I frequent quite a few local shops, but I also travel over 50% for work, and hit as many shops around the country as I can. I buy quite a lot of firearms, ammo, and components throughout the year, and wherever I find a good deal or a good shop, I offer patronage. I've seen the good, bad, and ugly, and I spent a few years on the OTHER SIDE of the counter as well.
I don't expect gunshops to bend overbackwards and take extreme profit losses on products, but I also don't buy from gougers, and I damned sure don't tolerate liars. It would have had to have been 2000 or 2001, I stopped at a shop in a nearby town which I don't usually travel, so despite being only an hour away, I'd never been there. I was in the market for another 7.5" Super Blackhawk, and although not rare, they weren't common on shelves - I was excited to see one sitting under the glass when I walked up to their handgun counter. I asked the price, and I don't recall the number, but I recall it seeming high, so I asked if he could work with me at all on the price, as I grabbed the Ruger catalog from the nearby shelf to check the MSRP - his number was $50 over the MSRP in the catalog. I pointed that out, and his response, "that's the price I have to pay, I have to make SOMETHING on top to keep the lights on." I recognize I was young at the time, but I wasn't born yesterday - I pointed my awareness of the meaning of Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price, and recounted I had pricing from two other shops to ORDER the item for $150 less than MSRP, a full $200 under his price, and had paid over $250 less than his price for my first pair of SBH's just like it 2-3yrs prior. At that point, I knew he'd lied to me, and I let him know I knew he'd lied. I wished him luck with his business.
I will admit - I DID visit again a few months later, he had a Winchester 1300 Defender, new, marked $130. Not sure how it happened, but it was obviously mis-labeled - it SHOULD have been $310, but knowing the shop, I chose to NOT point that out, and purchase the shotgun at their loss. I plopped it up on the counter, and the manager/owner overheard his clerk read out the credit card charge - immediately recognizing the incorrect price. I swiped my card, and the transaction went through as he asked what I traded in towards it - his initial expectation apparently that his employee had taken an unauthorized trade. At this point - I had legally completed the background check and they'd processed my sale, walking back on the price would have been a legal issue on their part - which I pointed out to the manager: "It's not my fault one of your employees mis-marked the item, nor is it my fault another employee sold me the shotgun at that price. But the phone calls to the BBB, and to my family's business attorney will be my fault if you bait and switch after the sale." I didn't want the 1300, and sold it within weeks for $250. So I walked out with the shotgun, for $130 plus tax. I'll admit, over 15yrs later, it still makes me happy to have LEGALLY ran hard into the teeth of a liar, let alone coming out $100 ahead in the deal. That shop had been around many years, and other than selling relatively niche marine products, they always had a bad reputation. They're out of business now.
Much more recently, maybe 3-4 months ago, I had a Cabela's Gun Library employee pull an XP100 out of the glass. The kid looked 14yrs old, although I assume he was at least 18yrs old since it was a weekday during school hours. As I pulled the bolt and inspected the bore, he went on to say how accurate the pistols were, and how they were used all of the time for silhouette matches - he DID show his stripes a little, by saying, "they're incredibly accurate, but they definitely look weird." So I asked him - so do you know what year this one was made? And what year did they stop making them? Have you ever shot one? What are silhouette matches like - are the top 100 guys using one of these? This one says 221 FB on the side - what's the 221FB? The other one you have says 7mm BR, what's that cartridge like? Asking all of these KNOWING he didn't have answers, I wasn't surprised when he didn't. Having worked guncounters before myself, I offered the now red faced, embarrassed kid advice to only speak to his experience, and when you really don't know - say you don't. He apologized, admitted the things he said were what he'd been told to say about them, and remarkably - and what I feel was most important - he started asking questions about the pistol and the cartridges, what I was going to do with the pistol. Ultimately, I wanted the 221 and we haggled a bit on price with his manager, but it was missing the rear sight, and I could buy one at another shop in similar condition for the same price WITH the rear sight, so I passed, but despite a rough start, he would have made the sale after coming clean.
I do, however, do about 3/4 of my ordering/buying/and transferring from a shop almost 100 miles away because of the service, treatment, and pricing I've gotten there over the years. Gypsum Valley Outdoor Sport, Gypsum Kansas. They took great care of me since they opened under the original ownership, and Dave and Ashley remain to do so after they bought it a few years ago. I have a half dozen gun shops within a dozen miles and drive past as many in the towns I pass on my way to their shop, but it's been worth it to me. It takes a lot for a store to earn that from me.
