Dick's Sporting Goods to stop selling hunting rifles in 125 stores

Normally I would never say "good" when a place stops selling guns, but f*** these people. I hope they stop selling guns and ammo entirely, at least other gun shops will benefit from the business and it will keep gun owners out of their stores and in other stores that suck less.

-Mike

This could actually be a net negative in the long term. Especially in places like New England, where gun owners are definite minority- the reality is that most young people will have no actual exposure to seeing a gun store. Their impression of gun stores is informed almost exclusively by media portrayals which are, too often based on negative stereotypes. Dick's is one of the few places left that is not a gun store (or a hunting or outdoors specialty store) which still sells guns. When parents take their kid to get a CO2 fill for paintball, they go to the gun counter. Same with people buying some other products that happen to be there for various reasons (like loss prevention). There are also times when kids will just see that area, regardless of what their parents might want (like when they go shopping for apparel, sportsball gear, etc....). By having guns and ammo there, it made them more normalized- which countered the taboo that current social trends are imposing.

In coming years, one of the things that we are going to need in order to counter the progressive paradigm is a sense of normalcy.
 
Dick's is one of the few places left that is not a gun store (or a hunting or outdoors specialty store) which still sells guns. When parents take their kid to get a CO2 fill for paintball, they go to the gun counter. Same with people buying some other products that happen to be there for various reasons (like loss prevention). There are also times when kids will just see that area, regardless of what their parents might want (like when they go shopping for apparel, sportsball gear, etc....). By having guns and ammo there, it made them more normalized- which countered the taboo that current social trends are imposing..

Can't agree kids today see and play with more guns on their video games and generally never leave the house to go to the store but stay inside and play these same video games with guns. They have the same thing in the military it's called a simulator.
 
This could actually be a net negative in the long term. Especially in places like New England, where gun owners are definite minority- the reality is that most young people will have no actual exposure to seeing a gun store. Their impression of gun stores is informed almost exclusively by media portrayals which are, too often based on negative stereotypes. Dick's is one of the few places left that is not a gun store (or a hunting or outdoors specialty store) which still sells guns. When parents take their kid to get a CO2 fill for paintball, they go to the gun counter. Same with people buying some other products that happen to be there for various reasons (like loss prevention). There are also times when kids will just see that area, regardless of what their parents might want (like when they go shopping for apparel, sportsball gear, etc....). By having guns and ammo there, it made them more normalized- which countered the taboo that current social trends are imposing.

In coming years, one of the things that we are going to need in order to counter the progressive paradigm is a sense of normalcy.

I definitely see your point but I don't see Dicks as a beacon of normalcy. Countering the progressive paradigm is bringing your kid into joe smoes gun shop where joe has a dog that your kid likes to see etc, and your kid remembering that and the rest of the stuff he or she did with shooting growing up, and so on. Dicks isn't going to leave any kind of impression, its this thing where a bunch of boring guns collecting dust are shackled up 6+ feet behind the counter, IMHO almost emitting a "guns are bad, so we have to put these f***ing padlocks all over them" vibe, etc. Also even these days it's unlikely you'd ever see a customer even examining a gun at a dick's lodge, etc. A child won't even remember what a gun looks like that was at dicks, other than some generic black thing with a tube with a piece of wood on it, covered with dust, on a display rack.


-Mike
 
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We needed to get a set of soccer shoes for my son and while Dicks would have saved us money I refused to spend my money in their stores. We ended up finding something thru a church run program that was awesome for us.
Hope Dicks goes the way of the Dodo.
Anything sold at Dicks can be found online for the same amount or less.

I go there, try the golf clubs, then order online.
Go there, try the shoes, then order online.
And so on...

F*** spending money in that place.
 
I definitely see your point but I don't see Dicks as a beacon of normalcy. Countering the progressive paradigm is bringing your kid into joe smoes gun shop where joe has a dog that your kid likes to see
etc, and your kid remembering that and the rest of the stuff he or she did with shooting growing up, and so on. Dicks isn't going to leave any kind of impression, its this thing where a bunch of boring guns collecting dust are shackled up 6+ feet behind the counter, IMHO almost emitting a "guns are bad, so we have to put these f***ing padlocks all over them" vibe, etc. Also even these days it's unlikely you'd ever see a customer even examining
a gun at a dick's lodge, etc. A child won't even remember what a gun looks like that was at dicks, other than some generic black thing with a tube with a piece of wood on it, covered with dust, on a display rack.


-Mike
One my most enduring memories from my young years was hanging out at a gun shop that was an extension built onto the guy's house.
A wood stove in the middle of the room with leather chairs around it where all the local old timers hung out to suck up the free coffee and tell hunting lies.
I can still smell the Hoppes and gun oil along with the wood smoke.
My Dad and I would swing by to grab a few boxes of ammo on our way to the pit to shoot.
 
Good, But must admit, its a little bittersweet.

The amount of places where i can get my kids soccer cleats and also browse a department that interest me are dwindling.

If you were going to the one in Natick, drive the 5 minutes to the Natick Outdoor Store. Guns, fishing stuff, camping stuff, soccer cleats, etc.

And to be honest, then just walk over the tracks to B&K and also GFA for even more fun.
 
Buying small amounts of ammo and gun accessories online is a pain in the ass, there is always a market for retail gun stuff, across a bunch of different strata of shooters. Remember there are millions of people who
are johnny 1 box at the range that are basically newbies forever. A place like "dicks" is in their wheelhouse. I know a metric shit ton of "those people". It's just that dicks has managed to screw themselves out of it. You really think that their anti gun management/bad press has nothing to do with this? One hand washes the other.

