Shop local, shop small.

[NHAtHeart]

I've been to a handful of local shops in NH, I wasn't really impressed with the customer service at any of them. I HAVE gotten better service at Cabela's and Kittery Trading Post.

Just because you like guns, doesn't mean you should be in the business of selling them if you're a douche.

The exceptions I've seen so far are Acme and I had a decent experience at Gun Runners or whatever they are called in Amherst.

I guess Shooters Outpost was decent too but I wouldn't consider that a small shop. It's big box light...

 

[RHJJ]

Just because you like guns, doesn't mean you should be in the business of selling them if you're a douche.

Bingo.

 

[Golddiggie]

I've been to a handful of local shops in NH, I wasn't really impressed with the customer service at any of them. I HAVE gotten better service at Cabela's and Kittery Trading Post.

Just because you like guns, doesn't mean you should be in the business of selling them if you're a douche.

The exceptions I've seen so far are Acme and I had a decent experience at Gun Runners or whatever they are called in Amherst.

I guess Shooters Outpost was decent too but I wouldn't consider that a small shop. It's big box light...

Don't shop at the place on Amherst street run by Greedy... Surprised that place hasn't been fire-bombed out of existence (with him inside). Especially with how many people he's royally screwed over.

 

[NHAtHeart]

Don't shop at the place on Amherst street run by Greedy... Surprised that place hasn't been fire-bombed out of existence (with him inside). Especially with how many people he's royally screwed over.

Perfect example, how the hell does that moron stay in business? Unless he owns that plaza and just sells guns because it's the only way people will talk to him...

 

[Rob Boudrie]

I would call Four Seasons a small business too. They have found a way to be successful in Mass. Too bad the shitty stores wouldn't follow the lead.

Four Seasons does not play the game of "I'm a small store, you should pay me more than the bigger place down the street".

 

[Laderbuilt]

Shop smart shop S MART YOU GOT THAT!!

 

[RHJJ]

Four Seasons does not play the game of "I'm a small store, you should pay me more than the bigger place down the street".

Can't argue with their success. Make most Mass gun stores look weak.

 

[DarrenL]

Don't shop at the place on Amherst street run by Greedy... Surprised that place hasn't been fire-bombed out of existence (with him inside). Especially with how many people he's royally screwed over.

This needs an explanation!!!! Give me the gossip!

 

[92G]

Can't argue with their success. Make most Mass gun stores look weak.

Also carl has a few guys working there who are super knowledgeable. One reason i visit a gunshop is to hear the staff's opinions on their merchandise. FS makes each visit worthwhile in this regard. They also dont speak condescendingly to new people. I have heard some awfully stupid questions and incorrect statements but the FS staff seem cordial about it. Other gunshops would point laugh and ridicule. Anytime i shop at FS i wait as long as needed to have Joe sell me stuff. He knows his guns.

Big chain places like bass pro or cabelas are awful when it comes to asking thr staff any questions. Last time i was at bass pro i was looking for a good turkey gun w extra full choke. However the guy kept showing me camo-style shotguns and i was like "well we have established that you like camo but know nothing about shotguns".

 

[rutilate]

I don't have any experience with the first two proprietors who began the thread.

Having said that, I see these signs on all the local booksellers as the slowly fade out of existence. Pleading won't make it happen when prices are not a mere 4% off but 40% higher than online or bigger stores. And rudeness? Unbelievable at some stores I've been in.

To business owners all: customers are not the enemy to be treated as a necessary evil. If you can't compete with the bigger folks on price, what can you compete on? Education, proper selection processes, wisdom. You can't get any of those from Amazon comments and review sections. Know your audience and the growing segments, like women. Put together your favorite pistols from women of different sizes and shapes to give women an idea what might fit them best. Show on a dummy the different concealed carry options so they can see they can carry and still look sexy. Offer women (or all) one free cleaning a month or a free safety checkup /mo or most anything else to get them into your store. Apple loses money on their One-to-One program in order to get someone into their store on a regular basis where they are surrounded with stuff to buy. Hire female staff who won't scoff at women shooters. Bring in the local martial arts dojo owner for a ½ hour self defense course. Dojo owner wins potential new clients, you get more people buying stuff they see around them. Bring in a guest speaker like a lawyer to answer questions about local laws. Bring in someone from the community to hold discussions on setting up neighborhood watch. Or food storage. Have someone a "Tupperware" party to show everyone a newly introduced gun, or better yet, gather the ladies and talk about "girl guns" ala Mr. And Mrs. Smith. Make your shop a gathering place where you facilitate knowledge, community, relationships.

