Pullman Arms stopping sales

84ta406

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From their FB page:

AS OF the close of the business on Saturday, September 16, 2017, Pullman Arms will be refocusing our business to concentrate 100% of our energy and vision on gun-smithing and firearms transfers.

Pullman Arms will no longer sell new or used firearms.

Why?

It was a very tough decision.

On the one hand, we LOVE the firearms business. We love seeing our clients come into the store. We take especially great pride in helping new firearms enthusiasts by educating them and introducing them to the sport. It's a great community of people and we have made so many friends.

But...our sister company Micro Arc Welding, also located in our Pullman Street building is growing. It's growing at a rate that has made the space in which the current Pullman Arms store is located significantly more valuable to Micro Arc Welding.

So we made the difficult decision to close the Pullman Arms retail operation, utilize the space to grow our welding business, and restructure Pullman Arms to exclusively offer our clients expert gunsmithing and transfer services.
Going Forward

Pullman Arms will offer the following services as of Monday September 18, 2017.

• Gunsmithing
• Cerakote
• Transfers
• Custom slide/porting work
• LTC Classes
• Custom Ordering

Kyle Mann our Lead Gunsmith can be contacted through email at [email protected] or by calling (508) 926-8730.

Gunsmithing hours of operation will be Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm, we encourage you to come in anytime and speak with Kyle about your project!

All in-state and out of state transfers will be $20 cash or $35 credit cards.

We are still staying involved in the lawsuit, we will continue to fight for our 2nd amendment rights.

But...our sister company Micro Arc Welding, also located in our Pullman Street building is growing. It's growing at a rate that has made the space in which the current Pullman Arms store is located significantly more valuable to Micro Arc Welding.

So we made the difficult decision to close the Pullman Arms retail operation, utilize the space to grow our welding business, and restructure Pullman Arms to exclusively offer our clients expert gunsmithing and transfer services.

Current Inventory

All of our current inventory is listed on Amazon, Gunbroker, and Northeast Shooters at a fraction of the cost in the store. Any MA customers can come into the store and buy at the price listed on either site. This also includes ammunition, which will be listed next week.

Thank you!

The entire Pullman Arms family thanks, ALL OF YOU for your support of our retail operation. It has meant so much to all of us to have met and served all of you. We are very much hoping that you'll continue to work with us for all of your gunsmithing projects, firearms transfers, special orders, etc. We are looking forward to serving you again!
 
Sorry to see the store go, but lately it looked like they were trying to keep the gun and ammo inventory a little tight. Too bad- I liked the new separate entrance for the gun shop. Very nice that they will still do transfers- they have always been great for that.

They welded a thread protector on my 6.5CM AR for the Mass legal neutering. That weld looked like jewelry! I kid you not! Pretty amazing skill and equipment at Micro Arc.
 
When they were very busy, thanks to Obama, the Micro Arc guys would look put out with all the traffic walking through their shop to get to Pullmans.
Give them huge props for running those radio ads when our Second Amendment rights were most in jepordy.
Going to miss seeing Alisha......and photos of her hog hunting in Florida.
 
How do you find their listings on gunbroker? I tried searching on that site and the pullman homepage but came up empty.
 
Great so now Gun Parlor is the only name in town. Let's see how much more they ll raise their prices.

Pullman was great. Bought a couple of guns from them. They even helped my wife get me a P320 for Xmas (gift card and such). Great peeps. Very pleasant. Their move makes sense from business point of view. When does the "clearance" end? Like can I go tomorrow and buy firearms?
 
Sorry to see them shut down the business... they helped me get a great deal on a Ruger
 
Sorry to see the store go, but lately it looked like they were trying to keep the gun and ammo inventory a little tight. Too bad - I liked the new separate entrance for the gun shop.
Yeah, same here. I was so pleased to see the new entrance into a "real" gun shop... but then I noticed that selection was way down. [thinking] Never thought I'd say it, but I suddenly yearned for the good old days of the walk-in safe handgun showroom. [laugh]

Anyway, another one bites the dust. Worcester is left with just one stocking shop. Not a good situation.
 
Taken at face value (and there's no reason to think otherwise) this just looks like a reasonable strategy decision - focus on the parts of the business that have the most potential. Selling guns in not all that profitable, even if you can do it in large volume. I also think that a lot of local gun stores, especially those that have opened up in the last 8-10 years, are going to feel this heat and close. It's good that Pullman has a business plan they can take forward.
 
Taken at face value (and there's no reason to think otherwise) this just looks like a reasonable strategy decision - focus on the parts of the business that have the most potential. Selling guns in not all that profitable, even if you can do it in large volume. I also think that a lot of local gun stores, especially those that have opened up in the last 8-10 years, are going to feel this heat and close. It's good that Pullman has a business plan they can take forward.

That's a sound business decision for any company. However, it might have helped if it was mentioned that Healey's illegal edict was also a part of their decision. As you mentioned, many small stores are likely to be closing because of the guns she banned on 7/20/16, which I'm sure made up for a good percentage of their business. Even if it had no positive impact on them as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, it might of helped other LGS that are feeling the heat from revenue loss.
 
I liked the shop. Cramped but good service and good prices. I especially like thir continued effort to fight the AG. There are a few other gun shops in the area.

On gunbroker, do an advanced search with pullmanarms (one word) in the seller field. Slim pickings.
 