-Mike
Mike, normally you're an honorable debater, but this time you claim I said something that I didn't say. I never said there was no connection between the "Pandering" and the company's current move. I've been to a lot of Dick's "Lodges" and most of them simply didn't make enough sales the justify their existence. Of course the company's stepping in its own dog poop made it worse. But once as a corporation you turn your back on firearm owners, you can't hold on to these corners any more at all, so might as well re-purpose the space.
 
Mike, normally you're an honorable debater, but this time you claim I said something that I didn't say. I never said there was no connection between the "Pandering" and the company's current move. I've been to a lot of Dick's "Lodges" and most of them simply didn't make enough sales the justify their existence. Of course the company's stepping in its own dog poop made it worse. But once as a corporation you turn your back on firearm owners, you can't hold on to these corners any more at all, so might as well re-purpose the space.

I should have been more clearer- I don't completely disagree with your comment, I just think that the trigger of them losing "lodge" sales here is their ongoing anti-2a bullshit. It wasn't that long ago you could order an AR at dicks or something. Then that went away. Then the selection went down, etc, so on. Also they might have had some stores that had enough sales to justify keeping it around, throw in Trump complacency plus their anti gun bullshit, and now those stores are down.

I agree that from a retail POV that SOME of the stores, it was stupid for them to have a lodge in it at all because low/no sales. But this current "we're going to pull back" stuff I think is driven by them shitting on the floor and now having to sleep in their own shit/filth. Other vendors may have shit on them for their standpoint as well, I know at least one major one pulled out of dealing with them.

-Mike
 
As long as the 2a guys remember to hold the grudge well after they stop carrying firearms.

I haven’t set foot in Dicks since their bullshit. I get those stupid $10 certificates all the time and put them in the trash. Even if I could just get $10 worth of free stuff I won’t give them the foot traffic.
 
Good Luck Jackasses...!

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Dick's Sporting Goods said Tuesday that it will stop selling hunting products, including rifles and ammunition, at 125 stores where the category has underperformed.

The sporting goods retailer said it will replace the category with in-demand merchandise. The company has already removed the category in 10 stores.

Despite not selling guns, Dicks continues to shoot themselves in the groin.
 
Like this choice was actually made by them. This choice was made by the former customers.

Been in a few times since. Just to be an ass.

Last time I was in one was funny. My wife was done in Michaels so she found me messing up shoeboxes, so I went in the bathroom and caught up to her when she was near some soccer mom types and I loudly said, “let’s get outta here, this is disgusting. There was LITERALLY sh!t on the walls in the bathroom. I’m not buying anything here!”

I hope I did some damage.
 
Like this choice was actually made by them. This choice was made by the former customers.

Been in a few times since. Just to be an ass.

Last time I was in one was funny. My wife was done in Michaels so she found me messing up shoeboxes, so I went in the bathroom and caught up to her when she was near some soccer mom types and I loudly said, “let’s get outta here, this is disgusting. There was LITERALLY sh!t on the walls in the bathroom. I’m not buying anything here!”

I hope I did some damage.
Oh, I think you were at the West Springfield one. hahaha That one is extra sad to go into. Like how the Springfield walmart doesn't sell ammo.
 
I definitely see your point but I don't see Dicks as a beacon of normalcy. Countering the progressive paradigm is bringing your kid into joe smoes gun shop where joe has a dog that your kid likes to see
etc, and your kid remembering that and the rest of the stuff he or she did with shooting growing up, and so on. Dicks isn't going to leave any kind of impression, its this thing where a bunch of boring guns collecting dust are shackled up 6+ feet behind the counter, IMHO almost emitting a "guns are bad, so we have to put these f***ing padlocks all over them" vibe, etc. Also even these days it's unlikely you'd ever see a customer even examining
a gun at a dick's lodge, etc. A child won't even remember what a gun looks like that was at dicks, other than some generic black thing with a tube with a piece of wood on it, covered with dust, on a display rack.


-Mike

When I say normalcy, I don't mean to suggest that a department store gun counter should be considered the awesome epicenter of gun culture. What I mean when I say that is that it reflects guns and ammo being available to private citizens as being normal. Many kids are exposed to social and media influences which are not gun friendly. Seeing guns, available to private citizens, in a setting that they see as normal may leave them with a better image at some level. Kid's whose parents are not actively involved in the gun community are not going to be going on a trip to a local gun shop to see what guns on a shelf looks like. (Some gun shops, like one that I frequent, won't even let people who don't have a permit in the front door). Those kids do go with their parents, who may either be indifferent or even downright anti, to Dick's- to go shopping for other things. Those are kids who may some day have at least a slightly different perception than those whose exclusively observation of a gun counter comes from movies, tv shows, or books at portray gun stores as run by white supremacists, or anti-government conspiracy theorists, or people who are in concert with criminals. (<--- obviously, I know those portrayals aren't true. However, they all come from various popular media)

The chain store that sells guns also caters to a subset of casual gun owner that we are seeing less and less of in New England. I can remember years gone by, back when you could buy a long gun on a 14 day wait here in Connecticut, when you would go to Dicks on black friday (or during certain other sales) and see people buying a long gun based on seeing it advertised at a low price. (One of the side effects of the 2013 laws is that an increasing number of people who want guns or ammo seek out permits to carry pistols/revolvers, and there seems to be a sort of fraternity around being part of the gun community).
 
If you were going to the one in Natick, drive the 5 minutes to the Natick Outdoor Store. Guns, fishing stuff, camping stuff, soccer cleats, etc.

And to be honest, then just walk over the tracks to B&K and also GFA for even more fun.

I’ve bought guns from all three. And the process at Natick Outdoor Store wasn’t any different except for having the gun carried to the register. Bought a Maverick 88 on sale for $185ish a couple of years ago at Dicks, and it was a long, drawn out annoyance.
 
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