Gander Moutain Marketing Deception

[practical]

I wanted to comment on Gander Mountains new Marketing Campaign.

They offer a 12 month warranty on firearm purchases. They offer more value for less money in the glitzy new advertizing.

However, this is basically a bald faced lie.

They are basically charging between 50 to 200 more dollars for something the manufacturer already provides.

I spoke pollitely to my associate at Gander Moutain. I like shopping there BUT I was completely offended by this advertising and marketing ploy.

This is likely the last straw for me. I will be shopping entirely at a local shop now. I cannot stomach a bald faced lie in which someone sells me something I am already paying for.

The associate sympathized but said he just worked there and needed the job. BUT he hoped the higher prices would not cost him his job.

I urge everyone to contact Gander Mountain and complain about the policy of charging more for no added value.

The sales policy was rolled out by someone in higher managment and is nationwide according to the store staff trained in it.

They are concerner it will reduce sales and devistate the gun business for them as people are not as gullible as the 'non-gun' management of Gander Moutain thinks.

 

[crankshop1000]

Like all the electronic big box stores, they make more money on the policy than the sale of the product.

 

[joplinsks]

I presume that Gander Mountain has raised prices on most of its firearms and now offers a store based warranty with firearms purchases?

There is talk in the forums that manufacturers are starting to enforce a "MSRP fixed price" structure. Shops can't sell firearms for less than MSRP. Therefore, many shops are starting to add extra services such as extended warranties, credit promotions, store rebates, etc to help offset the price increase and effectively compete with other shops. This is probably what Gander Mountain is trying to do.

 

[springmom]

Now I'm confused.

I have bought several guns from Gander Mountain. Those warranties are optional. They also include a cleaning and check by the local gunsmith. While the gunsmith may be so busy that getting your gun in and out in a reasonable time may be difficult, the warranties are not built into the prices, they are paid for by the customer at the time of the purchase of the warranty.

There is some overlap, yes, but read these boards for awhile and then come back and tell us that EVERY manufacturer will stand behind their guns for that year EVERY time.

I don't work for Gander Mountain, and I don't get anything out of defending them, but I have bought guns from them, both with and without warranties, and I think it's important to set the record straight...unless you are saying they have just changed their policies and now the warranties are automatically added to the price of the gun?

Springmom

 

[BB93YJ]

I work at the local goose hill store...

It, (this new whiz bang policy), went into effect a couple weeks ago. The display on the counter says the new program doesn't cost extra...riiiiiiight...

Funny, Glock 23's and 19's went up to $649 from about $549 at the same time. The other two gun stores local to us sell them for $485.00 and $499.99 respectively...

As usual, I'm less than impressed with upper management of large corporations.

Prior to this I worked for a large rail company for twentyfive years, they had their head up their arse too.

Guess it's a prerequisite for upper level management positions, i.e., being completely out of touch with your base, whether it's customers, or employees.

I'm sure not impressed.

 

[BigRobT]

I've actually purchased a couple of those warranties. Mainly on the used guns I've bought from them. The warranty was $20 and did include a free cleaning. It actually paid off for me on one used gun I purchased from Gander. They took it back and exchanged it for a different gun. I can't/won't complain about Gander Mountain at all.

 

[esmith]

I don't know about you but i think that if my mosin breaks and i ship it off to russia i will likely never see it again. It makes sense for mosins and skss and other milsurps but not for new guns.

 

[countertop]

so this is mandatory??? They raised the cost of guns to cover this???

Well, then I just wouldn't buy a gun from them.

 

[springmom]

I work at the local goose hill store...

It, (this new whiz bang policy), went into effect a couple weeks ago. The display on the counter says the new program doesn't cost extra...riiiiiiight...

Funny, Glock 23's and 19's went up to $649 from about $549 at the same time. The other two gun stores local to us sell them for $485.00 and $499.99 respectively...

