Did I screw this guy?

[texas bulldog]

i've waited a while to respond to this thread, but here goes...

(unfortunately?) i have spent a good portion of my life managing retail. not guns, mind you, but the concepts from one form of retail actually carry pretty nicely to another.

i see several problems with what the store owner did here, some of which have been touched on already:

1. the replacement cost of the bullets is completely irrelevant. yes, many stores will update their prices even on inventory bought at the older price, but it isn't necessary to do so in order to hit your target margin. it may net you some additional margin dollars, and it's certainly operationally more efficient to simply change the price as soon as the cost changes. but as long as he got his applied margin on the original cost of the bullets, he is turning a profit. he can update the price on the replacements he brings in, though i'm not sure it would be wise for him to ever replace them (see #2).

2. every product in your store needs to "pay the rent" for it's shelf space. if the item isn't moving, then it's taking up space on your shelf that could be used by an item that you turn over quickly. the money he spent on the cost of those bullets had been sitting there for god knows how long, like money stuck in a vault that he lost the key to. meanwhile, he could have had an item that people were actually buying in that same space. this would provide a continual stream of income that the bullets simply weren't. we call products like these "dogs", and we do everything we can to get them the hell out of the store, even if it means selling it at cost, or even below cost in some cases. you can stack 'em high and watch 'em fly or you can stock a lot and watch 'em rot. you really want to do the former. otherwise you have a lot of money of money tied up in inventory that you may never get back. i cannot tell you how important this is; i've seen the proper application of just this single concept turn a mediocre store into a top performer.

3. every business owner needs to assess his market and decide how he will compete successfully in it. what is this guy's competitive advantage? he's probably never even thought about it, which is his first problem. so i'll think about it for him...
it is highly unlikely that this guy can have the lowest prices in town. it is also unlikely that he can have the best selection in town. the big box stores and the internet merchants will beat him every time in those areas. what he can do, what is completely within his power, is to have the best service in town and/or the most knowledgeable staff in town. and the best part is, all he has to do to make this happen is to choose his own attitude. i know that may sound a little hokey, but i've seen it work. the store i've helped manage for the last 9 years was downright surly to customers when i got there, and now i can humbly say that we are as good or better than most anywhere in town when it comes to service. now i certainly can't claim responsibility for that change on my own, and it sure didn't happen overnight. but i can tell you that we make a whole hell of a lot more money now than when we gave our customers no good reason to come back. and all it took was the will to make it happen.


guess i need to open a gun store one day...

 

[Brian Dale]

I figure, what the heck. All the stuff on that shelf was dusty enough to grow crops on- has not moved in a while.

I put them on the counter and make some small talk while the fella rings them up on his register. It comes to over $90!

Let me see if I've got this straight:

The store priced the merchandise.

You took the merchandise to the counter to pay for it.

The guy at the cash register purposely charged you a higher price and he didn't tell you (key point).

You noticed, and he and the owner picked a fight with you because you noticed the surreptitious price increase.

In the past, I've run a cash register selling groceries, shoes and electronic equipment (yes, it was at different stores). The accounting class that I took which covered the Statute of Frauds in the Uniform Commercial Code of the United States was a long time ago, but I can tell you this:

Where I come from, we call that "stealing."

Trying to steal from your customer is always bad business. Good riddance, and a bridge well burned.

 

[borntwice]

Wow! That's quite a story! You made me laugh, several times! Thank you - I needed it. Cash talks, and Bullsh*t walks, I guess... LOL...

 

[evan price]

OK, the bullets were on a shelf at the side that was full of other obvious non-sellers. He also had bullets and primers etc. in another shelf that was marked what I would call "up t odate" pricing.

The 9mm bullets were actually intended for .38 Super according to the box. They worked great in a 9mm carbine.

This stuff was obvious old stock, been sitting a while, shuffled off to an out of the way place to make room for good stuff. However it wasn't under a counter in a box covered with a tarp or anything.

The way I see it, he priced it at that price to make a profit. He uses one of those grocery-store price tag gun things to make those rectangular price tags, that split apart if you try to take them off... ya know what I mean? He priced that stuff not me.

I was never snotty with the guy or even raised my voice. If he had said no, leave, I would have.

The last time I was there (before this) they had some oddball 7.62x51 that he was pricing up in sandwich baggies of 20 rounds for $19.99- iirc it was really cruddy looking Berdan foreign. That was over 18 months ago. It was gone so somebody must have bought it.

