Gun Shop Blues....

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bang_bang

bang_bang

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Elk Creek, Virginia
I'm writing this as a personal thank you to Obama, the Democratic Party, and all of the hoarders/panic starters that has caused us all of the trouble shooters and hunters have experience within the past 6 months.

Upon leaving work today, I decided to ride by my good friend and gun shop owner's business and show him my new S&W M&P AR-15. Sadly, one of the first words out of his mouth was "At the end of the month, I'm shutting down the shop." :mad:

Bob is a Navy-Vet, probably late 60's and one hell of a character. He never made much in the shop, just enough to break even after paying the bills. But, he worked this way for many years as a hobby, just an excuse to get out of the house. Sadly, though, it's coming to an end and too quick.

Any other year, he would still be in business. The problem is, he CANNOT get anything in. I mean, he was begging Accu-Sport for guns/ammo, they either had none or would not ship him any. He had no guns to sell, and what he did have, wasn't the most desirable for people looking to hoard up EBR's and tactical equipment. This is just a country shop, where he most enjoyed the company of his good friends he made along the way.

I could tell today that he was almost in tears when he though about it more. I'm going to try and spend a little money and help him clean out the place, but it's sad news for me as well. Gonna miss stopping by and shooting the breeze with that ol' guy. His stories about things I'll never experience and simple life lessons with humorous plots attached. Pisses me off that he's gotta shut down and pick up another, less expensive hobby....
 
That sucks, and I'm sorry to hear it. I went through something similar in 2008, except I didn't get to say goodbye. I got back from a 6 month stateside rotation for Uncle Sam and found my favorite shop boarded up. I still haven't gotten over it.
 
I am not sure why the poster

is blaming Obama and the Democratic Party. I understand the harm hoarders are doing. I know that the hoarding will make things scarce and make people even more prone to hoarding. So, it feeds on itself. However, Obama and the Democrats have not yet changed any laws that I know of. I think the people to blame are the hoarders and the gun people who say the sky is falling.
 
I am not sure why the poster
is blaming Obama and the Democratic Party
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Cause...they're the ones that made a threat to our 2A rights and put fear into many Americans. They're position and past history hasn't favored the Pro-2A viewpoint, thus causing massive buying, price hikes, and wiped the market clean of desirable goods. People can interpret a sentence in 50 different ways, millions of people have different views on the same subject at hand here.
 
Blame who you like, or blame no one; It's always sad to see the kind of shops described in post 1 to fade. So much experience leaves with them.:(
 
It's sad to hear about this guy going out of business, but truth be told I know a couple guys that were struggling who now are able--thanks to increased sales-- to ensure the doors stay open for a while. Fact is the Gun Business is better now than it has been for years.

I also know many folks in other fields that are shutting down businesses because of the economy.

In my main business (not 2RCo) I supply a 100 year old manufacturer that has been aggressive in keeping up witht the time and has always been profitable. This year they are at 20% of last years business. Sadly I think that we have been on this path for a while. No matter who got elected the economy was going to have a rough patch. Hopefully things will turn around everywhere. I don't like the current administration but I don't know that they can be blamed for this gunshop closing or all of the economic woes in the country.
 
.they're the ones that made a threat to our 2A rights and put fear into many Americans. They're position and past history hasn't favored the Pro-2A viewpoint, thus causing massive buying, price hikes, and wiped the market clean of desirable goods.
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Blaming someone else for your (not you personally) own actions is just dodging personal responsibility. Obama himself has yet to initiate any anti- 2a legislation. How can you blame someone for not doing anything? Why not take responsibility for your own panic buying. I can't count how many times I've seen the unfounded stories about stuff that Obama WILL do, when he has yet to do anything on that front.

Sadly, I think my range will be on the chopping block as well. It's sad to see these places go, but we only have ourselves to blame.
 
Upon leaving work today, I decided to ride by my good friend and gun shop owner's business and show him my new S&W M&P AR-15.
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Where did you buy said S&W M&P AR-15?
 
Where did you buy said S&W M&P AR-15?
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Another local gun shop because they had one in. Bob couldn't get one, he tried every week. The other shop just happened to get one in after a month and a half or so of waiting, so I jumped on it.

I now what you're getting at here, I don't like it. I tried to support Bob, its just that he could not get what I didn't already have. I paid his rent once or twice in the years I've known him.
 
