Egad! The gun shop disappeared

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hdwhit

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Over the Independence Day Holiday, I returned to the little town where I finished growing up. And as I turned the corner onto the square, I saw the LGS I had anticipated buying my next gun from was holding a going out of business sale!

By the time I arrived, all the guns, ammunition, and components were already gone. About all that was left were used combat boots, some MREs and a few odds and ends.

The owner had done a pretty good business "renting" rifles - by which I mean selling rifles and shotguns before the start of hunting season and then buying them back after hunting season was over. I know some guns had been bought, sold and repurchased by the same person many times over the years. Even though they were on the rack, everyone knew you didn't buy "Joe's gun" or "John's gun" because they would be along for it as soon as they got the money together. Of course if "Joe" or "John" got a felony conviction, people all but ran from the courthouse to buy "their" gun. I found out those guns had been "bought" by the pawn shop which was intending on continuing the "rental" tradition.

Still, the collapse of the last seller of reloading components and new guns in the entire county really affected me. Almost made me start to question whether there is any future for the LGS in rural America.
 
This is why I make the effort to support the three gun shops I'm lucky enough to have near me. The shop I bought my first shotgun from is long gone. Two others I know of are closed, one due to retirement and another due to sudden death of the owner a couple years ago.

There are some things I can get online that local retailers can't come close to the price. For those few items, I order online. Everything else is local. I don't want to be driving through town playing the "remember when" game.
 
1911 guy wrote:
This is why I make the effort to support the three gun shops I'm lucky enough to have near me.
Click to expand...

Same here.

That's why I was deferring my purchase of a .308 rifle until I retired and could establish Arkansas residency to buy from this shop. Now I've got to come up with a "Plan B".
 
I almost always buy my firearms from my LGS.

The only times I haven't is when I'm buying a gun that they just don't stock, such as a Les Baer or Wilson Combat 1911.
 
All of the bricks-and-mortar retail sector is in trouble, thanks to the Internet. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.

Local gun shops are a special case, in that the FFL system insures them a certain protected monopoly. Were it not for their ability to provide "transfers," many more local gun shops would have gone out of business.
 
I would buy locally more, but their selection is limited, and I can't justify spending $100+ more on a gun I can get online. If it's a difference of less than $75 I'll buy locally. $25-30 would be a transfer fee, and the remaining $45-50 is the wait time. I don't particularly care to wait, so I'd pay the difference to have it that day. But mostly, it's just the lack of variety they carry. Around here, it's mostly ARs and hunting guns. I like surplus, and unique guns. Winchester 94's are nice, but they just don't catch my eye like a Swiss K31.
 
I will typically buy from one of my local shops if they have it in stock, otherwise will do the transfer through them. I do haggle though to get a good price. I don't buy ammo at gun shops however, I've been loading for 35 years or so.
 
If there's a particular gun that I want, I'll just wait for the next large gun show (around here they occur every month or so). All the big dealers from around the state are at these shows, and, between them, you can find anything you want. The local gun shops have a limited inventory and high prices, and I've found that it's not worth my time to even bother with them.

The gun market is soon going to consist of the Internet, on the one hand, and large gun shows, on the other. Local dealers will just be transfer agents.
 
I'd never heard of renting a gun out. Sounds like a hassle of paperwork and poor business practice.

If I had a rack of guns that were various 'Joes' who expected me to keep X number of dollars in inventory year round without selling it, essentially 'storing it' for them on my books and paying inventory tax on them at the end of the year - I'd go out of business as well.

And if someone came in there wanting Y rifle, I'd be damned if I'd tell them, "Oh no - you can't have that one, unless Billy Bob goes to jail'.

No, I'd sell it and Billy Bob could suck an egg.

With customers like that, no wonder the store failed. It's hard enough to make it as a small business owner as it is.

That being said, I would be willing to pay a little over price if my LGS had what I want in stock. IF they have it.

But with the Internet, a lot of times it's easier for me to shop around for the best deal and pay them an FFL transfer charge instead.

As for gun shows, I've been less than impressed the past couple of years. with the Internet they seem to be turning into a junk mil-surp flea market. I rarely find much worth buying anymore.

Except for that lady that sold me those delicious sugared cinnamon pork rinds last month, EXCELLENT!
 
Although, after posting that. I suppose depending on the amount the gun store owner makes off 'renting' the gun by selling then buying back, he could make more than an FFL transfer.

In which case, hey right on!

But I'd still sell it if someone wanted it.
 
hdwhit said:
Over the Independence Day Holiday, I returned to the little town where I finished growing up. And as I turned the corner onto the square, I saw the LGS I had anticipated buying my next gun from was holding a going out of business sale!

By the time I arrived, all the guns, ammunition, and components were already gone. About all that was left were used combat boots, some MREs and a few odds and ends.

The owner had done a pretty good business "renting" rifles - by which I mean selling rifles and shotguns before the start of hunting season and then buying them back after hunting season was over. I know some guns had been bought, sold and repurchased by the same person many times over the years. Even though they were on the rack, everyone knew you didn't buy "Joe's gun" or "John's gun" because they would be along for it as soon as they got the money together. Of course if "Joe" or "John" got a felony conviction, people all but ran from the courthouse to buy "their" gun. I found out those guns had been "bought" by the pawn shop which was intending on continuing the "rental" tradition.

Still, the collapse of the last seller of reloading components and new guns in the entire county really affected me. Almost made me start to question whether there is any future for the LGS in rural America.
Click to expand...
Not surprised he went out of business, this sounds more like his hobby and not really a for profit business.
 
