The local gun store “fly”

[Old Dog]

The only time I have blown a gasket with a gun store doofus was when I had my (then) 10 year old daughter with me at Turners Outdoorsman in Chino,Ca. (Now closed and moved.) I had a 25-ish kid flailing about, pointing a counter gun all over as his 25-ish buddy behind the counter was blabbing away with him about this gun or that. The one guy was a doofus and the clerk was completely oblivious to what was going on. The attitudes I got when I asked these guys to please quit pointing the gun in our direction while they yapped sent me into a fit.

Stay safe.

Holy cow. I used to frequent the Turner's store in San Marcos when we lived in Escondido. Had the same experiences. Manager knew me, but his clerks were -- doofuses.

I just smiled, said to the clerk, “Well, I guess the fifteen hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket would be spent elsewhere” and left. (And it was!)

Hilarious -- same exact experience I had in one of my LGSs when I went in to buy one of the new 2020 Pythons I knew they had in stock. I ended up going to my nearest Sportsman's Warehouse and giving them my money.

 

[Remington1911]

The key to all this is the old, you can't judge a book by its cover.

I have a couple other stories along these lines, some even gun related.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Incompetent sales/counter help are not flies since they're paid to do a job. They are a management problem.
I distinguish between "flies"-who are for the most part annoying and ill-informed-and the usual "crowd"-club members, if you will.
At one gunshop/range I spent part of my hour helping other shooters with jams, lending screwdrivers, etc. One of the owners thanked me for that.
I distinguish between unsolicited advice and correcting misinformation.
I joke that I am so far behind the times that hanging around gunshops lets me catch up and enter the 21st Century.

 

[buck460XVR]

Incompetent sales/counter help are not flies since they're paid to do a job. They are a management problem.
I distinguish between "flies"-who are for the most part annoying and ill-informed-and the usual "crowd"-club members, if you will.
At one gunshop/range I spent part of my hour helping other shooters with jams, lending screwdrivers, etc. One of the owners thanked me for that.
I distinguish between unsolicited advice and correcting misinformation.

^^^Totally agree.

Still, the "flies" don't bother me near as much as those SFBs that want to take the gun you are looking at out of your hands with the idea they get to buy it first.

 

[wesmonster]

I think the "flys" are the most entertaining thing about gun shops.

Same, their advise may be complete BS but I will always enjoy talking guns, even to strangers. I have learned a few things that way after doing some fact checking. My favorite LGS is like that, owner always has free coffee and there's usually at least one guy older than me (and I'm OLD!) standing around gabbing to whomever will listen. If I'm buying or trading I'm usually standing around waiting for background check so why not talk about guns for a few minutes.

 

[Speedo66]

A previous post reminded me of something that offended me about the flies, politics.

Went into one place during an election year and one guy, not an employee, keep spouting off about how one candidate was a lover of certain minorities, with numerous descriptive terms I found offensive.

How anyone who would consider voting for said candidate was a moron, and worse. His tone was semi white supremacist.

If I'm gun shopping, or doing anything else I find enjoyable, the last thing I want to hear is hate speech or offensive political rhetoric from someone I would never be in the same room with otherwise.

I could only think if the shop allowed him to talk like this they must have agreed with his views. Found I had no further interest in shopping there.

 

[Old Dog]

Upon further review, having just visited my pet LGS, the "flies" (who are mostly old-timers and acquaintances of the owners) don't bother me nearly as much as a twenty-something counter clerk (judging by appearance, no military or law enforcement experience or recent acquaintance with push-ups or crunches, just the beard) who somehow decides he is expert enough to give me a rather patronizing ten-minute lecture on a handgun platform I've been intimately associated with for only around forty-five years. *Rant off*

 

[Tinker-S]

A previous post reminded me of something that offended me about the flies, politics.

Went into one place during an election year and one guy, not an employee, keep spouting off about how one candidate was a lover of certain minorities, with numerous descriptive terms I found offensive.

How anyone who would consider voting for said candidate was a moron, and worse. His tone was semi white supremacist.

If I'm gun shopping, or doing anything else I find enjoyable, the last thing I want to hear is hate speech or offensive political rhetoric from someone I would never be in the same room with otherwise.

I could only think if the shop allowed him to talk like this they must have agreed with his views. Found I had no further interest in shopping there.

