Department stores selling guns....

[badgerrr]

Around here, the Big Dogg for muntions and long guns is a variety store called Bi-Mart. They even carry reloading componants! I won't use a powder unless I can get it at Bi-Mart....$2 to $3 a pound cheaper on average. When I first moved out here, they sold pistols too. That doesn't happen anymore.

At local gun shoppes, (that I also frequent) I've seen this sign more than once....

"Bi-Mart not spoken here."

 

[Dorrin79]

I buy a lot of my ammo at my town's Super WallyWorld - unlike the gun shops in the Austin area, they have the Winchester White Box 9mm Value Pack. In fact, the only ammo I don't buy there is 7.62x39, because they don't carry it, and "carry" ammo for my 9mm.

Since I live in a small town, the three people who work in the sporting goods dept aren't particularly young or dumb. they actually know a fair amount about firearms, ammunition, etc.

Sample encounter from last week.

Me: "What kind of hollow-points do ya'll have in nine-millimeter?"

Dude: "Well, *gestures at ammo cage* we only carry Winchester hunnert'and fifteen grain JHPs"

Me: "Oh. No EFMJ one-twenty-four grain, then?"

Dude: "Nope."

Me: "What about something +P?"

Dude: "Nope. Unfortunately they won't let us carry anything +P"

Me: "Sucks."

Dude: "Yep."

I've bought two guns at Academy Sports. They recently started selling handguns as well as long, and their prices are excellent! customer service and selection is not so good, though (when I bought my Mossberg there, the guy running the gun counter didn't know how to do a NICS .

 

[Prof]

In the good old days (1960's), I went into the J.C. Penny's store which is (still) 2 blocks from my house and purchased two Winchester lever action rifles from their well-stocked sporting goods section. I still shop there and get depressed when I walk by that area which is now the shoe section. So much for "progress"!

 

[braindead0]

The Gander Mountain here in Canton told me they don't stock anything with a barrel less than 3". Might have changed though (or perhaps doesn't apply to used)..saw a 2" SP101

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

Nobody has mentioned them so I will---Scheel's is just awesome----pistols---rifles--shotguns---even high-grade stuff----reloading stuff---gunsafes etc.........

Good prices and long lay-a-ways.

And that's just the gun stuff----they have all kinds of sporting goods and clothing also.

They're supposed to be putting a store here in town in 2004----trembling with excitment------lol.

 

[AZ Jeff]

Lack of general retailers selling guns is a sign of the times. The combination of:
--added legal hassles to retail in firearms
--insurance liability issues
--the touchy-feely mentality that has marginalized guns and gun-ownership
all of these have conspired to make gun retail sales too much of a PITA for most retailers.

Just to show how much things have changed:

when I was a kid in the 1950's, my uncle bought a brand new S&W M27 from the Marshall Field's dept. store in Evanston, Illinois. For those of you who don't know who/what Marshall Field's is, it's a medium high end dept. store founded in the late 1800's in Chicago. It's the equivalent of Macy's. (They are now owned by Dayton-Hudson stores.)

Can anyone fathom a store like Macy's, Field's, or the like dealing in firearms today? I cannot. Although I wish they still did!!!

 

[larry_minn]

Bought my first shotgun at Monkey Wards. I would pick up shells for my dads but then I had to have parent present to buy BBs a few weeks later. Of course in small town once was enough and after that I could buy whatever I wanted.
Friend worked at Wally World and I should have bought a pistol back then.