Shouldn't a gun store clerk have some gun knowledge?

[Duke of Doubt]

As a teenager I worked for a few summers in hardware stores (HWI wholesale, and then later True Value retail). At THOSE shops a kid would learn all about hardware over the course of a long summer or two. He'd learn to cut keys, cut glass and plexi, rip and cut plywood and lumber, cut and thread pipe, cut shade, make minor plumbing repairs, fix small lawnmower engines, make minor electrical repairs, assemble machinery, plan a concrete pour, mix paint and all sorts of other useful stuff that sticks with you for life. I did that for a few summers for the irreplaceable experience of it, not for the money, which actually was well above minumum wage, especially when you included overtime.

Walmart, Home Depot and Lowes put most of those places out of business. Neither Walmart nor Home Depot nor Lowes offers that kind of training to staff, even if they were interested and motivated. They just hire all the former clerks from the small stores they put out of business to supervise the kids they hire to stock shelves and wear funny-looking vests. When the last of the former hardware clerks die off, that will be the end of the American hardware store.

Small independent gun stores, with their longtime proprietors and employees, are not quite as vulnerable to that phenomenon as hardware stores, but the problems do analogize.

 

[wuchak]

I've found the people at the gun counter at the KC,KS Cabela's to be pretty knowledgeable. In fact when I picked up my K31 Swiss the gentleman who helped me was able to show me how to strip it and how everything worked on it. Turns out he is a collector and has a few at home. Most of my local gun shops also seem to have knowledgeable and helpful people behind the counter. I did run into one guy who no matter what you asked to see would try to ram a Glock down your throat. Every conversation seemed to go like this:
Me: "I'd like to see that xx revolver please"
Him: "You should take a look at the Glock"
To his credit he knew quite a bit about the other guns he just couldn't get out of fanboy mode.

 

[Flyboy]

Working in retail, you are making at or near minimum wage and most of the time, it's kids working part-time to pay for schooling in something they actually care about. I think it's like expecting the Mcdonalds guy to be able to tell you the details of preservation and transport techniques for beef patties.

No, it's like expecting the McDonald's guy to recognize the difference between a burger patty and a fish fillet, and be able to tell you the "features" of his product (yes, the burger comes with pickles, no it doesn't come with bacon).

I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation.

 

[Duke of Doubt]

Or expecting the tire guy at VIP Auto to tell you how to time your '57 Chevy.

 

[MikePGS]

Definitely, at the very least it provides a better customer service experience. I just started (on Wednesday actually) working at a Granite Wholesaler and I hate the fact that I have to call over someone else every five minutes when I need to find another similar slab, or something that's a different color (no idea where most of the stuff in the warehouse is at the moment).

 

[zoom6zoom]

I work in retail as a Technology Trainer. A big part of my job is training the line employees about the technologies the products use (not about the actual products, as they change too rapidly). Some of them actually pay attention during training, others don't. Unfortunately the turnover in retail is high; by the time I'm done working through the 35 stores I support many of the people I have trained are already gone. The ones that do stick around and are good have often been promoted and aren't directly selling anymore.

I wish I could afford to work at a gun store!

 

[pmeisel]

Agree on the employee turnover. Some chains have decent training programs, or hire assistant managers to help the newbies, not unlike the high school kids working for the old guys at the hardware store (I was one of them too, and so were both my sons). But often the kids only work there for a couple months...or if they work there longer, just really don't want to learn.

Come to think of it, there were kids like that when I was a kid too -- maybe that's how I became a crew foreman at 18, and my son became top assistant manager at 19 -- people who pay attention have an advantage over people who don't.

 

[RioShooter]

If you're over 55 you remember when sales was a career. Whatever the store was selling, the sales staff were knowledgable and sometimes experts. IMHO, that ended when the discount box stores drove the local mom & pops out of business.

One exception was the large department stores. Those people retained their expertise a while longer, but now are not much better than Wal-Mart.

 

[PAPACHUCK]

I was hovering around a Wal-Mart sporting goods counter one day, waiting my turn to buy some ammo, when I noticed the young clerk had two elderly women looking for a rifle to keep the critters at bay on their property. He had recommended a Marlin lever gun in .308 Express, and had it on the counter for them with a box of .308 Winchester shells. I couldn't just stand there and let that happen, so I asked the young man if those shells were for them, and he said yeah. I told him that thoses were the wrong shells and he said, "it's a 308 right?, these are .308 shells". I explained the difference in the two cartridges and suggested that the ladies look at something else, like maybe this Rem 870 Youth in 20ga. Yeah, that's the ticket. The two ladies walked out with a nice shotty that they can actually use, instead of a lever gun with the wrong ammo.

 

[Mp7]

...

wisdom is usually found in the largest internet forum for a speciific topic.....
.... how is an underpaid clerk supposed to keep up with that?