Additional Thoughts On The Anti-Gun Views Of Dick’s Sporting Goods
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 9 months ago
I took this picture today at a local Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Edward, I told you that you couldn’t survive as a golf shop, didn’t I? We’ve had this discussion, I know we have.
On a related note, I met a temporary manager of a local Gander Outdoors in Gastonia over the weekend (Rodney, who is the store manager in Tampa). Apparently, the Gander in Gastonia is profitable, and they want to reopen it with all new firearms, all new gear, a new bike shop, new camping gear, and so on.
He told me “You know what’s funny? I worked at the third Dick’s ever opened, and you know who my manager was? Edward Stack. It’s a shame what’s happened.” We agreed that if he could wait a year (which they can’t because they’re going to reopen soon) they could probably hire most of the employees at Dick’s right down the road.
Edward, what happened to you? Did the HR and corporate communications folks you hired change your soul, or have you always been a collectivist?
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On March 26, 2018 at 10:22 am, Fred said:
Anyway, Dicks (oops) is going bankrupt. It’s the third longest bull run in history and Stacks stock is driving down hard. That’s never good. A bull market masks a lot of mediocrity but a bad company can never hide. The traders and investors sniff them out.
After thinking about this from your last post here it occurred to me that Stack is merely virtue signaling to attain a soft landing for himself upon the company going under and to set the stage for his next misadventure.
It’s not specialty or high end retail and it’s not personalized service it’s just crap (excluding the guns, well, some of them are crap too. Smile) everybody is now buying on Amazon or direct to consumer from the EOM.
The last waves of retail bankruptcies were just the tremors. A great many retail brick and mortar stores are on life support. One little dip, even a mild one, means Dicks and others are gone. Dicks may go anyway, I suspect.
Most just can’t compete with the modern on-line bizarre. It’s even become a type of shopping technique; go to the store, try it on, look at the real color, feel the texture, fully examine the features and then pick it up on-line for 20% cheaper. Dicks is done.
On March 26, 2018 at 12:12 pm, Chris Mallory said:
Our local Gander reopened. They are making the same mistake the old Gander made. They are trying to sell their guns at MSRP or even higher.
At this point, probably the only thing keeping Dick’s open is their shoe department. My daughter has to be able to try on her sport shoes. Her foot is long and narrow, so when it comes to basketball, volleyball or cross country shoes we start at Academy and end up at Dicks if Academy doesn’t have anything to fit her.
On March 26, 2018 at 1:04 pm, Henry said:
I’m ambivalent about Gander. It was recently bought by Camping World, which means it is now run by Marcus “If you’re OK with what Trump said about Charlottesville, don’t shop at my business” Lemonis. So now what?
On March 26, 2018 at 3:12 pm, Jay Eimer said:
For sporting goods in general, Academy. For guns, support your local full service gun shop! They likely aren’t any much more expensive and if you don’t support them next thing you know they won’t be there. What’s $20 on a $600 gun you’re going to have (or sell to someone else who’ll then have it) for 50 years or more before it’s worn out.
BTW, where I am Academy is about 2% cheaper on firearms, 5% on ammo. Closer to 10% on sale items than my local gun shop. Gander Mountain (my closest one closed and hasn’t reopened) was typically 5% MORE than the gun shop on firearms, sometimes more – and often at or even above MSRP! And the gun store will order me anything I want but that doesn’t matter either as they are Davidson’s/Gallery of Guns partners.
Can’t comment on Dick’s prices – I haven’t been in one since before the last time they tried this (after Newtown and they pulled the MSRs). Not even for golf shoes.
On March 26, 2018 at 9:25 pm, Jeffersonian said:
“A golf course is the deliberate and willful misuse of a perfectly good rifle range.” – Jeff Cooper
http://www.cafepress.com/mf/43746405/jeff-cooper_tshirt?productId=323842819
I wear the shirt to Civilian Marksmanship Program Garand matches.
On March 26, 2018 at 9:26 pm, Jeffersonian said:
Aw, the link is dead now. But they still have these:
https://www.cafepress.com/+jeff-cooper+mens-classic-t-shirts?cat=100012