Was in a LGS a few days back. Another fellow was trying to talk to an employee about different revolvers in the showcase. Within earshot was a local "self appointed expert" who "knows(?)" more about any gun (model, performance, history, etc.) in the store than the people working there. The guy keeps interjecting his "expertise" and won't hush. How do you folks deal with a situation like this without getting "ugly"?

"Tact" is a word I heard once, but never learned how to use it!

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gone

Ignore it.

Find out what he is driving and tell him you are a master mechanic. Ask him how many miles on his vehicle, and proceed to tell him every mechanical horror you can imagine until he decides to leave YOU alone. I've done this or just faked a few sneeze/coughs, and ask if the flu is going around again. That one usually works fantastically. Have some fun with the offending loafer!!

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Go big or stay home

A load of High Brass #5's usually does the trick.




Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

Another vote for "ignore him."

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Where's my dad's America?

The clerk is there to sell guns and one way is to allow the potential customer to unload his "expertise" and eventually come back with "well then you know that this Taurus Judge is just the high quality multi-purpose handgun you are looking for" etc. We are all at different stages. The LGS clerk should be more than equipped to handle his customers of all stripes, and we all have to start somewhere. My two cents.

Tell him that he is pretty and ask if you can smell his hair.

Gun shop groupies (folks hanging around who are neither buyers nor sales staff) can be a pain or they can be harmless. All depends on the particular shop and what you are trying to achieve there. I first try to understand the relationship between the shop owner or employees and the groupie... then I take it from there. I find some are a friend or relative of the owner (or of an employee) and some are past customers. One was just a local gun owner-wannabe who liked to hang out. Once you understand the relationship, you can sometimes even use it to your advantage in your negotiations.

One small (one-person) shop I frequent actually likes their local groupie to hang around for a bit of enhanced security (or at least the perception of enhanced security) at the shop. I think they figure the shop is less likely to get robbed or shoplifted with two folks present rather than just one.

Some years back when I was much younger and still learning about guns, we had a local hardware store/ gun shop which had a small seating area where the "experts" hung out.
While their primary business was the hardware, the little gun shop was actually pretty good. Unfortunatly you couldn't buy so much as a box of .22s without some comment from the peanut gallery. And heaven help you if you walked in with something to sell or trade. These guys would be all over you mostly telling you what a piece of junk it was and making low ball offers.
I never knew why the owners let these guys hang around. But the place developed such a bad reputation that nobody even wanted to buy hardware there. It eventually went out of business.

I agree, ignore. Zero response, eye contact or anything else. If he gets offended or persists, ask him if he works there. "Oh you don't? Thanks for your input but I'll wait to speak with someone knowledgeable".

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I'm Proud To Be An American!

Look over your shoulder at him and say, "Shut up" and turn back to what you are doing. That works sometimes.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

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Rimfires Makes me "Insane"

I actually do that too. When I am done, it usually throws the guy into the "ignore" category. Once it a while you will find a blonker who actually knows something useful, but they usually are the fairly quiet type. First you have to identify them as such, and then you have to ask them. I know a couple like that. When asked they will give their opinion and some facts/data to support it and normally let it go - i.e., your decision beyond that. It can be a plus. Lots of times they point out something I didn't know or had not considered.

As to why hangers-on are tolerated, there is long list of reasons, but chief among them must be a reluctance to bite any hand that feeds you. Even if the hangers-on never buy anything themselves but somehow "encourage" sales, that might count as well.

Some are harmless, even humorous/useful/agreeable - and some should be sent packing. No shop owner has ever asked me to help him sort them out or to decide what to do with them.

It's a good question. I once went into a shop and asked to see a single action revolver they had under the case. An older gentleman who kept giving me unwanted comments the entire time I was looking at it stepped up between me and and the sales guy and asked if he could "have a quick look at it" while I was in the middle of examining it. We both stop and gave him a dead stare for about a minute... he got the message and walked off into the holster aisle.

Have no idea why people are like that. I think it starts from when they are children and just don't get enough attention.

