Wal Mart to stop selling guns?

[Shootist45]

Just got back from the local Wally World in Newport, OR.

They have gotten rid of all the firearms, display cases and most of the hunting department supplies.

I asked and was told that they are out of the gun business!

Not that I'm a buyer at WW but, it seems to me this may be a VERY large hit to the firearms manufacturers who use Wally World but a boon to the local gun shops for their sales and bottom line.

Has anyone heard of this or is this just old hat ........they are still selling ammo but, it's on a limited scale.

 

[Pilgrim]

It's a marketing decision for each store. If firearms sales isn't making money, something else goes in.

Pilgrim

 

[Bruce333]

Has anyone heard of this or is this just old hat ........they are still selling ammo but, it's on a limited scale.

Extremely old news. April 2006: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12316692/

Sales of rifles and ammo have stopped in some stores. Depends on the location of the store (large metro area=no sales) and the sales numbers (or lack thereof) in the area.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

This is something that gets posted weekly. Some Wal-marts are stopping selling guns. Others are putting in new and expanded gun sections. Around here, they reduced it to only 2 stores carrying guns, one at each end of the valley.

 

[stolivar]

Ours just went

I was really surprised at this. Our store sells a lot of guns and ammo.


steve

 

[Froggy]

Stopped by WalMart last night to buy some ammo and noticed the sporting goods area had been rearranged and there were now twice as many guns on the rack. I mentioned to the clerk that I was glad to see that, having feared the rearranging was tied to them getting out of the gun business, as rumor has it. His response was interesting.

His version of the truth is that by 2009 there will be only two WalMarts in AZ still selling guns -- Sierra Vista and Safford.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Originally posted by Shootist45:
... it seems to me this may be a VERY large hit to the firearms manufacturers who use Wally World ...

Not really - they were selling very few anyway.

Even here, possibly the Gun Nut Capital of the World, Wal-Mart has not only removed guns from many of their stores, but ammo as well. If guns, ammo and hunting supplies don't sell in the numbers wanted, they get pulled in favor of something else that will. Some states or localities impose burdensome regulations on gun and ammo sales as well (e.g., California )

 

[.cheese.]

I don't think it's sales related.

The local stores sold plenty of ammo... but they just pulled all ammo sales, and firearms sales had gone away a long time ago.

The only store that still sold firearms is about 40 miles away and they now only have 1 small case that is half-stocked, and they've reduced their inventory of firearm related stuff more than half. No more gun-safes (which was a bummer because I drove all the way down there to get a rifle case I had seen a few months ago - and was told all of a sudden they cut sales of all that stuff). Very little ammo, very few accessories, etc.

Whether or not it's good for business I don't know. I have a feeling it's more political than sales related.

 

[SoCalShooter]

It's a marketing decision for each store. If firearms sales isn't making money, something else goes in.

Bingo, its purely a business move, I have been in many a walmart that still sells guns (not here in the DPRK) but in AZ I have not been in a walmart that does not sell guns.

 

[refrey]

Bankrupt Your Local Gun Shop

WW could probably remove gun sales from every store in the country and probably not even notice a financial difference. How much money do you think they make selling a few thousand guns compared to millions of boxes of pampers? How many people do you see lined up to buy guns and ammunition at WW every time you are there?

WW sells about 250 BILLION DOLLARS worth of merchandise a year. That is 250,000 boxes containing 1 million dollars each. Earning $50,000 a year, you would have to work for 5 million years to earn that much money.

A good research project for you graduate students out there would be to determine if WW sells guns only as long as the local gun shops are solvent. So yes, save a few cents per round buying your ammunition at WW, but what is it going to get you in the end?

I am not in the firearms business.

 

[MErl]

It's a marketing decision for each store. If firearms sales isn't making money, something else goes in.

agreed, selling firearms & ammo may make them money, but they may make more stocking that area with toilet paper... never know

 

[scurtis_34471]

Both of my nearby Walmarts still sell guns. One just went through a major remodel and now has a really nice gun cabinet behind a new counter. They seem to have more guns than before the remodel and it doesn't look like the guns are going anywhere. According to the clerk, they sell an average of two to three rifles a day. Every time I go in, there's a line at the ammo counter.

 

[zerosignal]

I live 2 hours south of Newport in Coos Bay. Our Wal-Mart is still selling guns and will most likely never stop. Firearms and hunting are huge down here.

Though we have a big tourist industry in Coos Bay, Newport is almost nothing but tourism. People don't live there unless they are retired or own a store for the most part.

