jpruitt .....Amazon is even experimenting with the idea of an online grocery service (if anyone can pull that off it's them).......
Thats been tried several times in many different markets and has been a miserable failure each and every time.
Are brick and mortar gun stores going to face this kind of trouble?....
Are online sellers a significant threat to local gun stores? If not now, do you see a time when they will be?
"Online" is no different than the Sears or Penny's catalog...........some prefer the convienance of ordering via phone or internet, others want to fondle the item first. The increasing efforts to implement internet sales taxes will impact online & mail ordering negatively.
oneounceload ..... I hope not, because the Feds could try to shut them down a lot easier than brick and mortar stores
How?
What makes it easier?
What is the difference between an online, mail order, brick and mortar or kitchen table dealer in the eyes of ATF?............NOTHING.
MErl ....The regulatory overhead (no mail order guns) is limiting it.
Huh?
Regulations have not fundamentaly changed since 1968.
(and you most certainly CAN buy firearms via mail order......they're delivered by mail to me six days a week
)
clutch .....Immediate gratification has a lot going for it.
This.
larryh1108 ....Well, kitchen table FFLs are all over. With no overhead to speak of, they can do the transfers for $25 and it's basically pure profit.
Really?
So the $$$$ I pay to insure firearms while they are in my possession isn't overhead?
How about my general business liability policy?
My monitored alarm?
My UPS Store account?
How about my internet, fax line, copier paper, toner, office supplies? Are those free?
I'm sure the three safes I bought aren't considered overhead either.
Basically "pure profit"?.............absolutely pure nonsense.
George Dickel ....Keep buying from the big box stores and on line and run the LGS out of business. After the LGS is gone do you really think Walmart or Dick's will handle the transfer from an internet sale for you?
No, they'll continue come to dealers like me.
For many, the local WalMart IS the local gun store.
Where were you when Sears, Penny's, Montgomery Ward, Dillards and other national retailers sold guns?
Where were you when every hardware store in America sold guns?
Where was everyones indignation when those retailers stopped selling guns?
If a local gun store is driven out of business by WalMart, it probably wasn't much of a gun store to begin with. WalMart doesn't do repairs, doesn't sell handguns, has a limited in store selection and a clerk who usually knows less about guns than the customer. You get what you pay for.
George Dickel ....Think back to the Clinton administration, they instructed the BATF to start closing down kitchen table FFL's and were pretty successfull. Let the majority of LGS close and another rabidly anti-gun administration gets into office. All they will have to do is prohibit kitchen table FFL's and then the only place you will be able to buy a gun is the big box stores. No kitchen table FFL's, no internet sales.
Absolute nonsense.
There are more "kitchen table" dealers than there are brick and mortar dealers....and always have been. The only thing that happened during the Clinton administration was a push to have licensees operate their business legally.........because many were not. Either they weren't actually engaged in the business of dealing in firearms (but using the FFL for personal use) or they werent in possession of sales tax permits, business licenses or were not zoned for business...........meaning they lied on their application for that FFL.
George Dickel ...If I owned a gun store and you came in to ask for me to handle the transfer for an internet sale on a new gun, I'd tell you to pack sand or charge $500 for the service.
Many do exactly that and lose a customer for life. Kitchen table dealers like me GAIN a customer for life. Everyones happy!
George Dickel
I have been browsing many of the internet sales sites and by the time you pay the shipping/insurance and transfer fee, in many cases you don't save anything or very little.
Sure, thats why I do 2,000 internet transfers a year.
George Dickel ..... Under Clinton the BATF was instructed to shut down FFL's that were not a brick and mortar operation, in other words a store open to the public doing active sales business.
Bunk. Myth. Nonsense.
Like any business, those who do not adapt, die.
Those with a better idea, who can do it cheaper, better, faster and keep the customer happy........thrive.
NOTHING prevents a local gun store from selling on the internet. JoeBob Outfitters, Bud's, Palmetto and others that some like to demonize didn't magically appear overnight......they were little retailers that figured out how to be better at business than the competition. And rather than adapt, much of the competition prefers to whine, complain and continue to lose business.
