I wanted to post this here as encouragement to others in my situation, and as a public thanks to God for the blessings he has given us. Last year my wife and I bought a small, recently closed gun store in a rural area near our home. We bought the gunsmithing equipment and the remaining non-firearms inventory essentially turn-key last year and finally opened up after receiving all permits/licenses a few months ago.
This was the last gun store in our town and had just closed before we bought it. I don't think anyone we knew thought the endeavor could make any money but everyone hoped we could make it work and wished us well. I am happy to say that things are going great. I modernized/repriced the inventory to reflect people's tendency to compare prices online and turned it into an internet-friendly business. I welcome transfers equally vs purchases and make a point to let customers know I am happy if they get a lower price online and have me do the transfer. I like business any way it comes to me and this is the current market trend so I am going with it.
I don't have room for many guns in-stock so I focused my shop primarily on ammo and reloading components. It takes a lot of effort to shop around on every item but this focus has enabled me to keep my ammo prices below or equal to walmart and dick's. In the odd event I am higher priced I can nearly always price-match at a slight profit if a customer requests that. For anyone who orders ahead I keep my profit margins very slim as a loyalty thank-you.
I have had a lot of talking to do in the past few months to make people realize that a small shop can compete with the big guys but people are realizing it now due to my prices and business is increasing as a result. I am happy to say that I made enough in the first month to pay the (high) insurance for the year, and the second month has been better than the first so things are on a good trajectory.
I wanted to encourage anyone else who is on the fence to give this a try. If you are internet-savvy and have business knowledge you can make this work if your community actively supports you, even if you are in a very small town.
Andy