I didn't know what forum to post this under. But after going to a walmart today I was told at the end of the month they'll no longer carry firearms. My question is this something that's specific to my municipality, or is this something that's happening nationwide and I'm the last to hear about it.

Just some of its stores will stop selling guns.

MSNBC Article

Regards,

Terry

Our Wal-Mart (Jackson, CA) quit selling rifles several years ago (except blackpowder). They still sell scopes and all the other goodies. Lou

Thanks for the clarification. I heard it second hand and thought the freaking libs had taken over.

I have a friend who is the general manager of one of the Walmart stores here in Kansas City and he said that within 3-5 years Walmart will be out of the gun business. All but three here will be out of the business this year and the others will be used to help complete contracts and deplete inventory.

He said it was a matter of the capabilities of the employees they hire as much as anything. Since he is my gun dealer personally, outside of Walmart, I have no issues. He said that they just could not hire and train people to do the paperwork correctly the first time. The other issue is, of course, profit. As he put it, "if I can sell a sweater for the same profit with no paperwork, why wouldn't I?" No new superstores will have guns.

It is a shame for people who are on the road and don't know where to go. I went turkey hunting with my daughter last weekend and told her jokingly that if we forgot the shotguns we would just have to go to Walmart in the area and buy a new one...damn the bad luck. We didn't "forget" but when we got there, they had enlarged the store we always went to into a superstore and guess what...no guns. This was in a rural town. The rifle ammo was also very limited, pretty much 270, 30-06, 30-30 and one box of 7mag.

IMO Wallyworld getting out of the gun business is good news for all the mom and pop gunshops that many around here bemoan the loss of...

I was sad to see Walmart in my area stop selling guns. I may be crazy here but I feel they kept the gun dealers in check on prices.

I live a few miles North of KC. They have turned our Wallyworld into a supercenter and sent all the guns back. I believe prices will go up substantially in the gunshops too.

Our Wal Mart in Albany, GA is currently undergoing a major rennovation...this past week they put in a nice gun cabinet and display....guess they will continue to sell em here.

I heard it was 1/3 of all Walmarts at first to stop selling them.Is it true that Remington owns 51% of Remington who is in bad trouble.Its just a sign of things too come.There are not enough hunters and shooters for all the guns we aready have.If we dont save hunting and shooting it will be gone forever.Our president Teddy Roosevelt save our game,hunting lands 100 years ago .Now its our time to save hunting.Take as many kids shooting or hunting or both or its us that will disapear sooner than you think.

Walmart is stopping selling guns in the 1000 or so stores
(out of 3500 stores) where they don't sell as well as they do in the others (the other 2500stores)

is isn't a big deal.
It's more of a "Who cares?"

However Wal-Marts past Modus Operandi when closing something out in one store has been to sell it off CHEAP
so if the stores that are shutting down their gun sales
will likely be blowing stuff out the door CHEAP.

Be Alert.... in change there is oppertunity.

AllanD

Great news for the local gun shops, now they can make a reasonable profit and stay in business. Hopefully sportsman all over the country will stop buying any outdoor supplies from Walmart. Let them sell imported rags. Haven't been in a Walmat for over a year and if the good Lord is willing I won't be in one for years to come.

Die Ou Jagter - my sentiment also. wouldn't hurt my heart any to see old wally world get in a world of hurt

Yeah, but what outdoor supplies did Walmart really sell?

Do you really think the Mom&Pop places are really going to be better off because Walmart won't carry 30cal cleaning brushes anymore?

Or that the walmarts that stop firearms sales won't be selling the same promo 12ga "dove" loads that NOBODY actually makes a profit on anyway?

PLEASE!

I doubt that the inability of anyone to buy a plastic stocked
Remington700 or a birch stocked Marlin 30-30 from wallyworld is going to make that much of a difference...

And for Walmart's "special order" firearms listings?
Very nice... but most people want to handle a rifle before they plunk down $600+ for one and Wally World doesn't carry ... "those"...

The local small places do... hell the local places in my neck of the woods have the Howaby Vanguards in ALL the available calibers, not just the two or three chamberings that walmart makes available and their pricing is less than $10 more... for a rifle you don't have to wait three weeks for!

I think WalMart is in many cases a scapegoat for small buisnesses that were failing anyway due to poor management.

Adapt or become extinct.