That's too bad. *I* do indeed blame Obama - but for his extremely fascist record, this would not have happened. Cause. Effect. Responsibility (at least partial).

This ol' boy probably DIDN'T jack up his prices on his existing stock, to maximize short-term profits, to tide him over until the shortage had passed, thinking he was doing the "right thing", but then it backfired. All of you who gritch and gripe about storekeepers raising the prices on existing stock, you are now witnessing the realistic result of what happens when they DON'T! There is NO good option for small shops in this rock adjacent to a hard place, for folks who don't have several months of overhead stashed away in savings.
 
This ol' boy probably DIDN'T jack up his prices on his existing stock, to maximize short-term profits, to tide him over until the shortage had passed, thinking he was doing the "right thing", but then it backfired. All of you who gritch and gripe about storekeepers raising the prices on existing stock, you are now witnessing the realistic result when they DON'T!
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Business is Business even if it's the gun Business. The Bottom Line has to be the Bottom Line.
 
same thing that's happening here at my local Gander. they used to have lots of ARs and pistols, now, they only have a few on display and they can't replenish it more often than before. never thought about the effect of high demand of a product will cause a retailer to close doors. another lesson in economy learned today.
 
Perhaps he could ask for some kind of bailout since they are giving money away...oh that's right...it only goes to entities that are not viable.
 
Who would have thought a rush to buy the very products he sold would lead to his store's demise? While sad, it just seems ironic as well, becasue I've been told by many shop owners that business has never been better, and have seen more people in gun shops than I ever have before. However, distributors favor those moving large volumes, and when supplies are limited, they are likely to allot the guns they do have to the shops whop order hundreds of guns every year as opposed to Joew Blow the FFl holder who orders a few guns "once in awhile". They serve their customer base, and that, at the distribution phase, means retailers who move products. Sadly, the hobbyist who sells guns for kicks IS going to find himself in short supply in such a predicament.

While Obama triggered the buying panic with his obvious anti-gun bias, he didn't close your friend's shop. A comination of factorsd come into play, including, but not limited to, BO's presidency. The panic buying by your fellow shooters eliminated the supply of guns and ammo, not BO. Whether their strategy was wise or not reamins to be seen, but as of now, your fellow shooters are every bit as much to blame as the government is......and, for what its worth, most gun shops weren't caught completely off guard by the sudden demands. Perhaps had your friend paid attention to the potential politcal environment, he could have made a killing off of this frenzy. Instead, he was taken under by it. Again, this isn't all the fault of the government. Those who can foresee an increase in demand increase their supply if able to do so the supply...his failure to do so is no one's fault. MAny shops had cases and cases of AR-15's and AK's as the panic hit.....they knew what was down the road, and that a buying frenzy would erupt soon enough. These shops prospered in the panicked environment of post election America. Many others tried, only to realize it was already too late to jump on the gravy train....and sometimes, if you aren't riding the train, you're getting run over by it.
 
I am very sad to hear of your friend's situation. And I'm sure there are many others just like him.


However... a gun shop going under right now? That is indicative of an unhealthy business to begin with. I do not mean to be critical of your pal. I'm sure he ran the shop as mostly a hobby and never made much profit. He gave folks a "fair" deal and had a small group of loyal customers. He probably had a great old shop with all those intreaguing piles of junk that have been sitting on the shelves for decades that we all love to poke through looking for gems.

But part (probably the main part) of a business owner's job is to keep those doors open! The counter-man end of things seems like "the buisness" to most customers, but it really isn't. "The business" is watching trends, maximizing saleable inventory, balancing sales volume vs. mark-up, keeping prices where they *should be* relative to demand, making projections of what inventory he'll need far in advance, advertizing, etc.

It isn't really a hobby. It is serious business. Enjoying the guns and the comraderie of the shooting community is a minor side-benefit. Hours spent chatting with the "regulars," 25% or more of the display space piled with intreaguing junk that hasn't sold in 15 years, good buddy deals on stuff -- all of that is stuff WE love, but it is poison to his BUSINESS. SOMEONE is paying for that. If the customers don't pay for those "extras" through higher prices on the stuff that DOES sell, then he's paying for it himself out of his overhead and profit. If his profit is going to keeping up the "extras", then chances are he won't have anything to float him through lean times.