 

[texas bulldog]

He uses one of those grocery-store price tag gun things to make those rectangular price tags, that split apart if you try to take them off... ya know what I mean?

man, you're making me feel old. not only do i know what you mean, i know how to fix 'em.
gotta love obsolete technology!

 

[Ash]

Well, the fact is, he did lose money, or at least likely did, if the inventory had been there a long time. He had to pay multiple-years taxes on it, plus inflation likely ate up any profit that was there.

Of course, he should have changed the prices, during inventory time would have been good.

Ash

 

[kwelz]

Replacement costs? You dont sell something in order to replace it, you resell something in order to make a profit on your initial investment. You screwed everybody that was too lazy to look in the bargain bin for all of the old crap that this idiot store owner couldnt sell. Thats the whole reason there is a bargin bin, to move old stuff out of the way and liquidate it.

I am sorry but this is not correct. I have worked in Gun Sales, Retail sales, and software sales.

You must price things taking replacement cost into consideration. NO business can survive otherwise. And with Gun and ammo pricing changing almost weekly you have to take it into consideration.

If I buy 500K rounds of .223 for 0.23/rounds and sell it for $0.40 per round that is an ok profit. But what if my replacement cost on that ammo is now $0.35? That means that almost all of the profit from the last sales went into just replacing the product and this is not good business.

This can not always be avoided because there are going to be unexpected price increases. However we tend to have an idea of where the market is going 95% of the time. So we know that we are paying more next time and price current stock accordingly. That is how any business that wants to stay in business is run.

As much as we all want gun stores to be a charity, they are not. The point of a business is to make money and if they don't make enough money they close down.

 

[cracked butt]

I wouldn't feel bad about your purchase, and I certainly wouldn't return to the shop again.


People often talk about the S-Mart putting the Mom&Pop store out of business, but what if the Mom&Pop owner is a total A-hole with no business or even interpersonal skills? I've seen all manners of this: one shop treated me so disrespectfully a few years ago, that I never went back, they also went out of business recently which was neither a suprise nor a big concern to me. Another shop is 30 miles from where I live, the owner is full of wisecracks and sarcasm (but in a good way) has a good niche with muzzleloading and reloading supplies and I usually find myself buying something there whether I need it or not.

 

[TexasRifleman]

And they wonder why we keep using mail order and kitchen table transfer dealers......

 

[Hokkmike]

Since you asked, and if you are taking feeback in a postive manner, I would say that you did take more than reasonable advantage.

I always remember that mom & pop gun stores MUST make some profit or we will be stuck with coporate biggies.

You can still fix it.

 

[akodo]

Look, through the owner's own laziness, he is taking one up the (censored)

Taking one up the (censored) no matter if it is your own fault or someone else's, will often result in nasty comments.

He honored the deal probably because he knew he legally had to.

Yes, in most states, the price is the offer and bringing it to the counter is your acceptance. Even if the price is considered and advertisement, there is an obligation for a business to advertise honestly. Do to otherwise is classified as 'bait and switch' which is illegal.

Now, the reverse is also true. If a guy was planning on selling item X for $10, and instead marks it as $15 (forgot to change the pricing gun, whatever) and 9 people walk in, pick it up see the price and say 'no way' and walk away...fine. If the 10th guy comes in, grabs it, pays for it, and then minutes later somehow realizes he paid way too much....to bad.

I know for a fact that there are mechants who set a price that is basically 'fishing' hoping someone ignorant of an item's real value will come in and buy it.

 

[Defensory]

The OP did nothing wrong or unethical.

If the owner was too stupid and lazy to change the price sticker on merchandise that had obviously been in there for some years, it's his tough luck. He also agreed to go ahead and sell it to the OP at that price. He can't force somebody to pay more than what's on the sticker, but he could've legally refused to sell it at that price if he was so worried about "taking a loss", and sent the OP on his merry way.

So it was the owner's fault either way.

 

[LegalAlien]

+1 for Texas Bulldog's post!!
Clearly articulated and to the point.
Retail 101
Customer Service 101

I was in IT (in my previous life), now in auto retail.

If I had treated a customer the way this owner and sales clerk treated the OP, I would have been fired on the spot by the dealership owner.