Or as someone else says: the only constant thing is change.

AD

quote:

nd their pricing is less than $10 more... for a rifle you don't have to wait three weeks for!

In MY neck of the woods the local shops could (for example) order me a Ruger blued/walnut rifle for $600+tax. If it's a Browning or other fancier factory offering, that they have, but also similarly overpriced. WW could order the same rifle for $479 (IIRC) and a local guy who is a part time dealer got it for me for $499+tax.

Around here the local shops are high dollar even with WW's competition. Maybe without it some other smaller guys can get into the game and offer REAL competition, becuase WW seems to just take over the meat&potatoes .270/.243/30-06 sales. Smaller shops need that volume to be able to afford to keep some variety on the shelves...

...around here at least. YMMV.

I agree with CDH. The local stocking dealers here are all WAY over priced, say $200 over either WW or the internet. I may buy some speciality stuff there, but not the majority of my stuff. They will not get that much more business with wally world getting out of the business, it will change to internet business, like the rest of the retail world. This is especially true for rural folks.

Some will talk about the service of local dealers. I have not found it to be any better, or faster, than factory. For real repair, you need to find a real gunsmith anyway.

I figured the WalMart bashers would come out. All I can say is WalMart causes businesses to go under like guns kill people, or spoons make Rosie fat. Did WalMart generate their own zoning or building permits? Did WalMart make people apply for their jobs? Did WalMart make people go in and buy in the first place? NO, people did it to themselves and deserve what they get.

At least I respect Die Ou Jagter for taking a stand. I will personally not go into Target because they have a double standard. They do not consider hunting a sport and will not carry anything that "kills" or promotes it, but carries leather shoes and jackets. Hmmm wonder how the cow got dead?

My Wal Mart quit selling guns a couple of months ago. I live in a little hick town west of Atlanta and they sold quite a few guns. I am not sure why they quit selling them at our store.

We do have quite a few decent gun shops in the Atlanta area that can natch or beat Wal Mart's price on special order firearms.

There is a local dealer who gives the following information out at gun shows here in S. Cal go to http://www.galleryofguns.com in the VIP BOX type in 202773 and then click on GUN SEARCH to manufacturers & models,etc. & look up prices and you can locate your local dealers on the same site I looked up some Florida discounting dealers for my nephew.I never shop walmart instead I go on line with bass pro,cabelas,midway and many other sources to see who has the best price.

I have a dealer about 30 miles north that usually can beat Walmart and has about everything you could want in stock. He did have to track down a limited run .308 lvsf for me and it took about three days for him to have it in house. With that said, I'm not going to like seeing the local Walmarts stop selling anything including guns. The downward pressure that they put on prices helps all consumers, even the ones that don't go to Walmart. If as many people hated Walmart as is claimed, there wouldn't be one. Besides when I'm pricing a new gun or optics, I check the Walmart website as well as others to get a dollar figure in mind before I go shopping.

I'm curious about one thing though. Of the Walmarts no longer handling guns, will you no longer be able to order them either?

I believe some the different view points can be attributed to the posters source of income. A small business man cannot go to his supplier and set the price he is going to pay for the goods he is buying from them. Walmart is such a large customer they can dictate the pricing. This is probably not the case with guns but it sure can be with items like hunting clothes etc.. As an aside to this the razor companies will basically give razors away as the profit is in the blades. Guns are not a high margin item to your local gun shop but the little items are. The camo mask, gloves etc. and it takes traffic created by gun shoppers to turn over the other items in inventory, which with the volume is where the mony is to be made.

Downward pressure in pricing exerted by Walmart has a direct effect on the quality of the goods in question.

Ours used to sell handguns,rifles,and shotguns. Now down to rifles and shotguns. "sa la vie"

Wheather or not this will or will not help local stores is not the point!!! It's the point that we are losing another notch in our 2nd amd. belt!!! One more bullseye for the liberal bastards!!! One more victory for Reno, Feinstein, Clinton, Brady, Gore, Kerry!!!!! Great news!! So I would suggest that you e-mail WW and threaten them with a boycott!! Let's have our own Boston damn tea party!! Man this pisses me off. Sam is probably rolling over in his frigging grave right now. So I guess when our store quits selling guns I will quit buying anything from them ever again. Screw em!!!! My 2 cents.....wapiti7

quote:

Originally posted by wapiti7:
Wheather or not this will or will not help local stores is not the point!!! It's the point that we are losing another notch in our 2nd amd. belt!!! One more bullseye for the liberal bastards!!! One more victory for Reno, Feinstein, Clinton, Brady, Gore, Kerry!!!!! Great news!! So I would suggest that you e-mail WW and threaten them with a boycott!! Let's have our own Boston damn tea party!! Man this pisses me off. Sam is probably rolling over in his frigging grave right now. So I guess when our store quits selling guns I will quit buying anything from them ever again. Screw em!!!! My 2 cents.....wapiti7

Might I strongly suggest that you switch to Decaf?

