Local gun store shenanigans

[Tyerone]

Ive been relatively happy with my LGS prices. -- especially when I have them find something for me from the major distributors vs finding on line and paying their $30 xfer fee and perhaps shipping.

I have noticed, however that they will stick to their price on some stuff when they bought it.  For instance, the Delta Point Pro at one time was $500+  now prices have dropped and most sellers list at under $400.  They will just sit until someone wants it badly like NOW.  I think they also have a couple ARs left over from the expensive days.  I doubt they'll sell them until the next crazed democrap shenanigans drive prices back up...

Their relatively high priced CZ85B from 2015 sat long enough at that price but compared to 2017 prices wasnt that bad.  Cool that it was there; I scooped it up.

[cntrydawwwg]

I had 1 local LGS that stocked CZ pistols. Sadly he?s no longer in business.

[nevada72]

I recently purchased my P-09 at my favorite LGS. Full retail but easy. Nice folks with a decent firing range. I try to keep it local as best I can. Only recently have I started buying ammo online because there's about a 50% price differential. I'm looking at getting a suppressor and I hope they will price match because the glass shelf price is about double what I can do online.

[SharpShooterNJ]

I don?t bother with buying mags locally when there?s Greg Cote inside my computer who delivers to my mailbox.

This! While I try to support my local businesses, Greg Cote gets my mag business.


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[Joe Allen]

So what part of the country are you located?

My guess would have been one of the states that just legalized wacky tobaccy.

[SI VIS PACEM PARRABELLUM]

So what part of the country are you located?

My guess would have been one of the states that just legalized wacky tobaccy.

I suppose that would be a fairly reasonable assumption all things considered. Years ago in N E Ohio we had some independent dealers who really put the screws to people especially during the 1994 awb years but another independent dealer/sporting goods outfit offered really great prices at the time and has grown to quite the powerhouse outfit up here expanding to several locations and still passing on great prices to the consumer. The other dealers have had no choice but to lower prices and those who haven't have fallen by the wayside or are on the way.

[Snowb1rd]

Had a place like that close by here in AZ. With the plethora of other gun shops around the city, needless to say, that place closed its doors this past December 31st. No idea how they stayed open that long up-charging so much on items that are easily accessible at half the price online.

[Atomic Punk]

Before shipping, CZ Custom sells them for $47 and Brownells is $55 (w/o any discounts). I'd say that's about par for a LGS. I try to throw them a bone once in a while because I realize the costs of keeping a small business open. They just can't compete with online places with the volume they do. At least mine can't. 

I cringe when I see people buy ammo though. I guess they don't know you can get it delivered to your house for close to half what they charge.

[CZATC]

I agree with the sentiment. Have seen some mags in my neck of the woods that can be surprisingly affordable at 30 bucks to much higher $56. Also one of my dealers has been sitting on a phantom as well for 599 that if he'd drop 50-60 bucks would be gone in a day.

     It's just tough for some LGS due to location sometimes. My example is I am 30 min from one of the retail locations affiliated with a major online retailer and another large box store is literally across the street. They have gotten in a price war with each other. Like big time, a flash can scorpion with sb brace is $840 over the counter and a 75 SA is under $550. The problem is it has absolutely killed most of the LGS that were decent because no matter how hard they try or much they want to, they just can't begin to match the shear volume those 2 can and like most have said I am willing to give em 10-15% depending on an item considering it's rarity etc but when a shield 9mm is 299 and the LGS is 375 I just can't justify it. Especially in a state with almost 10% sales tax.

     Difference is I can go into my LGS and not be hassled with condescending or otherwise useless drivle and get insight from a guy who has been shooting for about 30 years and has 20 years of machining background and his daughter is great with the wife. There is literally 1 employee a piece at those other 2 locations I will purchase from. One is a veteran who takes everything apart with me when I am looking even though they aren't supposed to and the other is not an idiot like his co-workers, who i caught taking turns trying to, I kid you not, spin cycle a lever action carbine behind the counter!



