Is the "Absence of guns" hurting stores?

[Topgun]

Just got to thinking this Christmas morn after reading all the ads in the newspaper. It looks like the sales are hurting in stores.

Looking at the ads made me think of when I was younger. LOTS of stores sold guns. Long guns AND handguns. It made shopping more fun as there were guns to be looked at.

Although I never was a fan of J.C. Higgins, I usually ended up buying ....something....in the gun dept. of Sears (soon to be broke) when shopping with parents or wife.

I just wonder how much sales have been hurt by the "feminizing" of the stores and "political correctness."

Kinda makes me want to ask at stores I visit, "Where's the gun department?" I know I'll get the answer, "We don't have one." So my logical next question should be, "Why not?" And if the clerk doesn't know, then ask for a manager and ask them.

If enough people asked, SOMEONE might mention it in one of the slave meetings that these big boxes have from time to time.

Or a short phone call. "Do you sell guns? No? Oh, thank you, I'll keep looking."

Possibly better than writing legislators.

It can't be beyond some sharp cookie in UPPER management to wonder why GUN SHOPS are so busy. And why the decline in "MALE" shoppers.

I know Walmart (ugh) handles some gun stuff but not handguns. Maybe it's time some OTHER stores started thinking about how to stop the incursion of Walmart (ugh) and start not only competing but BESTING Walmart (ugh) by handling all sorts of firearms.

Might work.

 

[hansolo]

WalMart(ugh)

First let me say I'm not in a cult, believe in UFOs or call into "nutcase" radio.
BUT....from a lot of recent input, both here and from other sources, I truly believe that WalMart is a "wannabe monopoly": things like buying up land near certain population types, low pay for their employees, etc.

Only problem is, I'm on a fixed income, so I still buy a lot of stuff at WalMart I understand their sheer buying power...that's how they can sell ammo, etc. WAY below the Mom & Pop Gunstores.

Several months ago, all the longuns disapeared from the two glass cases at the two local WalMarts....the CA DOJ says they found discrepencies in background checks by "undertrained" employees. There has been a sign on the cases for months, "We are sorry to temporarily suspend sales of rifles.....we plan to train our employees more thoroughly,blah, blah. The Sprorting Goods Mgr. told me , "Too many anti's complained....

I'm surprised they still sell ammo.

What's the solution? Beats me

 

[Majic]

When you consider the total shopping population, unfortunately we gun buyers are in the minority. The numbers do not support any attempt for the stores to turn the policies and laws around. Volume is what most stores depend on and a firearm is not a disposable item that has to be regularly replaced. It is probably the most durable item sold today as it's designed to last for decades of continuous usage. That will hold down total sales and the bean counters will instead fill the shelves with items bought with more frequency.
Even back in the grand old years how many people were actually standing around the sporting goods counters waiting to pay for firearms compared to the amount of people standing by the other registers located throughout the stores? There's a reason why you have to track down a salesperson in sporting goods these days, but the jewlery counter is always staffed.

 

[CMcDermott]

What's hurting the retail stores is the internet - overall sales are up over the economy, but retail stores are down because more people are doing more shopping online. Actually a gunstore is one of the few retail outlets that the internet can't replace as they can still make money on doing the transfers since most of us don't have an FFL to receive guns.

 

[sm]

Once upon a time people didn't do "sales" per se'. Change of season,or back to school was about it. Then "marketing," "bottom line", business/marketing thinking changed. Recall the saying? You teach people how to treat you . Well stores got to panicking about cash flow,starting marking stuff and running sales. Well Mr. and Mrs. Consumer bought stuff on "sale". This was back when I was in Jr. High and I recall my Orthadox Jewish Boss telling me a Gentile..."some folks would buy a cowchip if on sale or marked down, this is a bad practice we are seeing". sure enough, cash flow was great--at first. Then the businesses asks customers " can we wrap that up for you today?" "No Thanks...we will wait for it to go on on sale".

So sales started more often,and seaonal stuff became earlier and earlier. AS a kid, the "big shopping season" didin; start until the day after Turkey day. Now a few folks never did this [like me] I priced it right and gave sevice, I positioned myself in a manner that the "Mart Boys" couldn't compete with. A few folks like me has legitimate sales way wehn seasons changed, after summer and when fall stuff comes in is agreat time to buy summer dresses and bikini's.

Guns are going through the same deal with litigation worries and all. It always boils down to the "bottom line", and that includes the litigation that went nuts. Chain stores pulled the guns, or especially handguns [litigation] they wanted to position in the customer's mind that "hunting ok anything else is not".

Well I finally checked our a new Academy Sports that just opened up. They have the balls to sell handguns and all sorts of ammo...including that inexpensive name brand stuff in .223 that shoots what- 6 miles and is deadly enough to stop a Buick...or is it up to 8 miles now? . They had a good selection, staff was pretty sharp ( still getting use to the new I'm sure) and my gunsmith buddy said " you know this is going to kill Sports Authority and Wally World. by the time I order a 870, my cost is more than the retail here. If a customer want to shoot a few rds of 7.62 x .39 he can get a few boxes here and save shipping." . Not going to hurt the Mom & Pop gunstore, probably alleviate some headaches and allow the Mom& Pop to better focus on the market they want. Academy , for the moment anyway, has everyday fair prices, run a few specials. Not going to hurt Caspian made 1911s , or CZ .375s my buddy had made monies on.

Yep it hurt sales, so they taught the sheeple, they can have the sheeple as customers, sheeple have a right to shop too. They can have thier feel good group hugs and all...but a sheeple will still sue your butt over a fresh mopped floor while taking advantage of your sale. They deserve each other.

Independent gun stores provide something the others don't, they do not have to rely on "sales" to do so. Academy so far , fills another niche.