I do not want to infringe on your rights, or antagonize you.
Would it made you feel better if the "fly" was talking about how good the politician was?
Would you be a regular at the shop still?
Would you go back if the shop was the only one selling the ammo/weapon you really wanted/needed?

 

[.38 Special]

I was a "fly" back in the day, along with a handful of other "flies" at our LGS. The owner was a good, honest guy who ran a clean shop and hired knowledgeable and friendly staff, and he was happy to have built an establishment which encouraged local enthusiasts to hang out. He was also quite clear about boundaries: employees were to immediately disengage from the "flies" whenever a customer came in and offer a smile and a "How can I help you?", and the flies were to keep their mouths shut unless directly asked a question by the customer or employee. (This latter happened on a regular basis: a customer would ask a question about some particular and the employee would say something like "Well, I haven't heard anything bad, but I haven't used one much. Steve, you have some experience with the thing, how'd it go?" And then Steve would offer a friendly and informed opinion and everyone went away happy.)

Of course, many of us have been into the kind of shop where the flies and their conversation are apparently more important than the customers. My most memorable such experience was actually at a barber shop. I walked in and everyone stopped and turned toward me, including the guy who was getting a straight razor shave. It may have been the first time anyone ever interrupted them, as far as I could tell. After a few beats, someone finally said "Help you?". In retrospect, I wish I'd said "I'm looking for Josey Wales" but in reality I just snickered and walked out. The place has been closed for years now...

 

[Speedo66]

I do not want to infringe on your rights, or antagonize you.
Would it made you feel better if the "fly" was talking about how good the politician was?
Would you be a regular at the shop still?
Would you go back if the shop was the only one selling the ammo/weapon you really wanted/needed?

The candidate wouldn't have mattered, it was the fly's offensive politics I found disgusting.

Since the shop tolerated it, I wouldn't shop there again, regardless of their inventory. I'm no snowflake, but talk like that just pisses me off. Today it's the color of someone's skin, tomorrow it's someone's religion. I have no tolerance for that.

 

[Blue Jays]

"…and then everyone in the entire gun store turned to me and clapped…"

Many posts in this thread are even more fun to read when that phrase is appended at the end!

 

[Tinker-S]

The candidate wouldn't have mattered, it was the fly's offensive politics I found disgusting.

Since the shop tolerated it, I wouldn't shop there again, regardless of their inventory. I'm no snowflake, but talk like that just pisses me off. Today it's the color of someone's skin, tomorrow it's someone's religion. I have no tolerance for that.

Roger that.

 

[BushMaster-15]

The only time I have blown a gasket with a gun store doofus was when I had my (then) 10 year old daughter with me at Turners Outdoorsman in Chino,Ca. (Now closed and moved.) I had a 25-ish kid flailing about, pointing a counter gun all over as his 25-ish buddy behind the counter was blabbing away with him about this gun or that. The one guy was a doofus and the clerk was completely oblivious to what was going on. The attitudes I got when I asked these guys to please quit pointing the gun in our direction while they yapped sent me into a fit.

My only smart-ass clerk experience was at a police-oriented gun store that I would pop in once in a while for oddball consignment gun bargains. (I picked up a nearly-new CZ 550 6.5x55 for $500 bucks, a few weeks later a 7.5” Redhawk .41 came home for $350.) A few years back when 9mm 1911’s started becoming really popular, I asked the young man behind the counter if they had any 9mm 1911’s in the case I could check out. He sort of sneers and said something to the effect that the store only sells 1911’s in .45 because its the only caliber God intended for it, the 9mm 1911 is crap, what “man”would want to be seen shooting one, yadda yadda yadda.

I just smiled, said to the clerk, “Well, I guess the fifteen hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket would be spent elsewhere” and left. (And it was!)

Unless its a safety issue, I just kindly nod, smile and go about my business when in the gun store. Life is waaaay too short to sweat it all.

Stay safe.

Did You by chance ever visit a Gun Shop in Westminster , CA. aka Little Saigon ?. It was a solid cement block building with small up high windows with bars on them . I can't recall the actual name as it's been far too many years since I was there . It was a GOOD discount house and did volume sales . Staff was knowledgeable not overly friendly but accommodating ,I purchased a number of guns through them over the years . You would think I'd remember the name of the outfit !. They were ALWAYS BUSY and perhaps #10-15 sales personnel .