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[mrcabinet]

There's a grubby little gun & pawn shop in the small town I work in. On my first couple of trips there I thought the owner must be smoking crack, based the prices he had on his used guns. Then I discovered that he loves haggling, but he can only do it on used items, not new, because he just doesn't do the volume to allow it. Unfortunately, that's the case with most LGS, but there's no reason to get shafted by them.

The LGS in the same town charges MSRP or more for everything. I mean $48.00 for a box of Winchester 100 primers? $50.00 for a pound of Varget? And then he complains about everybody buying online now. The only reason I go in there is to pay my annual membership to the gun club, and to get a good chuckle out of his pricing.

[Tim_B]

I don't know if they make the mags for all the CZ models but I do know that for the 75B full size and compact the mags are made by Mec Gar.  You can buy the mec gar brand mags online for much much cheaper than the CZ branded mags and they are exactly the same mags.  Just the name stamped into them is different.

[jameslovesjammie]

Also one of my dealers has been sitting on a phantom as well for 599 that if he'd drop 50-60 bucks would be gone in a day.

I'm going to play the Devil's Advocate, since I not only work at a gun store, but am the firearms buyer.

If the dealer went down $50-60, they would be making about $20 on the gun.  That isn't worth the time it takes to pay the employees that bring them in, put them in the system, and do the 4473's...let alone keep the lights on.

It's tough to compete with the internet these days.  People see guns on Buds and don't realize that Buds sells guns for $5-20 above cost.  A small shop loses that much in interest if the gun doesn't sell.  Or people see a variant of a gun on CDNN and don't realize that CDNN is a clearance house.

Any brick and mortar store has higher overhead than an online retailer.  If you want to keep having local gun stores, please support them.  Big box stores suck.  Chain stores don't keep your money local, and frankly don't care about you (or their employees).  Our local economy has been absolutely devastated by Amazon.  It's hard watching a town die.

[1SOW]

What JamesLJ said above.  I know a "previous gun dealer". who gave me the same info that JLJ gave above

A LARGE investment for the dealer with a small return of profit.  He now holds carry and pistol shooting classes for novices,  and says his overhead is very low and return of profit is waay higher than selling pistols.

[armoredman]

Oddly enough, my favorite LGS doesn't carry CZ, because he has one on the shelf and it won't move. It's a urban Grey Shadow suppressor ready, so of course it has a limited appeal to the general gun buyers...but because that one pistol won't sell, he won't order them in. However, the look on his face when I picked up my P-10C, (transferred through his FFL, $25), was priceless, as he exclaimed, "I have stacks of people wanting those!". Snicker, snicker.

I worked at a gun shop in Tucson years ago, and we made money on used guns and accessories. We never made any serious coin on new guns. The rental range also brought in good money, range fees, ammo sales and targets. But guns we had marked to the bone, sometimes lower if it was a dog. That was where I heard the term "Desert Beagle", because it's a show dog that just won't move.

[CZATC]

James and 1sow I agree with yall and am aware of those nuances. That particular example is more of a shenanigan because that dealer isn't one of the LGS guys, he kinda likes to price his czs a little closer to the msrp than his other products. I guess he knows the gun hipsters like the brand lol my apologies for not communicating hat better.

Another thing folks don't think about is the delivery of the product those small dealers purchase. That small shop I frequent who is full of stellar folks has routinely had delivery issues because they are a little off the beaten path. I overhead him being told by a distributor that they were going to stop their deliveries to the store but if he wanted to keep using them he could meet them at one of those big box stores parking lots and pickup his items when they deliver the others (so gracious?!)....of course that store is nearly an hour and a half out the way for him.

It just stinks all around because we as consumers are spoiled by the benefits of low overhead internet sales and volume dealers but hate them for the almost inevitable consequences of that business model and vice versa for the LGS.

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