Yes, sometimes you take the knock (for your own mistakes), you smile and shake the customer's hand, you curse under your breath for the mistake you made, your customer leaves happy, because he got a good deal.
Customer tells all his friends about the good deal he got, refers his friends and family and dealership gets more business and you have another shot at making some profit on the referal deals.

In the OP's case, he will never be back, he tells all his friends and family about the $h||+y service he got, the word spreads through town, the shop loses many possible customers.

IMHO the store owner lost big time through his attitude - more than just the potential additional profits from the single sale.

 

[donttellthewife]

I can't believe you would do such a thing at a business that supports the 2nd amendment, and that makes it possible for people to exercise those rights. It sounds like it was an honest mistake on his part that you took advantage of. At this piont there is only one honorable thing you can do to make up for this kind of behavior..



















































Put those bullets in that box of brass your going to ship me and rid yourself of this problem and be guilt free.

Ya done good, no one got screwed
now all you need to do is make up an offical looking letter naming the shop in the pending lawsuit over mis-marked bullets that where sold at that shop and identified as the cause of the firearm explosion.

When things like this happen you need to get some extra joy out of it

Berdan loader, Ron

 

[DAVIDSDIVAD]

Hahahah, Ron, you got me good.

I felt my NerdRage.exe activating, and then I scrolled down.


At first I 'd,



but then I 'd

 

[blkbrd666]

Pricing store items, then re-pricing to account for replacement cost is called "investing". Pricing store items to profit over the original cost is called "retailing". There's nothing wrong with making an investment and a bigger than expected profit by monitoring and updating prices on inventory, but it's not necessary to be a successful business. When you restock at a higher price, you will also sell the restocked items at a profit.

To the original poster...you did nothing wrong. After the comment he made, I would be tempted to clean off the shelf and sell it...at a profit.

 

[jerkface11]

Why would replacement cost figure into something that obviously does not sell? (the boxes had been on the shelf for years after all).

 

[bhp9mm]

he needs to change the price if he wants more that other guy working their needs hiting in his face

 

[lonegunman]

The shop owner originally talked about is basically a dirtbag. In Washington state, the price marked is the price. We have one store ran by a family of theives that does the same stuff.

The old geezer who owned it died, the family stole everything that was not nailed down and guessed the prices on the rest.

When you pick something up to buy it, they start worrying it was marked to cheap and about 50% of the time, simply refuse to sell it.

As in the case of the bullets mentioned, they paid next to nothing for them and let them rot on the shelf for a decade without ever checking the prices, then they get mad when they sell them.

The creepy gun peddler got treated fairly.

 

[Monkeybear]

I simply walk away when faced with overtly poor customer service, and usually never return. I refuse to take crap from people I am giving money to regardless how good a deal it may be.

 

[another okie]

The store owner was in the wrong, but it would have been more adult to just walk away rather than get into an argument about it.

 

[gym]

This may sound like a waste of time but I can assure you it isn't. Get in touch with your local Better Business Bureau. Fill out a formal complaint, and they will twist his "you know what's", until he makes a formal apology. And I gaurantee you that he will be in touch with you asking to be removed from their list of merchants "not to do business with". I did this twice, once with a plumber who I had paid over 4 thousand dollars when we re-did our kitchen. He refused to come back to install a locknut in the faucet. It escalated into a quite an argument since it would have taken 5 minutes or less, and I didn't have the tool, or of course I would have done it myself. After two weeks he was in tears begging my cabinet guys to convey his apologys and he came and did the work. The second time was with a Big Box store, same result, I got calls from the vice president and the owner of the store chain, to make sure I was satisfied. I never thought the BBB had that kind of clout, but with the internet having such a big part of peoples lives, they seem to check with the BBB for many things.

 

[.cheese.]

The owner comes out and says those price tags are old. That stuff has all been sitting there a long time and nobody wanted them

After he admitted this and still was trying to get more for it than it was marked at, I would have just told him that I suppose they'll continue sitting there - and walked out and never returned.

 

[Ash]

gym, the guy, while being a jerk, still sold the bullets at less than half market price. Why bother stepping over the line to revenge?

Ash

 

[Diggers]

THOSE GUYS ARE TOOLS.

Mostly because they seemed to have it all worked out on how they were going to milk more money out of some one. They both seemed to be on the same page about those items that were sitting on that shelf. --Wait until some one wants them then JACK UP the price at the sale. --- Thats not cool.