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Ephesians 6 (Armor of God)

Id revert to speakenzie im mein limited Deutsch. Done so before and pest left.

~~~OR~~~ What ^^^^^^^he said.^^^^^^^^^^

Long ago I read, Winston Churchill was quoted as saying:

"Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip".

terry

I'm just glad I'm not that guy. That's his punishment.

Thanks. That was a great response and visual.
I actually laughed out loud when I read it.
I just might use it.

Stu

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NRA Benefactor/Cert Instructor

I guess I am guilty of being a gun shop loafer but not a know-it-all. There is one local store I occasionally go into, but I usually get a little something while I am in there. I usually ask a lot of questions that might drive them crazy while I am in there.

I saw a rifle suppressor that I hope to buy within the next month or so the last time I was there. I also have a standing order for a S&W TR8 at the shop; someday, I expect a call...

It's part of the daily life in a GS.
Since retiring in '08, I've worked at two different LGS's and this past Summer finally succumbed to burn-out.
At some point, it's just not fun anymore. The never-ceasing phone calls, the 'don't have a clue' folks, the internet experts, and every military service member is or was a Scout-Sniper, just in case you didn't know.

Currently on the hunt for the next 'retirement job'.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

In my experience its been difficult to deal with the situation you describe because the highlighted part above is absolutely the truth. I have heard many untruthes that border on outright lies come from a number of gun shop employees. I fully agree that no one can be an expert on all makes and models of handguns, rifles, shotguns, etc., but for crying out loud, if you dont know the answer to a customers question, just say so and go find someone who does. Taking a guess and not qualifying it as such is misleading the customer, even if that wasnt the intent.

As far as gun shop groupies, In general I have no issue with them as they are source of knowledge and occassional humor. I do have a problem when they pull up a stool and park themselves in front of the display cases where you literally have to bend down and try to look around their knees in order to see a 1/3 of whats inside the case.

Usually when in a gun shop unless I know the owner I more or less keep to myself while checking out the merchandise. When a know it all appears I pretty much ignore it and watch how the owner deals with it while chuckling to myself!

To my way of thinking it is up to the person behind the counter to handle the lurking "expert". Having been in that situation behind the counter I usually let the lurker have his say and then went on with my conversation with the customer. In one instance though, while discussing a reloading technique with a customer I had a regular customer interrupt with his 2 cents worth. What he said was well beyond my customers knowledge and need. I let the expert finish and as he was walking off asked my customer if he wanted my answer to his question. I know the expert heard me and I got my point across.

Something else that usually works is to tell the interrupter " excuse me for speaking while you are interrupting."

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Quando omni flunkus moritati.

The worst are the guys that talk folks out of what is being sold.

Some are harmless, some are an annoyance, and very rarely are such folks actually a help.

Most seek attention, but usually all it takes is the proper expression in one's face to get the point across.

There are all kinds...

When there's a pretty and inexperienced girl shopping everyone becomes an expert.

I usually just listen and take it all in as a amusing experience. I did ask one man that kept adding his 2 cents worth, if his parents were brother and sister. I operated a large drill rig for years and was often employed by large mining companies. These companies hired an engineer to protect their interests. One 2 occasions while struggling with various problems not related to the performance of my work, the engineer would be telling me to do this or that. I simply took off my gloves and hard hat and handed them to him and said "here you give it a try". That was enough to get him back into his truck.

I would much rather the guy try to talk to me than to the salesman. I was in a shop the other day and this loud-mouth comes in, and knows all the people who work there and he is talking so loud you could hear him at both ends of the shop. He his talking to the salesman and there were three of us waiting to be helped at the counter and we are drumming our fingers on the counter and looking at all the sales people and they are all laughing and talking back to this guy who didn't even want to buy anything. I start pacing back and forth and the old guy in front of me is trying to clear is throat loudly but we keep getting ignored and then I start yelling at this girl in the back for some help and she gets up from her paperwork and comes up to help the three of us. And...people wonder why gun stores go out of business.

In any gun shop I ignore all lurkers and most of the idiots behind the counter. I learned a long time ago that it's best to know what you want and what you are looking for before you go in.

I didn't have to go around the block too many times before I figured out that I usually know more than the lurkers and the gun shop aficionados.

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Real men love cats!

This topic gets real interesting when the person behind the counter is a woman (me). They figure I know nothing and try to fill anybody with BS.
I raise my eyebrows, make my eyes as big as possible and say "Oh, Really?" For some silly reason it seems to work.