AllanD

I dont think Sam Walton would have ever quit selling guns.It is going to effect the price of guns but maybe quality will go up.There were alot of guns such as the Weatherby Vanguard that were made very cheaply for Walmart.In the end Walmart sold mostly cheap guns.It hurt the quality of the guns and the hunters who were not usually satified with their cheap guns.I bought a Weatherby Vangauard that was in 30-06 just because it was marked down to $250.It rusted at any touch and the bolt stop broke before I shot it.

quote:

Originally posted by kudu56:
"sa la vie"

Spitting in a foreign language?

Wally World came to town here promising good jobs and a rosy future in our community, drove a dozen or more small businesses into bankrupcy (including three small gunshops with actual gunsmiths) and hired a workforce of desperate people that they underpay and refuse enough hours to qualify for any benefits. No one can support a family on thirty-two hours a week at $8 per hour. I will not do business with them. Each must follow his (her) conscience in this - I dictate to no one how to live their own lives, but they have brought nothing but negatives to this town and to our lives here.

So some of them aren't going to sell guns anymore? Good. One less reason to even consider going there to shop.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wapiti7:
Wheather or not this will or will not help local stores is not the point!!! It's the point that we are losing another notch in our 2nd amd. belt!!! One more bullseye for the liberal bastards!!! One more victory for Reno, Feinstein, Clinton, Brady, Gore, Kerry!!!!! Great news!! So I would suggest that you e-mail WW and threaten them with a boycott!! Let's have our own Boston damn tea party!! Man this pisses me off. Sam is probably rolling over in his frigging grave right now. So I guess when our store quits selling guns I will quit buying anything from them ever again. Screw em!!!! My 2 cents.....wapiti7[/QUOT

Yup! What he said....sorta

quote:

Originally posted by Versifier:
Wally World came to town here promising good jobs and a rosy future in our community, drove a dozen or more small businesses into bankrupcy (including three small gunshops with actual gunsmiths) and hired a workforce of desperate people that they underpay and refuse enough hours to qualify for any benefits. ...I will not do business with them.

AMEN! Same thing happened in the small Southeastern Utah town where my family is from. Main street was just whiped out over night. If you want pretty much ANYTHING in that town there is Wal-Mart or maybe the JC Penney's that has been on Main Street for like 50 years. Of course Wal Mart is cheaper. Main street is so dead that even some of the bars can't stay open becuase there is no foot traffic anymore.

When it comes to guns, Wal-Mart needs to go if only to keep dealers that have gunsmiths on site. Of course, I lay some blame for this at the feet of manufacturers too who know they are screwing over the smaller dealers. I used to work for a small dealer in Utah and I remember one incident where we ordered a whole bunch of Remingtons for Christmas. We bought direct and repeatedly asked Remington "is this was the best price you are offering anyone?" as we didn't want to be undercut when our ad came out in the paper. We were reassured and ordered thousands of dollars worth of guns. Sure enough, the ad came out and THE SAME DAY, Wal-Mart was running an ad for the same guns....showing a RETAIL PRICE $20 BELOW what we had paid Remington. I think the store sat on some of those rifles for over a year due to Remingtons lying.

The fight is not over.Walmart may one day sink.

Funny how some people complain about a company who sells products at a lower price than its competition. Wake up! Wal-mart operates the most efficient retail network in the world. The reason they can sell products at a lower cost is because they found a way to keep costs in line. Take a look at prices on food and other items at a wal-mart and compare to Safeway or Kroger. Wal-mart will be 25% less...not because they are getting a better price....it is because traditional retailers want to make 50%-75% margin...Wal-mart only wants 20%. The great thing about america is that you have a choice... if you would rather spend twice as much on products at other retailers go do it. I for one would rather save the money for another trip to Africa.