 

[Electricmo]

Hi. I’m Tony! Coffee is free in here. If you want to look at a gun or ammo help yourself. Bob behind the counter will let you handle anything you want, just ask him. Please don’t point any firearms at anyone . Now please excuse me while me and my 4 cronies finish our card game.
That was my first experience at my local LGS 28 years ago. I’m now one of the cronies sitting at the table in the corner of the shop behind the counter.

 

[hemiram]

I can't imagine the stupidity of allowing a customer to do that. Hopefully, the owner held the proper FFL to permit manufacturing ammunition. Even if he did, the legal liability of allowing someone other than an employee to load ammunition is mind boggling.




That may have been just the tip of the iceberg.

I bought a bag of .38spl reloads from them once. Just once. After a couple of almost too weak to make it out the barrel "Fifffs!", I pulled the bullets and dumped the powder, and traded a friend for some 9MM factory stuff. I just avoid the place entirely now.

 

[hemiram]

I won’t even fool around with remans from the big reman operations. I’d like to know who is buying the no name reman ammo.

In my early shooting days, I bought a lot of .38 Spl ammo that was reloaded at my LGS. I didn't see them doing it, and I had few problems with the revolver ammo, but 9mm was a whole different story. LOTS of hangs due to eggshaped cases and I stopped messing with it after I got the second bag and it was worse than the first. My last reload purchase was back about 6 years ago, I bought 1000 rounds of 124gr 9mm. It was....OK, most of it, but I didn't buy anymore, and I still have half of it. I will shoot it one of these days when I get a 9mm revolver.

 

[jdc1244]

The owner intentionally did not have any chairs in the showroom area to discourage this type behavior.

Which has become problematic in these days of the one or two hour wait for a background check to clear.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Here in NJ the State Police took over the background checks some years ago. You pay, fill out the forms, the shop notifies you when your background check comes through-usually 3-4 days.
Several of the gunshop ranges I go to have lounges, coffee, vending machines, magazines so you can have a "club" without interfering with counter operations. One gunshop/range has "Members Only" range times so that crowd can have their gatherings, not bother others.

 

[Scout21]

The only real issue I've had with "flys" is them idly chit chatting while blocking isles or cases, obscuring the view of what's inside. It's also bad at gun shows where they want to sit in the middle of the tiny walkways and gab the whole time, all the while leading to people piling up on either side of them. It's not hard to simply step to the side and let people through or, better yet, find an empty corner where others won't be bothered.

 

[N555]

I like the ones that are fat, missing teeth, claim to have been a Navy seal and spew nothing but BS.

 

[tubeshooter]

Been following this thread with interest. I guess I (sort-of) qualify as a "fly" at my LGS.
At least on Saturdays...

I think the other staff kind of likes when I come in because the owner and I will chit chat and whatnot for a couple of hours and so they can relax a bit. Especially if they're not busy.

I go out of my way to not impede the business of paying customers, especially if I don't plan on buying anything that day. Sometimes I will nod over to someone waiting at the counter and disengage so they can do business.



I have even helped out a couple of times for free. Went and got them a print cartridge one day when their's crapped out on a busy day. Things like that. I started to get a part-time job there just because I am there a lot anyway, but I am glad I did not. Much rather have the good friendship between the owner as I currently have it instead.

 

[gunmechanic]

I have a different take. the flies as you put,Many times could be collectors that make the rounds of the lgs looking to add to there collection and the owner would not run off a person who buys a gun a week or month.My self ,if i am making the rounds as i call it and a customer comes in i will excuse my self and leave so the person can conduct business in private .I have had the same experience at shops i am not a regular at it is uncomfortable for sure.

 

[BushMaster-15]

I see No problem with Flies ,as long as the door remains open and it swings both ways .
The flies who know their business also know when to buzz off and those that don't generally are swatted or at least shooed off .
Provided the LGS Owner is somewhat intelligent .

 

[welldoya]

For the life of me I can’t imagine why anybody would want to hang around a gun shop.
Where would you find the time? I’ve been retired for 5 years and I’m busier than when I worked.

 

[Old Dog]

Where would you find the time? I’ve been retired for 5 years and I’m busier than when I worked.

I've been retired for only 5 months, and I'm finding out the same thing.

But I do visit a couple of my LGSs every week or so to drink some bad coffee and b1tch about our governor, attorney general and legislature (the wife won't let me vent about this stuff at home, especially since she still works ten hour days). Every now and then, I look at a gun...