Look up extremely obscure trivia on smartphone and quiz him?
Or just do like Aumiller and hire him

People who think they know it all are very annoying to those of us who do.

From now on, whenever I have some free time, I'm heading over to the LGS to stand around and comment on, well, everything.

Hey there young man, where'd you get them pants? Yessssirreee, I remember when they invented pants...before that, we didn't wear pants, we had flopsacks...we had to climb in and hop around...yessirreee. What u got thayr, a gun, is that one o' dem whatchamacallits...yessirreee...I remember when that feller invented those doohickeys...

Oh, yes, this is going to be fun.

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But then, what do I know?

I have to admit that I've offered unsolicited comments / information, but only when there is a really obvious need.

One simple incident:
Clerk: This one fires .45 ACP.
Customer: What's ACP mean?
Clerk: Gee, I don't know.

Well, was it so bad to tell them?

Another more important one:
The clerk was showing a customer a S&W revolver chambered for .38 S&W. The clerk said that it was the same as .38 Special. I felt like I had to butt in with a correction. I even pointed out that on the shelves behind the counter there were boxes of each cartridge for comparison. The clerk thanked me when he saw how different they are.

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You're shy a few manners.

Why not politely say: "Hello, Would you mind if I had a private conversation with the salesperson?"

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Buy American
Vote Responsibly

At my local LGS some retired LEO's hang out. As there is always a pot of coffee on. So there are always some interesting conversations going on.

Myself When I run into people like that. I just say thanks and ignore them. They usually eventually get the hint.

You can always ask loudly "do you sell muck boots here?. I may need some. It's getting kinda deep...................."

It's a small world. You don't want to burn any bridges, before you even get to them. With my luck, the guy I insult at a LGS will be the same one that answers the door when I knock asking
for permission to hunt. Sometimes they may actually have some nugget of wisdom, & sometimes I might be the guy trying to give his 2 cents. I've noticed the ones that really need the help & advice, are the least receptive to it, so you have to let them learn the hard way like most of us have. A fairly non insulting line I've found is "thanks, but I have this".

Ninja moves.

Sounds like a shop not far from me where there is actually a sort of lounge area set-up, complete with couch, coffee table and chairs. Takes up damn near half the shop. And it is almost always occupied.

But the nice thing is that only very rarely do the lounge rats interfere with a potential sale. Usually, it's just an acknowledgment of some sort when you enter and some sort of friendly comment (or even a brief conversation) when you leave. They never even get up, but they seem to keep an ear open to what you are interested in. Not your typical interfering/interjecting gun shop groupies at all. Just a bunch of good old boys hanging out and doin' their thang.

I've spent a lot of time on both sides of the counter.

Some of these "lurkers" are quite knowledgeable and indeed helpful. Sad many simply parrot what some other expert has told them.

The person behind the counter is responsible for what's allowed in his shop, not you.

If the lurker is interfering the owner will handle it. If he's helping the owner will buy his lunch.

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

I will have to admit I am a bit of a lurker (loafer) at the lgs's where I shop, I routinely keep my mouth shut until I am asked to comment, by the owner, or asked by a customer, but have been asked to chime in on many occasions, and got several free lunch's

I have even taken his customers ( the ones I like) to my farm range to let them try out there new weapons, many gun buyers even here in KY don't really have a good place to shoot.

my lgs knows that when his distributor has a shortage of ammo he can usually get some from me to help keep his shelves stocked, got more than I will ever shoot myself

but its a safe bet that twenty year old clerk that knows all the latest bells and whistles that you can mount on your Plastic AR platform, does not know how to identify the old browning superposed that has the early double/singe trigger options.

I can say I have never bad mouthed anyones gun,

everyone cannot afford a top of the line gun, and even a poor man has a right to what he can afford, there was a time when I was buying RG's, even still have a old 4" 38spl RG that shoots well,

I remember as a poor kid working in the tobacco patches here in KY, long before I ever saw a gun rag, drooling over the guns in the sears and roebuck and western auto catalogs and dreaming of the gun I was saving my money for

so you never know when that old ragged looking bum in the old rusted out truck might be able to write a great book on what he knows about guns, as well as being the guy who the shop owner calls when he runs up on something he does not know about, and could possibly pay cash for the entire store inventory.

Neh, pretend your a doctor and ask him how long that skin blemish has been on his arm/leg/face. Tell him that it a likely sign of XYZ and he really should get a full checkup asap!

