dxkj21, the owner of The Shooters Shop pays his employees very well. Because they know what they're talking about. Each employee is an expert in a particular area.
But you're telling me that you'll go take up the salesperson's time (which is the owner's money) to get the advice you need, and then go buy it online?
OK, so you've now wham-bam-thank-you-mam'ed the local store. And you get your gun from somebody who operates out of his basement, and who sells for bottom dollar by not having the gun in stock, but by ordering it for you. Maybe it takes a week, maybe two, maybe more.
And you get your gun.
And it doesn't work properly.
And Mr. Wham-bam doesn't give a rat's ass. It's your problem now.
Whereas, if you'd spent the extra dollars to buy from a storefront shop, they'd be on the phone with the manufacturer demanding that you get your gun back, functioning properly, in a matter of days.
True story: a customer at The Shooters Shop bought a Kel-Tec with the belt clip. The gun had problems with removing the magazine, and with extraction.
The sales guy didn't miss a beat: he gave the customer a brand-new Kel-Tec. No questions asked.
Try getting that kind of service out of Gander Mountain. You won't. Want to know how I know you won't? Because one of the Shooters Shop's guys used to work for Gander Mountain, and he has horror stories a mile long. And I've heard others as well.
In fact, I hear these horror stories every day from both gun buyers and gun shop owners. (Phone calls and emails are my job, to the extent that I have one).
Same thing with Wally-World guns. Get 'em for less but, if there's a problem, you deal with it.
It's the "pimple" problem: I don't want to deal with a pimple-faced kid who knows less about guns than I do, and doesn't have the clout to tell the manager that he has a ticked-off customer.
It's also a simple fact of life: you get what you pay for, either on the front end (price) or on the back end (service).