I really like the folks at Pullman and thought that they really the right "type" of gun shop. They were small, friendly, totally non pretentious, and very patient and generous with information.
I think i bought my 3rd and 4th guns there. They were the only shop I can think of that actually recommended that I go check out another shop to see about getting something that they didn't have.
This is the shameful result of the restrictive nature of the firearms industry in mass. These little shops really do have there hands tied when it comes to the selection of firearms they can purchase and the prices that they can sell them at. Other shops (I wont mention names) can offer more guns at lower prices because they can handle larger inventories and can get much better pricing due to volume discounts.
I personally will (and do) spend a little bit more or drive a little farther to support shops that I like even though I could drive 10-15 minutes away to get something for a cheaper price.
 
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If you aint making money you cant keep the doors open....at least they have not cut out the transfers....yet.
Maybe they can run a decent mail order middleman operation and charge a small fee to accept orders that vendor will only ship to FFLs in MA.
 
One for my favorite shops, but not really surprised, most of their business is in transfers and gunsmithing. I think sales have dropped off to the point of not worth the time, while competition both locally and online has ramped up. I've seen their inventory going downhill for a while and not replacing, probably as they figure this is the time to get out. Carrying inventory cost money, especially when space is needed for other ventures.

I'm sure they did good business during the Obama years.......but things are changing in the market. Basically the business model now is the WalMart model....buy a huge amount of inventory to get discounts, and sell it at rock bottom and do volume. Im sure they don't want to go that route as it's probably way too much investment in overhead inventory. Im sure Scott has other things to do that make alot more money than nickel and dime gun sales, he's not an FS Guns type......and people in Worcester are still the Spags mentality, out by Boston, you have enough population to make it worth it maybe, but not really out here.

I am glad to see them keeping some parts of the business, they were always and will be always nice to deal with.
 
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Sorry to see this. I bought a S&W Revolver there a couple years ago, and had them pin/weld a muzzle device & check headspace on two ARs.

Obviously they're not making a shit-ton of money off me, but I did like their shop, their people, and their customer service.
 
That's a sound business decision for any company. However, it might have helped if it was mentioned that Healey's illegal edict was also a part of their decision. As you mentioned, many small stores are likely to be closing because of the guns she banned on 7/20/16, which I'm sure made up for a good percentage of their business. Even if it had no positive impact on them as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, it might of helped other LGS that are feeling the heat from revenue loss.

Don't worry, they'll be using it as "ammo" in the lawsuit....I'm pretty sure of that.
 
Damn. Sorry to see them pull out of the retail side of things. Great shop, great guys. **** Healy and her illegal, unconstitutional BS.
 
They aren't large enough to have competitive prices or a good inventory. I think it's great that they are focusing on services and forgetting about stocking inventory.
 
I just stopped by. Very limited inventory as expected. Was hoping to maybe catch a deal but didn't find anything I am interested in or not already have.
About 30-40 pistols and maybe 10 rifles and shotguns left. Not much ammo either.
Most of the pistols are the typical S&W and Ruger (Shields, SRs, etc).
Best wishes to focusing the business on what seems to be profitable.
 
They aren't large enough to have competitive prices or a good inventory. I think it's great that they are focusing on services and forgetting about stocking inventory.

Of all the great things Pullman brought to the area, 'custom orders' was NOT one of their strong suits. Being able to get inventory, even on MA-compliant items they wanted to have, was a hassle for them. I wanted a Rock River Arms scope mount from them - they were a RRA dealer. They couldn't get it ordered. I wanted some Hornady shotgun shells - certain gauge/load. They're in-production, but Pullman couldn't get them after 90+ days of trying. And they stock Hornady. So now they're going to 'focus' on something they've tried to do for me multiple-times, and failed?
 
Of all the great things Pullman brought to the area, 'custom orders' was NOT one of their strong suits. Being able to get inventory, even on MA-compliant items they wanted to have, was a hassle for them. I wanted a Rock River Arms scope mount from them - they were a RRA dealer. They couldn't get it ordered. I wanted some Hornady shotgun shells - certain gauge/load. They're in-production, but Pullman couldn't get them after 90+ days of trying. And they stock Hornady. So now they're going to 'focus' on something they've tried to do for me multiple-times, and failed?

they're 'focusing' on the micro welding...and continuing to provide services to their customer base as a courtesy. they're not a big shop, and they've realized their shortcomings and have adjusted their mission objective. no need to bash them.
 
So now they're going to 'focus' on something they've tried to do for me multiple-times, and failed?

The fact that "custom ordering" is last of the 6 things they listed (as quoted in the first post of this thread) is telling. I can't speak for them, but in general the margins are far larger on services than ordering a single item for a customer. There's almost no money in it for a store and manufacturers usually don't want to deal with small (individual) orders for ammo and scope mounts.
 
I'm honestly surprised they went this long on the gun shop end. Central MA is a tough market to run a gun shop in because skinflints (they're even worse in central MA, far worse actually) and if you're not doing volume, it's blood money. Services are far more profitable. (and are also self selecting- eg, less skinflints).

-Mike
 
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Of all the great things Pullman brought to the area, 'custom orders' was NOT one of their strong suits. Being able to get inventory, even on MA-compliant items they wanted to have, was a hassle for them. I wanted a Rock River Arms scope mount from them - they were a RRA dealer. They couldn't get it ordered. I wanted some Hornady shotgun shells - certain gauge/load. They're in-production, but Pullman couldn't get them after 90+ days of trying. And they stock Hornady. So now they're going to 'focus' on something they've tried to do for me multiple-times, and failed?

It's funny to see how people who've never signed a paycheck think business should work.

One of the things I enjoy most is firing my sh!tty customers.

Running a gun shop in Massachusetts has to be a pain in the ass.

Congratulations on your entrepreneurial spirit, Pullman, the micro arc welding is fascinating.
 
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