A lot depends on your area but you can usually tell who know something and who doesn't. I actually become friends with a guy like this. While I'm mostly into modern stuff I do like some older firearms. Occasionally I'll check out an old revolver or a surplus firearm. Most of the time they have been Bubba'd. Finish is wrong, cut down, drilled and tapped, some sort of home modification was started but never finished and no one can tell where it was going. But sometimes you find good to great guns at a decent price. So, anyway, I'm checking out this one rifle when the guy next to me proceeds to make comments. He's dressed professionally in a suit and tie, older guy, clean shaven, not pushy, polite tone ...but still I didn't ask for help right! He asks for to see the rifle, which was a Springfield bolt action surplus rifle. Looks it over and starts pointing out different stuff like the S# is X high so it was made between this is this date. The stock has been sanded a little and you can tell here and here, barrel is re arsenalled because of this. ....bla bla ...very knowledgeable guy. In the end he asks me if I'm looking for a collection piece or just to shoot. I told him that it was neither really. I was just checking it out as a potential purchase with no clear reason. He tells me that it's clean and should make a great shooter but the price was a but to high for that. Not horrible but should be about $75 cheaper. However, if I wanted one for collection it had some minor issues and no collector would pay that price for this example. A few weeks later I'm checking out a Luger P 08 when he walks in again. We talk and he says that's been refinished and starts pointing out places where there are signs of it and pointing out what the Germans would have done. The guy knows his surplus and older guns. Turns out his brother had a gunshop and warehouse back in the late 70s to early 80s. And he learned his stuff from his brother.

We eventually hit it off and traded phone #s. When his brother died....who was apparently a pack rat and kept so much of his stuff that the gunshop business suffered and closed long ago. So when this happened he had to take care of his brother's belongings. He offered me Soooo many nice pristine stuff that I was contemplating selling my car! I got some amazing examples of hard to find rifles in great condition. It wasn't cheap, he didn't give it away of course but I was paying less than the going rate for the same condition rifles. I think I bought at least 6 rifles from him and he's currently holding 2 more for me. Stuff that if found on GB would go for much more

Now stay with me here; there's a theory that reality is a shared experience. If I think something, I'm not certain it is real until the thought is validated. Following me so far?

This theory explains why people seek out 'news' and opinions they agree with.

It also explains why many people think that OTHER people need to have THEIR thoughts validated. Soooo, they chime in, not just at the LGS, but everywhere they go...to sort of validate everything they come in contact with.

In a way this is good, because some/most people like to think that everybody agrees with them. e.g. "pre-lock, pre-mim S&W's are good". In a way this is bad, because, for example; some products or product-features get a bad reputation just because enough people said bad things about it. e.g. "Brand X are hair-trigger death machines".

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But then, what do I know?

You know, this plan can horribly backfire...

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Jorge

I'd guess about 95% of us here are, to one extent or another. A smaller percentage will admit it.

I remember when my Grandpa showed me a Sears catalog picture of it and told me he had ordered a Browning Challenger - and then the wait for it to come in... and finally the big evening when he and I drove over the the "catalog center" the next town away to pick it up. Great fun for a young lad! I don't see how much kids have nowadays compares to that.

Well...nothing is worse than range lurkers...you know, the guy shooting a box of ammo in what would be a 25 yard shotgun pattern at seven yards with a plastic fantastic. They always seem to know pointers for anyone else's technique.

The sideways smirk usually works best. :/

Saying anything results in more words from their end.

At my favorite gun shot there are "regulars" who frequently are asked by the owners to wait on customers. The volunteer will take care of the entire sale with the owners approving or declining customer offers etc. and then writing up the receipts etc. The volunteers are happy, the customers are happy and the owners are happy.

Me? I sit nearby and mind my own business, snap a few pictures, do a little (very little) online research w/smart phone for the owners, pass someone a donut or maybe top off someone's coffee and of course chat w/ the other regulars.

The term groupie is derogatory and a sexist word that I would not apply to regular visitors to a gun shop. Unless one intended to offend. And that wouldn't happen on our forum.


Happy Customer!

I've had a retail store.
I had a few of those.
It usually does NOT help.
The owner/staff should always handle it.

I always started off easy- make eye contact and say "Thanks, I can handle this.....". Maybe with a raised hand, as in a gentle "Stop" motion.
If that didn't work, I would be as direct as I had to be.
That's hard to believe, isn't it?

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

I ask the fellow if he works for the shop. Most of the time they realize they are out of place running their mouth.

I'm the type that usually just ignores them and let the owners handle it. I've also found some of them to be rather knowledgeable and have given some good input as well. I once had a guy start in about .41 mags when I was looking at a S&W Model 357PD. Turned out he was also a fan of them and was having better luck than me locating any here. We wound up exchanging phone numbers as he said he'd call if he found any of the models I was interested in. Never did get a call but worth the chance he might have located some for me.