Demise of the Local Gun Shop

[OLDSTER]

Gun Shoppe

A small town in central ND has a little old-style gun shop called Spooners. Reminds me of my youth ( many years ago). It's wonderful; Heavy odor of Hoppes, cigars,and strong coffee. Old boys always hangin out at the folding-style corner card table scanning old and new issues of NRA, American Handgunner, and Guns and Ammo. Storefront windows plastered with old decals, and a faded "flip-flop" OPEN/CLOSED sign. The place is small, quite un-organized ( but it's like a lawyers desk-Spoony knows where everything is). Handgun cases stuffed with all make and manner of guns, old peg-style long gun racks overflowing with rifles, shot-guns, etc. and pigeon holes crammed with re-loading components, bullets, etc. And Spoony wearing his ( must be 50 year old) leather apron. You old guys get the picture When I visit that small town, I stop in for at least a couple hours, and share some Ding-Dongs and "coffee" and stories with him and the other old-timers Delightful

 

[Farmer17]

We have several local gun stores and I rarely buy anything from them because their prices are high, plain and simple. I don't care how friendly or knowledgeable their sales staff is I spend my money wisely to get the best deal. Many of these shops have come and gone over the years but we recently had a large pawn shop start selling guns at very low prices. Guess what happened, they now have a huge inventory and built a second store and I heard they are working on a third store. With the internet people can see quickly what a good price is on something and they are usually not going to pay more money unless they need something very quickly. If small gun stores would price things low they would sell a whole lot more and make more net profit in the end.

 

[cmort666]

Most of the local gun stores here that are no longer around "demised" THEMSELVES through a combination of violating BATFE regs and poor (often miserable) customer service.

Until Fin, Feather and Fur Outfitters opened up a store in Middleburg Heights, there hadn't been a really GOOD gun store in the Cleveland area for YEARS.

I remember the last gun store actually IN Cleveland. I went in there once. They wanted more for a Taurus PT-99 than the going price for a brand new Beretta 92 these days. They're long gone.

There used to be a decent store out in Milan, owned by some cops. One day I overheard several of the staff opining that ALL gun sales/transfers should have to be through an FFL, BY LAW. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only person who overheard them. That was my last trip there, and I told a LOT of people about what I'd heard. I imagine others did as well. They're long gone as well.

Another casualty was mostly inhabited by old guys sitting around ignoring potential customers. I heard they had problems obeying rules too.

If you can't obey the law, your prices are ridiculous and your attitudes toward your customers are contemptuous at best, I'm not sure why you'd be surprised at going out of business.

 

[Arik]

Revisiting this thread......

I too live in a 6 million strong metro area (Philadelphia Pa). There are probably hundreds of gunstores. I live outside of the city and have 4 stores within 5 - 10 min of driving. The closest one is a mile away. I've mentioned this store many times. Looking at my area I have a hard time understanding how an LGS can't keep one of each in stock. There are certainly guns that just don't sell well in this store for whatever reason so they don't stock them but everything else......tractor trailer loads.....
And it's not a big store, often the inventory is just sitting in the back of the store behind the isles because there isn't enough space in the storage room

 

[hi-power man]

I live in the rural area of our county. Between my house and the interstate is a small town known for being a shoppers haven. When I moved here, 25 years ago, there were two LGS's. One LGS is still going with the same owner, the second is still going with a new owner. During the years, two pawn shops opened selling guns, one has now converted to a full blown LGS. Of course, Dick's and Walmart moved in and they sell rifles and shotguns. In the last couple months another LGS opened. By far the leader is the LGS converted over from pawn shop. They have a strong advertising presence, sales continuously and have now started a finance to purchase program.

 

[M E Morrison]

I am just wondering peoples thoughts on the this subject. I have mixed emotions especially since its not because of Uncle Sugar or overly restrictive State laws but rather online competition. Here is the story. I live in Florida. We have pretty gun friendly laws and there certainly are no shortage of gun toting Floridians. In the last 2 months five (5) gun shops in an area I visit frequently have closed shop.