Funny thing is the flip side to "you teach people how toyou" is people remember how they were treated, diod you sell out to sheeple, did you insult my intelligence by marking up an item then running a so called "sale"? Dunno, but $ 215 cash -tax included for a 870 Express is still a helluva lot cheaper than $499 on sale for 50 % off some folks try to pull. Sorry, I don't care if it was "on sale". Don't insult me.

 

[another okie]

I doubt complaints from anti-gun people really has much to do with it. That sounds like an excuse.

Selling guns has become subject to so many complicated rules that the ordinary store no longer wishes to handle them. The article mentions problems with "undertrained" staff. Well, all of Wal-Mart's staff is undertrained by any normal retail standard.

As time goes on this will spread, but because the trend is that ordinary retail businesses will not sell anything which requires extensive training of their workers; better to send it to speciality stores. It's too expensive and time-consuming to train speciality staff who will just leave soon anyway. And the penalties for mistakes in this area are not just a refund - there can be criminal charges.

One way to ban something indirectly is to make it subject to so many rules and forms that the average person just gives up. That's kind of what's happening to hunting and fishing.

 

[Topgun]

All good points. Liability, training, demographic shift, etc.

One of the GOOD things is that guns are not regularly available to most shoppers on the Internet. That COULD bring Dad in with Mommy to shop.

One of the most DETRIMENTAL things to gun sales is so called TRAINED salespeople. I see more absolute CRAP being tossed around at gun stores that I wanna puke at times. The STAFF scares off the buyers.

I heard just last week a long time clerk in one of our BIG gun shops telling some poor geek "Aw, the state makes more than we do on guns and ya hafta take a test an ya better not have no criminal reckerd an oh, gorsh it is awful now an not like it useter be an guns are a PITA an all the hoops they make ya go thru, why hell, it almost aint worth it an....on an on an on"

The guy left without making a purchase. Clerky got to go back to his sangwidge.

BUT......I will bet that almost ANY computer programmer could make a completely automated point of sale program that would bring up question after question and not proceed til answered, print it out, have it signed by the customer (along with prompts where the clerk must see proper ID etc) and actually end up with the retailer having LESS exposure to liability than a GUN store.

It was just a thought. Business is bad and will probably get worse for America's retailers. They will either do something or not.

One of my first guns was bought in a combination huntin-fishin-liquor-bar.

Guys would be drinking on one side of the room while other guys bought guns across the floor.

Ahhhhhh..........progress.

 

[HankB]

When you consider the total shopping population, unfortunately we gun buyers are in the minority.

Tell that to K-Mart. The gun-owner's Rosie boycott wasn't the only reason K-Mart went bankrupt, but it was a pretty big nail in the coffin.

Sears used to sell guns, but hasn't for quite a number of years . . . and for quite a number of years, they've been on the decline. Maybe a coincidence, but . . .

Corporate bean counters look to maximize quarterly profits - if they can boost cash flow by 0.05% for a couple of quarters by ditching guns, ammo, and hunting gear, they'll do it . . . accept the pat on the back, and move on. Of course, when gun owners/buyers start making fewer trips to their store, and overall profits decline (fewer trips means fewer NON-gun purchases) they won't make the connection.

And as for "undertrained" staff . . . I've encountered same at various gun shops, together with behavior ranging from rude to downright unethical. I'd LIKE to go to a small gun shop and support it, I really would, but there are one or two local shops I'd really LIKE to see go under. The shifty %$#@!&^# deserve no less.

 

[Majic]

Tell that to K-Mart. The gun-owner's Rosie boycott wasn't the only reason K-Mart went bankrupt, but it was a pretty big nail in the coffin.

K-mart had already lost the battle to Walmart long before the Rosie inspired boycott. They were just barely limping along and the boycott was just the final nudge.
Sears still rule over the department stores in appliances and tools, but in overall retail have lost out to J.C. Penneys (who used to sell firearms themselves).
I stand by my statement that the removal of gun counters in department stores have not impacted the average shopper on a whole. To gun enthusiast, yes it effects their shopping choices, but to Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe Blow shopping for little Susie's new coat they could care less.
We are in the minority in the overall numbers game.

 

[PawDaddy]

When I heard that a Target was opening in a nearby city, I thought it would be a good place to shop. I had heard that Target carried basically the same items that Wal-Mart did. I had heard that folks liked Target better than Wal-Mart. But, when I went to the new Target store, I was truly dissappointed. They didn't have the first gun and their sporting goods dept. was so poorly stocked that it should not have been called one.

I doubt that I will ever go to Target again because I can get anything that they have at Wal-Mart, plus go by and spin the gun racks!

Wal-Mart is not perfect, but they have good prices and will back anything they sell.

 

[kernal_panic]

i pretty much quit buying gun stuff at the chain stores. only thing left i buy is winchester dynapoints in 22 lr at a walmart in a neighboring county (only place to buy them!) i went gun shop crawling yesterday and visited some gun shops that i haven't been to at all or haven't been inside in years. wow one shop i was in is selling bulk ammo! no one sells bulk here! ???? its hard to get bulk ammo at good prices at the gun show here! but not at this store. plus he sold powder (kinda high in price) primers (very hi in price) cast lead bullets for reloading (modeatly priced) premium gun lubes and maintance supplies (good prices) guns were resonably priced (used .44 mag deagle for $775). at another store i hit one that just opened i hit it off with rusty the store owner in a few minutes. rusty has a slightly beat up palmetto arms pre ban ar-15 on his wall that needs some small parts to put it into functionality again and he has for fairly low dollars. low enough to make it attractive enough to buy it over a post ban gun. do the shop crawl and talk to people. i wound up making one of th ebest freinds i've ever had with a pawn shop manager.