mr.trooper
Member
the size of the store isn't all that important - an FFL can order as many guns as they can afford. If they have the clients they can do good buisness.
The problem as I see it is multi-fold:
* Many LGS owners are really nice guys ... but not so great businessmen. They make poor decisions that end up draining their coffers and closing their doors - commonly they stock items that they think are 'cool', but that their local client base have no demand for, freezing up their funds and cluttering up their shelves. A $900 gun that sits on your shelf for 2 years, and only sells at a steep discount ends up loosing you a significant percentage.
* Other LGS owners are ... not such nice guys, and even WORSE businessmen. I have met a fair number of their kind. Not only do they fall into the same traps as the other LGS owners, they have other things working against them (themselves). They do things like use a UN flag as a door mat, Keep a larger than life bust of Hitler in their shop, shoot up exterior residential doors and leave them propped up outside their shop, ect. ect. that end up making them look trashy, creepy, or crazy to 99% of the people that walk into their stores. Many of these 'unique' individuals also have some shady business practices as well - buying cases of AR mags before elections so they can scalp them at absurd prices afterward, selling gently used guns as new, stocking obscure rifle cartridges so they can ream the posterior of some poor hunter who forgot his ammo, ect.
I have seen all of these things and more perpetrated by LGS owners in recent years.
I can completely understand why LGS have trouble keeping clients, and I completely understand why manufacturers don't want to deal with them anymore.
The problem as I see it is multi-fold:
* Many LGS owners are really nice guys ... but not so great businessmen. They make poor decisions that end up draining their coffers and closing their doors - commonly they stock items that they think are 'cool', but that their local client base have no demand for, freezing up their funds and cluttering up their shelves. A $900 gun that sits on your shelf for 2 years, and only sells at a steep discount ends up loosing you a significant percentage.
* Other LGS owners are ... not such nice guys, and even WORSE businessmen. I have met a fair number of their kind. Not only do they fall into the same traps as the other LGS owners, they have other things working against them (themselves). They do things like use a UN flag as a door mat, Keep a larger than life bust of Hitler in their shop, shoot up exterior residential doors and leave them propped up outside their shop, ect. ect. that end up making them look trashy, creepy, or crazy to 99% of the people that walk into their stores. Many of these 'unique' individuals also have some shady business practices as well - buying cases of AR mags before elections so they can scalp them at absurd prices afterward, selling gently used guns as new, stocking obscure rifle cartridges so they can ream the posterior of some poor hunter who forgot his ammo, ect.
I have seen all of these things and more perpetrated by LGS owners in recent years.
I can completely understand why LGS have trouble keeping clients, and I completely understand why manufacturers don't want to deal with them anymore.