Gander is more expensive on some things at any given time than other stores. OTOH, other stores are more expensive on some other things. I'm not buying this as an upper management FUBAR, not when so many other things are also increasing in price (like ammo, gasoline, milk, apples, lettuce.....)

Springmm

 

[AKChuck]

I'm a believer in the Mom & Pop stores. The two shops I buy my guns and ammo are both small family owned. I've never asked a question that they couldn't answer or someone in the store couldn't answer. Thats a whole lot more than you can say for most of the big box boys.

 

[BB93YJ]

Buy it or don't. I was told that the thinking from on high was that since we'd raised prices, it would allow other stores to raise their prices.

Ain't that nice of 'em. Taking care of the customer, that's for sure...

Oh, and it's not a management FUBAR, more like a management SNAFU...

 

[MikePGS]

The only reason i like going to Gander Mountain is that they have used handguns, which as far as i can tell is a unique service in this area, at least on the scale that GM provides it. I've also noticed that there seems to be little to no concept of how much each used gun's market value is (its pretty common to see used guns priced very close to, or even occasionally above the same guns NIB price). I've never tried it, but i suspect that if you offer them a lower price for the same gun you might have some luck with having the price brought down. Theres a nice looking Springfield SS Mil-Spec at the closest one to my house, and i have a feeling that if i offer somewhere around 550 or 600 for it (its priced at a NIB 700) and provide ample documentation that i could simply buy it on the web somewhere for those prices, i might be able to get it for that price. Also they have the price matching thing, which is helpful if the closest store that has a product at a good price is a bit too far to drive to.

 

[Acera]

+1 MikePGS, I also like the price match. There is a Gander Mountain that has had to beat the advertised price of a few others repeatably for me.

Does anyone else notice how they never take care of the firearms on the racks? I mean all three Houston area stores do not seem to oil the metal, or have rust preventive measures in place.

I recently passed on a rifle that was listed as new, but had rust on the bolt. The manager would not even adjust the price to compensate. I know he has the authority to do so, because I bought a similar rifle (same model, different caliber) new off the clearance rack, and he discounted it heavily due to a missing magazine.

 

[kludge]

I was in Gander Moutain this week and I watched as they pur new price tags on all the handguns... $50-100 price increase on most models. And they were already overpriced.

They must be getting ready for the Christmas season.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

Buyer Beware. You can't complain about price "fixing" too much when you can very easily do a web search of gun prices worldwide.

What about the "Local" stores that never offer any discount or any guarantee whatsoever, but still charge full MSRP price? Or even mark it up for newly introduced guns?

Why are Gander Mountain, Wal-Mart and others "evil" just because they can negotiate better volumes and provide the manufacturers a purchase commitment????? If they are marking up prices, you can easily go around them and buy online.

Have you ever invested your own money into producing something?

A large purchase commitment is nice, and it's worth a significant discount. It's not evil, it's good business.

 

[brandyspaw]

Just as an example, the two Ganders near me used to have the Savage/Stevens 200 rifles priced between $279-289. Now the same guns
are priced at $359 which is close to or at retail.

They won't get my gun dollars. I only look there as they sometimes make
a mistake and have their used guns priced down to where they are a good deal. Its rare but it does happen. Now they even have them priced beyond all reality.

Its a damn expensive place to shop.

 

[cnorman18]

price-fixing is illegal

I don't think a manufacturer can legally "enforce" MSRP. If you buy something--a gun, a car, a pack of gum--from someone, it's yours and you can then sell it at whatever price you like. If the manufacturers refuse to sell to retailers who discount their guns, they won't sell many.

What GM is doing may turn out to be what is called "pricing themselves out of the market." Doubling the profit on the sale of each gun doesn't mean much if you begin selling one-fourth of the guns you used to sell. Their prices will come back down to stay competitive, or they'll start losing market share to the stores that keep selling at a discount--and believe me, somebody will, because they'll sell a heckuva lot of guns if everyone else is jacking them up.

 

[ReadyontheRight]

A free market corrects itself.

Unless we all decide that Government should correct it for us.

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