Most of us kick ourselves to one degree or another for the missed opportunities of the past few years. (Why didn't I buy a machine gun before '86? Why didn't I buy a pile of ARs and AKs before 2007? Why didn't I buy cases of 7.62x39 when it was $89 a case? Why didn't I buy 50K primers LAST YEAR?) That's bad enough on the personal front. When it's your business to sell these things -- you can't afford to be caught out by a rising trend. If that means business loans so you can order 1000 EBRs and jump on a bandwagon of rising prices, that's what you do. If that means standing orders with importers and manufacturers/distributors a year ahead of time, that's what you do. It's business.

It sucks to lose the "hobby" gun shops. But I think a lot of the "better" shops are capitalizing and will be healtheir because of it.

I am sorry for your (and his) loss.

-Sam
 
All the politics aside, and all the stuff the hoarders are doing aside. Its a sad day when any small gun shop closes its doors, nobody wants their local gun shop to go out of business. It does not matter if its because they keep loosing money, if the owner gets sick or even dies. When you cant get up on Saturday morning, drink a cup of coffee, hop in your truck and drive over to the local gun shop and talk about guns with your buddies or even with a complete stranger that shares the same interest as you its a sad day. Its always been harder to have a gun conversation in a big store like Bass Pro or Cabelas, everybody seems to be in a hurry, life is slower and less complicated inside the small gun shop, the wall are almost sacred.
 
We have nothing to fear but fear itself. ~FDR
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It is our choice to be afraid and start hoarding. I have not done much hoarding myself...yes, I have purchased 3 guns within in the last 8 months...and probably around 900 rounds of ammunition...but I think that is a reasonable amount for the market to support. I am not "hoarding" anything...although of course it is our choice if we do.

~Norinco
 
I for one would love to help a guy like your buddy out. My interest tends to run away from the EBR thing. I'd love to find nice old Savage 99s, old model 28s, all that kind of stuff but for some reason, these things are very expensive too.

I saw a Colt Trooper for sale yesterday for $650. Now that is a lot of gun but it is a lot of money too. This place sells a lot of ARs and WASRs for volume but they want to sell a variety.
 
Whats wrong with not having to worry about health care, or being able to go to college free of charge?
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Wow, you REALLY need an economics course. or five.

Tralalala, everything is free from the government. The implications from this socialist governement are astounding. I suggest you go do some research on the economic woes of the socialist countries in europe before you dump on capitalism. Look at the quality of the health care in these countries, the practice of leaving injured people on ambulances in Great Britain to keep them off the hospital books and the massive cost overruns and unemployment in France.

Seriously, take an econ course.
 
Your friend Bob didn't anticipate the surge in demand and didn't change his purchasing process to adapt accordingly. There are plenty of mom and pop gun shops that are able to get guns from major distributors and manufacturers, but all of them are placing large orders to get them, not one or two units per order. You should take this opportunity to buy him out and run a better shop than he did.
 
Blaming someone else for your (not you personally) own actions is just dodging personal responsibility. Obama himself has yet to initiate any anti- 2a legislation.
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Well, it's approaching politics but your statement is not entirely accurate.

Obama wants to ratify the Inter-American Arms Treaty which would require the US to pass laws licensing reloading, even private reloading.

You can play word games to say that nothing is happening "now" if it makes you feel better, but it's not honest.
 
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Obama is the word when it comes to bitter people clinging to thier guns and bibles.. and the constant support towards those in Congress to work towards alot of things anti gun.

Im glad I was able to get the things I needed at alot of shops when I did, here and there. Im just sorry that the man chose to close up and find something else to do.

My thinking is that it is maybe the time consuming work to get the items the towns folk are clamoring for that is killing him. Not the money.

Even the big chain stores are starting to show physical signs of stress in inventory. Useless little handguns over here and big bores over there while the middle handguns sought by CCW's in all the state are not availible.

With more CCW's coming down the line with each passing month, some who will need to buy a good gun and some ammo to go with it. Not everyone is gonna be fisting a .45 ACP or whatever.

Im old enough to remember the run on gasoline in the early 70's Those stations who got the gas trucks in and had large enough tanks survived. The little stations endured lines of cars all the day waiting on the one gas truck to fill a small tank. Those did not survive.

Now it's the other way around with 4.00 gas everywhere at one time and large pickups still commuting to town at 80 mph in the left lane in a hurry, gas mileage be damned.

In the meanttime I will continue to pick up handgun ammo at a buck a shot and shotgun ammo anywhere it suits me to a monthly budget. It's all goes bang to me for the buck.
 
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