I can't imagine anyone trying to make a living on transfers alone. The FFL who does my transfers is mainly engaged in transfers but he's retired and operates from his home. He isn't even home about 3 months out of the year. I'm not sure the ATF will even license an individual to operate from their home anymore. Some states won't allow that type of business to be run from a residence. Trying to maintain a brick and mortar shop, selling a few new and used guns and mainly doing transfers doesn't seem like it would be profitable enough to even pay the rent. I think in order to do that one needs to have a very large store with lots of guns and gun related inventory. A store in my area went out of the gun business even with a large inventory.

In this state everyone who sells or buys a gun has to go thru an FFL unless the sale is to someone out of state. Then the local FFL can be cut out of the transaction. That mandatory background check isn't the case in most states. The dealer I often buy from doesn't charge me for the background check or the shipping if I purchase thru him. He doesn't carry any new gun inventory, just orders it up from a distributor. Guns isn't his only his only business either. He has a lot of optics right up 5K telescopes.
 
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It's very difficult for a LGS to compete with the big box shops. Even if the government stays out of the equation. Up here, they've interfered so much that shops open and close like zippers. And Canadian forums still have young guys wanting to become gunsmiths(no Community College or private school courses for that here.) and open a store. With no business experience or money.
 
I have seen very few well managed, long established LGS go out of business for reasons other than the owner wanting to retire. The keys to success include stocking currently popular new models as well as old standbys, maintaining a vigerous used/consignment section, buying ammo from the bulk outlets and passing savings onto customers, and minimizing the greasy fat bearded trolls leaning on the counter.
 
Atla wrote:
I'd never heard of renting a gun out. Sounds like a hassle of paperwork and poor business practice.
Click to expand...

Well, it was a business model that worked for the owner and his father for the better part of 50 years.

If you sell a gun for $300 and at the end of the season buy it back for $150 (dollar amounts are examples only) and then next year sell it for $250 and buy it back for $125, it has essentially paid for itself and the opportunity cost of the capital by the end of that second year - faster capital recovery than many rental businesses - and you get to continue to sell/buy-back the gun for decades. Its practicality is attested to by the fact one of the local pawnbrokers bought the whole "rental" gun inventory on the first day.

Still, I can't imagine the margins were enough to make it something that could sustain a business on its own.

I only had a few minutes to talk to the owner, but I got the impression he had been riding the wave of people buying guns and supplies for the doomsday so many predicted would come from a Hillary presidency and when she wasn't elected, the panic abated and people started spending money on new shoes, tires and televisions rather than another case of MREs of pound of powder.
 
.455 Hunter wrote:
...minimizing the greasy fat bearded trolls leaning on the counter.
Click to expand...

Well, that was never a problem for this store. Mostly because they exactly didn't have a counter. All the guns, ammunition and primers were locked up in metal cages. If you wanted to look at something, you asked and they took it out of the cage and brought it to a table where you could inspect the gun. Pretty much left it open for the sweaty, fat, bearded customers like me who were serious about buying.
 
Sunray wrote:
And Canadian forums still have young guys wanting to become gunsmiths(no Community College or private school courses for that here.) and open a store. With no business experience or money.
Click to expand...

Whether in Canada or the United States, that's a recipe for disaster. It takes time to build a customer base for a new business and you've got to rent the space, stock the business, pay to keep the lights on and eat until word of mouth gets around about how good you are (we'll assume the young person is good enough to make a living at it) and that typically takes two to three years.
 
Atla wrote:
But I'd still sell it if someone wanted it.
Click to expand...

When the gun store started doing it many decades ago, there was apparently an implied promise that if you bought the gun and sold it back, it would be there for re-purchase the next hunting season, so selling a gun out from under someone would have a violation of a cultural taboo. Of course, if you didn't come back and re-purchase your gun then everyone understood you had not held up your side of the bargain and "your" gun wouldn't be there the following year.
 
I hear often "if they have it in stock." I can't be the only one to ask a LGS to order something for me. All three shops around me will special order if any of their suppliers can get something. One shop in particular will go out of their way to track a desired gun down for you. Because let's face it, forty dollars made in a sale is better than twenty dollars on a paperwork drill.
 
CoalTrain 49 wrote:
I can't imagine anyone trying to make a living on transfers alone...
Click to expand...

Neither can I.

Yet, here in the Dallas suburbs, sellers like CDNN show two dozen FFLs working out of their houses doing transfers. I assume this is a night/weekend business to supplement their day-job because you can't pay the mortgage on a $300k house on $35 transfer fees. In fact one of the members has a signature line saying that is someone is looking for an FFL in the Plano, Frisco, McKinney area, they should PM him.
 
most gun stores are like most other small retail businesses. when the guy that started it retires it goes defunct. sometimes a kid or someone else will take over and run it into the ground. sometimes the second owner can even make a go of it. but mostly it is very hard to keep any small business a going concern for decades.

and most of these small business owners are not making much money. most would do better financially to go to work for someone else so the potential for sale of the business is limited.
 
1911 guy wrote:
I can't be the only one to ask a LGS to order something for me.
Click to expand...

You're not. If the brick and mortar LGS around here doesn't have something, I will ask them to find it.

The problem faced by the LGS in the town I was be moving to was that being in one of the poorest counties in the nation, his sales of new guns had dwindled to the point where there was only one distributor still dealing with him. Still, I was willing to live within those confines - had he been able to hold on long enough for me to get moved there.
 
ilbob wrote:
...most of these small business owners are not making much money.
Click to expand...

I agree.

When I retire I'll have an annuity plus significant savings, so if I can find some space that isn't too expensive, I would love to open a gun shop/used book store and let my wife run the book store part.
 
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