Well It's Official

[StarMetal]

Walmart just announced and I saw it on Fox News at 6:38pm that they are discontinuing sells of firearms in a major portion of their stores across the U.S.. The reason given is because of lack of sells and a diminishing market. Well fellows, time to start a loud boycott of Walmart...by that I mean one that gets heard thurough out the whole country, to make sure they hear it. That's a flat out lie.

Joe

[felix]

Joe, it is based upon volume of sales, pure and simple. The profit margin is not there for the hassles required. Go and try and buy some sodium hydroxide from those folks. That stuff has been off of the shelves for a year or more now. Also, some drugs are being stripped from sales unless special ordered. It ain't Walmart per se. ... felix

[grumble]

Joe, the press release says they're discontinuing gun sales in about one third of their stores. Just the ones where the sales figures don't make sense for WalMart. We need to yell at customers for not buying guns, not the store for not losing money on them anymore.

[KCSO]

I think its a good thing for the smaller dealers around the country. There is no way a small dealer can compete with Wal Mart price wise. As to a boycott of the rest of the stores I'll go for that too. Buy all your stuff from that local guy who is trying to keep his doors open, the extra 10 dollars your gun costs may just benefit you in the long run.

[StarMetal]

Grumble,

You are correct Sir, that's what they said. To me that's just a beginning rather to close them all at the same time...but then again KMart just stopped it all on one shot didn't they?

Joe

[Scrounger]

I think its a good thing for the smaller dealers around the country. There is no way a small dealer can compete with Wal Mart price wise. As to a boycott of the rest of the stores I'll go for that too. Buy all your stuff from that local guy who is trying to keep his doors open, the extra 10 dollars your gun costs may just benefit you in the long run.

If it were only $10. It would be worth that to avoid the WalMart delivery procedure, not to mention the hassle of ordering something from their distributors. Trouble is, most small dealera want to be big dealers and make a good living out of their hobby, therefore they charge full retail plus any shipping involved. If dealers would sell at $10 over what WalMart's price is, I think everyone would go to them rather than WalMart. But the Remington 700CDL at $860 something retail makes WalMarts $624 price hard to pass up. If you got to have the Remington, that is; Stevens or Savage will do me fine at a much lower price. Still cheaper at WalMart than through the local dealer, though.

[Scrounger]

Went over to Vegas a few weeks ago to try to buy a particular rifle from Walmart. They didn't have it in my local WalMart. First store I went into had a sign in the sporting goods that effective March 6th, they would no longer sell firearms at that location; since this was toward the end of the month, they had already stopped and removed the guns to other stores. They sent me to one a few miles away where I didn't find what I was looking for. They told me that have 10 or 12 stores in Vegas but only 4 of them will sell guns. Shame. Their prices are the best around but their sales people don't help their business one bit. If they hired some gun knowledgeable, pro-gun sales help, they could greatly increase sales.

[sundog]

Good, they put enough Mom & Pop operations out of business over the years (prolly not a fully intended consequence of Sam, but it happened). Maybe a few gun shops will 'reappear'. I'd rather do bidness with a local than a conglomerate. Sales of new items help some of these shops survive, so good bye wallyworld of these items. Adios! Walmart is CREATING a niche market! Go to your local gun shop, which is where you shoulda been doing bidness all along! sundog

p.s. If WM has the cheapest price on TP, I'll prolly still gititthar.

[Cliff]

About ten years back or so a lot of big dealers and distributors were wailing and carrying on about the number of home gunshops, people working out of their garages and basements. Mainly had their FFL to feed their hobby. They complained to the ATF and their congress critters. These all listened and given the chance they shut down roughly two thirds of all the dealers out there by creating all kinds of new rules for FFL holders. Many small full time dealers said enough and shut their doors. The big distributors were also crying about their competition and many dropped out over the same period. As for the "Mom and Pop" gun shops with all the hurdles, hoops and other regulatory stuff they are getting out of the business. It is nice to know the bigger dealers got what they wanted. The secret to the small gun shop has always been service to the customers and to offer what is not available throught the big box stores. This is my rant and take on this. Wal Mart is a business and if they don't make money they change so they do. That is life. Everyone have a great weekend.

