Biggfoot44
Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2013
- Messages
- 2,060
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I love old school full service gun stores , but they are 99.8% dead, and never coming back . It saddens and disapoints me , but that's reality .
Yes , the era of Wal Mart expansion ( when also all Wallys had gun depts ) killed lots of LGS . Near me , a Wally opened literally accross the street from a regionally renowned Gun/ hunting store . On the strength of Gunsmithing , archery, and quality hunting gear was able to slow the inevitable for a cpl years , but owner observed that what Wallys did sell , they sold at retail that was lower than his wholesale .
But even if Wal Mart closed its doors tommorow , old school full service LGS aren"t coming back . Buyers currently 40yo & under spent their whole lives in the computer era . Anything they think about buying , they search on the Internet for lowest prices, and best selection . There is a narrow window for local brick & mortar stores to off a firearm splitting the margins where his over the counter price can match or slightly beat the online price, plus shipping, plus regionally prevailing Transfer fees . A friendly semiz local Gun Store owner has a niche . He finds the batches oof particular gun on blow out special from his distributors , buys enough to get volume pricing from distrtors , then when they arrive , put them on flash sale on local gun forum , and his website . At his prices , they sell out in between 20 minutes, and a week . Heck , I've even bought such items from him occasionally . But still dosen't replicate old school gun stores . This dosen't support having in depth variety routinely on the shelves inbetween preiodic mega sales .
Advice ? 90 % of them prefer youtube videos over living breathing old farts who own gun stores .
( opps , prematurely brushed finger against Post button ) And reloading supplies are even worse . Even before the internet , close to 30yrs ago had a gun store owner explain he was going to discontinue almost all his reloading stuff, because he couldn't compete with Mail Order from places like Cabelas . There were two many different components in different cals, weights, designs , and brands , that maintaining a stock of every bullet , from every mfg , in every cal , would require major capital tied up , with low profits on those actually sold .
Yes , the era of Wal Mart expansion ( when also all Wallys had gun depts ) killed lots of LGS . Near me , a Wally opened literally accross the street from a regionally renowned Gun/ hunting store . On the strength of Gunsmithing , archery, and quality hunting gear was able to slow the inevitable for a cpl years , but owner observed that what Wallys did sell , they sold at retail that was lower than his wholesale .
But even if Wal Mart closed its doors tommorow , old school full service LGS aren"t coming back . Buyers currently 40yo & under spent their whole lives in the computer era . Anything they think about buying , they search on the Internet for lowest prices, and best selection . There is a narrow window for local brick & mortar stores to off a firearm splitting the margins where his over the counter price can match or slightly beat the online price, plus shipping, plus regionally prevailing Transfer fees . A friendly semiz local Gun Store owner has a niche . He finds the batches oof particular gun on blow out special from his distributors , buys enough to get volume pricing from distrtors , then when they arrive , put them on flash sale on local gun forum , and his website . At his prices , they sell out in between 20 minutes, and a week . Heck , I've even bought such items from him occasionally . But still dosen't replicate old school gun stores . This dosen't support having in depth variety routinely on the shelves inbetween preiodic mega sales .
Advice ? 90 % of them prefer youtube videos over living breathing old farts who own gun stores .
( opps , prematurely brushed finger against Post button ) And reloading supplies are even worse . Even before the internet , close to 30yrs ago had a gun store owner explain he was going to discontinue almost all his reloading stuff, because he couldn't compete with Mail Order from places like Cabelas . There were two many different components in different cals, weights, designs , and brands , that maintaining a stock of every bullet , from every mfg , in every cal , would require major capital tied up , with low profits on those actually sold .
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