, gas grills, smokers, fryers, gifts, furniture and provide entertainment. I was surprised that the bowling alley had 12 lanes full of bowlers. They have a very large sports bar area that will seat maybe 50 people at the bar. I didn't know they had applied for a liquor license. You will see service bays where one can pull boats and other equipment into the bays to have it serviced or repaired. Do not be turned back by the fields and streets full of automobiles parked everywhere. Many of the most out-lying areas of cars are their employees. What appears to be a mass of thousands that must be in the store is not that many and they are spread out bowing and eating and shopping and wandering everywhere. It was open, spacious and comfortable on Friday afternoon. Leave yourself about an hour just to get a good feel for what all they have. You can't even see from the front to the back in 30 minutes. It is fun for some of us J Wallace Coffey Bristol, TN