[NVcurmudgeon]

For some time I have limited my personal Wal-Mart purchases to their "Ozark Trail" brand of camp stove fuel, and Federal bulK .22 LR. All this because they seem to have been a leader in the movement to Chicom merchandise, their customer no service oriented employees, the difficulty of finding an English-speaking employee, their gradual phasing out of firearms, and their intrusive questioning of me, "are these .22 LR cartridges for a rifle or a handgun?" (My answers to that question are various: 1. None of your business. 2. Quoting the Second Amendment. 3. Neither, they are for my Gatling. 4. I don't own a gun, I just like to lay them on the railroad tracks and listen to the bangs when a train comes.) Now that I can get my favorite Federal bulk .22s at Sportsman's Warehouse for about the same price, I am down to one reason to ever go there. Once I went to Wal-Mart for a bag of lemon drops and commmon #2 wooden pencils. they had neither! Wal-Mart is much like some men's clothing stores, in that they stock only the hottest selling items. Such stores will typically stock a big rack of shirts in sizes XL and L, if you are XXL, M, or S, you can choose between two shirts, both ugly!

[sundog]

I got an anniversary card for my wife at WM. I buy groceries at WM and TP. Don't mind at all doing bidness with them. Hell, the home office is just up the road apiece. If they don't want to sell something, no problem, I go to where I can get it. I even got a WM credit card! I just like doing my gun stuff in a gun shop. Maybe I'm spoilt.... sundog

btw, I also go to the hardware store in town for hardware - you know, nails, hinges, screws, paint, and stuff.

If they don't want to sell guns, so what.

[StarMetal]

Cliff,

It's not that are a business and have to make money, it's that they ALL are greedy and have to top their sales every year and year after year. They have business that work for them to cut every corner they can to save a penny. It's greed. It doesn't hurt of sales for something is slow, it's not like they sell it for a lost either. It's GREED..hey the bakery beat the gun dept in sales last quarter...blah blah blah. You hear them crying, like they did this Xmas, "We didn't beat our Xmas sales this year, last year was higher" Who gives a ****, they still made a profit. It's GREED.

Joe

[sundog]

Joe, 'American way' = make a profit. Free Enterprise. If it don't sell take it off the shelf to make room for something that will. Right? sundog

p.s. Problem is damn gubmint intervention! Frockin' bastidges! Yea, it's tax time, can't you tell?

[Frank46]

Joe, we have a super wal mart here in town. Everyone figured that it would put the other food stores out of business. Super One and others. But after three years try and get into their parking lost on saturday. Like bargain basement day. I used to go to wal mart and k-mart checking for discontinued stuff that they have on discount. Picked up 4 boxes federal 32 auto for $6 a box, 4 boxes winchester shorty fourty at $8 per box. And sometimes really got lucky and got a bunch of redfield junior one piece bases at $5 each. But haven't scored in quite sometime. Guess you have to be there when it goes on sale. frank

[rmb721]

Wal-mart has had some really good sales on guns here in central PA over the last few years. Two years ago, I bought a Remington 700 ADL 30/06 for $300. Three months ago, I bought a Ruger Mini-14 for $200. I could hardly believe it. My son bought a TC Omega for $169 and a Win 1300 in a 20ga. for $185. They don't pay enough to get people in the sporting goods section that would know what they are doing.

[Frank46]

Right after katrina and rita hit here in loosiana wal mart took all of their firearms off their display cases. Wether this was an attempt to not sell them due to local fears that the crime rate would go up due to the influx of folks from other parishes
or something else I do not know. What I do know is that there were no guns in their cases even when hunting season started. They even had covered up the storage spaces where they normally had their ammunition for sale. Some of those concerns about four legged varmints were not unfound. There has been an increase in murders and other offenses since some people moved here. Frank

[wills]

A lot of those four legged varmints wound up in other cities where they caused a corresponding increase in the crime rate.