Like the others said, it's store-level decision.

 

[chemist308]

Uh...GOOD! That's one business those #@$^% clowns didn't need to be in. No offense but they aren't set up to do it right in my experience. One person even tried to put through paperwork and transfer fee on a flintlock I was buying, at which point I explained why some inline muzzleloaders are considered firearms (Thompson with exchangable barrels) and most others are not. Aside from an in general lack of knowledge you don't get to really look at the gun with the action open or trigger exposed, if you buy the firearm, they won't sell you the ammo with it, they immediately escort you right out the front door and you get treated like a criminal should you ever come back into the store with it...no thanks. The only way you could really look at a gun like that is to look at a friends exact model--that's how I did it. Otherwise you go to a gun shop, use them, then go to Wally World and give them the money. In doing so you help put a business that actually supports your rights under with lost sales. :banghead:

 

[tmajors]

Others are putting in new and expanded gun sections.

One of my local stores has the new expanded gun sections, but they kicked the counter further back so you can't see it from the main walkways, you have to actually go into the sporting goods department to see it. If you didn't go in you could easily think that they just don't sell guns any longer.

 

[Erinyes]

Heck, our local Wal-Marts here just started carrying Mini-14s. Ft. Oglethorpe, GA, Brainerd Rd., and Gunbarrel Rd. (Oh, the irony if they stopped selling guns ), Chattanooga all still have guns for sale.

 

[BobMcG]

I couldn't care less.

Every time another WM stops selling guns it gives business back to the small gun shops it hurt when they (WM) started popping up all over the place.
I do shop at WM on occasion, but the visits are few and far between. Never bought or even spent any time looking at guns at a WM though. I've preferred to do business with actual gun shops.

 

[Roadwild17]

yepp, ours has about 3 times the guns and about 6 times the rifle ammo, they even have $1500 beretta O/Us.

 

[CliffH]

How many people do you see lined up to buy guns and ammunition at WW every time you are there?

They're usually lined up two to three deep.

I've called both WM here in the Tri-Cities area, they're both still selling and plan on expanding.

Also called 3 WM in the Tyler TX area, they're not planning on stopping anytime soon.

I heard the same from all of them. The stores in the Metro areas will stop selling, the more rural stores will still carry firearms & ammo.

 

[SVT93]

my walmart stopped selling them a few months ago, but its not like they had anything interesting.

 

[Glockfan.45]

Oh no another Wal-Mart thread.





I dont care if WW sells guns or not. I have only purchased two firearms from WW over the years, and the last time I did so was enough to make me say "never again". I do care about them selling ammo however. My local WW stopped selling guns 2 years ago, but still keep a fairly large ammo selection. The only ammo I buy at gun shoppes is defensive, and if WW stocked Gold Dots, Rangers, or TAPs I would buy them there too. None of the gun shoppes around me stock WWB value packs, not a single one of them. They all stock that high dollar Remington "leadless crap" along with over priced 50 round boxes of of Blazer, and "never heard of them before" brands.

Wal-Marts move to stop selling guns in certian stores is economics in practice. A store in the middle of St.Louis isnt going to sell many deer rifles, but a store in rual Bumblescum will. Everybody that pisses and moans about WW driving gun shoppes out of town do not seem to grasp the concept of economics. When shoppe owners start making their costs on ammo more competitive, and offer more than just what they want to sell you I will buy from them.

 

[rocinante]

My local WM which is urban removed all the guns and has ammo only in a locked display. Thats all I want anyhow because they have the best price on Winchester White Box 9mm 115gr FMJ. What ticks me off is nobody seems to have the key to that cabinet. The clerks tell me only the day manager does and he isn't there.

 

[Hokkmike]

Quit selling at Montoursville, PA a few months ago. The Bloomsburg Wal-Mart still has guns. Let the mom and pops sell them. It would be better for all of us all the way around.

Don't shop at Wal-Mart.

 

[beaucoup ammo]

I'll echo support for the little guy, the independent business man or woman. Be it drug store or gun store. These folks are getting squeezed out as is the working middle class. If my neighborhood gun store (we have them) hasn't got what I need at that moment, I will visit Academy. They have arms and ammo that stretch clear across the back wall of the building.

As far as Walmart is concerned, I'll pop in for a whiz on a cross country trip..but that's all they get from me.

 

[Reddbecca]

Wal-Mart has Target executives. They made the decision to phase out all guns, ammo and hunting sales completely.