Actually, my employer's margins were EXTREMELY thin under any circumstances as his business was running lean and mean all the time. As I said, I don't necessarily blame Wal-Mart for having a better cost structure (or even having the power to negotiate better deals given their volume) as much as I blame manufacturers for lying to their other retailers. Sorry, but there is just no way Remington was honest in our scenario and Wal-Mart was actaully selling each of those rifles at a $20-$30 loss (which they must have been doing assuming, as you imply, that their per unit cost was the same as ours).

Best,

John

P.S. Yes, you have a choice in who you deal with and I, for one, would rather spend an extra little bit of cash for a gun (realistically nowhere near twice as much) and rest easy that there are actually shops in my town that know something about guns or maybe even have a gunsmith who can work on it if need be. Tell the guy behind the counter at wal-mart that you need a firing pin spring for Remington 700 and just watch his face go blank like you are speaking Mandarin Chinese.

You Wal Mart bashers are as dumb as they come.

GEE I WOULD RATHER SPEND MORE THEN GO TO WM gave me a brake, them mom and pop places have been hosing people for years a WM moves into town it's either lower your price which they can't do because they need a certin cash flow, move or go out of business.

I'll bet you anti WM guys go pay full service at the higest priced gas station in town, ya right.

WM not in business to sell md 700 springs you go to a gunsmith for that.

Our local WM just donated $1000 to our waterfowl dinner, the best I can get from the local sporting goods and gun shops is $25-$50 then you have beg like a dog for table scraps.

Like I said, who made the city or county give WM a building permit? STUPID PEOPLE. Who made those same STUPID PEOPLE apply for the jobs? NO ONE. Who made the STUPID PEOPLE go in and buy the products? NO ONE. And who blames WalMart? STUPID PEOPLE.

And I agree with Hunt_Ducks, why would you go to WalMart for a spring they don't sell? Do you go to the auto parts store for it? or the lumber yard? More...well you guessed it.

quote:

Originally posted by larrys:
why would you go to WalMart for a spring they don't sell? Do you go to the auto parts store for it? or the lumber yard? More...well you guessed it.

Of course you have missed my point. Many smaller gun dealers have gunsmiths on site or are gunsmiths themselves. Eliminate all the small gun dealers and many gunsmiths will go the way of the Dodo bird as well. If individuals who are gunsmiths can't get enough business as such or supplement their gunsmith income with profit from firearm sales then we're all going to be out of luck trying to get guns worked on. As I said, wal-mart sure as hell isn't going to do that work.

As for being willing to pay more....YES I AM...and, when in the US, I fill my tank at the small mom and pop gas station. Frankly, I like the social aspects of financial transactions and I get that with small business! When people with whom you do business are also your friends, they try to help you out when things go wrong. It's worth a few extra bucks here and there to spare yourself aggravation in the long run. Try getting that sort of service at Wal-mart or your local gigantic Texaco station where they have a new idiot behind the counter every week!

JMHO,

John

John the Greek---Very well said!! My feelings exactly. Those who want to fight the trailer trash crouds at WM should do that.. It tells someting about the integrity of a person where he does business. We all have some ethics. Maybe those who shop at WM could park their trailers in the parking lot to cut down on thier commute.

Walmart does not bring down prices.You see before wallmart comes to town, item A sells for 5 dollars everywhere.When Walmart arrives it sells for 5 dollars only at Walmart.Sometimes it sells only at Walmart.This also applies for gasoline and the big stations here in Canada.Also when you are big like that don't tell me you play or have to play by the rules like everyone else.So it would't be wrong to say that Walmart increases prices and operates illegally.This is a the biggest monopoly ever.This is dictatorship.Pegleg,the people you descibe are good people who have no choice but to watch every penny.The worst people are the ones who don't know what is going on or who have are jealous of any hard working independant sole making a clean buck.

quote:

Originally posted by Pegleg:
John the Greek---Very well said!! My feelings exactly. Those who want to fight the trailer trash crouds at WM should do that.. It tells someting about the integrity of a person where he does business. We all have some ethics. Maybe those who shop at WM could park their trailers in the parking lot to cut down on thier commute.

Preaty harsh statement there Pegleg. This disc. was about guns at Wal-Mart. I shop there if that makes me any kind of trash "in your oppinion". BLOW ME!!!!!!