Action Gun and Archery (2 Locactions) in Melbourne
Ammo Attic in Melbourne
The Gun Lady in Merritt Island
The Shooters Den in Melbourne
Indian River Outdoors in Port St. John

The fact that these shops have gone out of business when gun sales continue to soar tells me that people are buying guns, just not from them. As far as competition, the only real new entry into the market has been Bass Pro in Palm Bay but they're prices are higher than these shops were and their selection is not that great. I can only surmise that most people are buying online. I have done this as well but not with any new gun, only used. The problem I see coming down the pike is that most remaining shops dont do transfers, or do so selectively. It would seem that those looking to save money may, in fact, have cut their own throat. The shops doing transfers have folded and now most left wont do them. Was it the cheap transfers that shuttered the shops? I cant say that for sure. Each of them had their share of issues, either inventory or prices typically. Maybe a couple of these shops got buried in stuff they ordered and paid too much for during the panic but didnt receive until after it subsided and the bottom fell out of the market on black guns. I try to support the LGS even if I dont buy a gun from them. I usually buy a box or two of their ammo, even when it is 15-25% more than I can pay online or pick up some cleaning supplies. I am wondering if I should have done more. I dont want all the LGS to go belly up but at the same time, some of the remaining ones have some policies and practices that are tough to deal with and support as a customer.

Anyone else see this happening in their area? Also how much additional (as a percentage) are you willing to pay a brick and mortar LGS for the same item you could get online, all in (taxes vs shipping, etc)?

Could they have been among those that jacked up / scalped prices during the panic?

 

[ClayCow]

They could just suck at running a business and i believe gun buying is on the draw down

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I am not aware of any closings in Houston. I try to keep Carter's Country going.

 

[mstem]

I have bought waaaaaaay to many new guns from my LGS. Only one used & I wasn't happy with it so I traded it back to him on a good deal for both of us. I have never bought a gun of any kind on line. I don't want to go through the trouble & I want to see it in my hand before I buy. I have bought 3 used guns I found on Virginia Gun Trader & all were FTF. Also if they were not as advertised I wouldn't have bought them. I haven't found anything used other than the one I traded in at the LGS I wanted. My LGS did have a P-38 I would have bought but my B-I-L saw it & bought it before I did. I don't know how long the man that runs the place I buy from will be around. He operates out of his basement & he is 76. And he is one of the nicest, most honest men I have ever met. Not many like that in the gun business.

 

[Malpasowildlifer]

I've heard there is no money in new guns unless it is a large chain with high volume. The money is in ammo, accessories, components and nice used guns, if you can buy low and sell high.

My FFL back home made a new rule. The transfer fee doubles if you buy something new from somebody else, if his distributors had it in stock at the time. With shipping and transfer fees for a gun from Bud's or somewhere else make the savings quite minimal.

LGS these days I've noticed are either awesome or a dump.

 

[carpriver]

Up here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is mostly small gun shops. Cabalas is Green Bay Wi. A Gander Mountain in Marquette Mi. I support a small shop about 15 minutes south of me. I look on line to get a idea of price. So far she has been able to give me at same price or a few buck less. If I want some thing and she doesn't have it in stock; she will order it for me. The local Ace Hardware store that sold guns went out of business, but he couldn't decide if he was a hardware store of a John Deere dealer or a home interior store. He use be the place to go if you needed older plumbing items or window panes cut or screen fixed.

 

[M E Morrison]

Up here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is mostly small gun shops. Cabalas is Green Bay Wi. A Gander Mountain in Marquette Mi. I support a small shop about 15 minutes south of me. I look on line to get a idea of price. So far she has been able to give me at same price or a few buck less. If I want some thing and she doesn't have it in stock; she will order it for me. The local Ace Hardware store that sold guns went out of business, but he couldn't decide if he was a hardware store of a John Deere dealer or a home interior store. He use be the place to go if you needed older plumbing items or window panes cut or screen fixed.

For a while I lived in Marinette, WI then in Menominee, MI. You probably know that those are pretty small towns, but I always found what I needed there. Green Bay was too "big" of a town to suit me. AHH, the good old days of small town customer service!