Find something simple and inexpensive to give away with every repair you do or sale of a gun. Research I've done in real life shows that people who are surprised when they receive something unexpected become truly loyal.

Find a way to bring some of your better customers in for a BBQ or other special event open only to those who've bought 4 guns from you this year. Ask them questions about what products they are buying online, what services they'd like to see, or programs you can offer. Ask people for referrals and give them a box of ammo when their referral brings in a referral card with their name on it and actually buys something. Hold a special shoot for the youth or spouses of your better customers. Do a writeup of your better customers and those who send you business and put it up on your website. And for crap sake, hire someone to put up a decent website on Wordpress for you so you can add stuff to it on your own.

Whatever you do, don't play the buy local card. Differentiate yourselves and give customers a reason to do so.

Acme and Cassadilla, if you want to talk further about any of these ideas in happy to help.

 

[Zappa]

Blackwater, Legends, Dave's and one in Windham I don't recall the name of.

Is that the one on 125 in Plaistow ???

I remember shopping there when the previous owner ran it.
That place was cram-packed with all kinds goodies.
When the new owner took over, the selection dwindled down to almost nothing.
I stopped in there last year and it was a mere shadow of what it once was.
It's hard to keep your doors open when you don't have anything in stock worth buying.

 

[drgrant]

Perfect example, how the hell does that moron stay in business? Unless he owns that plaza and just sells guns because it's the only way people will talk to him...

He's in business the same reason the Gun Room and The Rat (tm) in MA are still in business. The shops have good locations.

-Mike

 

[drgrant]

Shop small guys. That extra 4% or whatever pittance independent business charge over big boxes means freedom of choice in the future, and you support a neighbor.

Sometimes it's not 4% though. One fun example recently was I saw an AR15 type rifle at an MA shop going for almost 40% more than what I could buy it for at Shooters Outpost or some other "market floor" competitive store. It's one thing to pay another $50 let's say to avoid a box store.... hell, I do that all the time. On the other hand $300 is far from a "pittance".

-Mike

 

[drgrant]

I would call Four Seasons a small business too. They have found a way to be successful in Mass. Too bad the shitty stores wouldn't follow the lead.

FS at this point is anything but a "small" business. The shop might be small in dimensions but volume of people going in and out of that store is crazy.

-Mike

 

[drgrant]

This needs an explanation!!!! Give me the gossip!

The Al tales are the stuff of legends, they are all over NES and any gun owner that's been around.

Some poor bastard on here bought a "new" P99 from him that had shitloads of brass marks all over the breechface and it took him like 2 months to get the thing, and then Al tried to jack the price of the ammo up that he had promised at a lower price, etc... shit like that. Makes claims about having a "warehouse" with guns in it, which is pure bullshit. Yaps on the phone constantly with customers around drinking shitty beer while ignoring customers. Then he rapes the .22LR from the walmart down the street and marks it up to like $50+ a brick. (or at least this is what the wal mart people have told some of us. )

This is just the tip of the iceberg, too.

-Mike

 

[Gooman24]

Is that the one on 125 in Plaistow ???

I remember shopping there when the previous owner ran it.
That place was cram-packed with all kinds goodies.
When the new owner took over, the selection dwindled down to almost nothing.
I stopped in there last year and it was a mere shadow of what it once was.
It's hard to keep your doors open when you don't have anything in stock worth buying.

The problem was the previous owner was a dick. I am 10 mins away from that store and spent thousands in other shops not owned by dicks.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

[DispositionMatrix]

Second Amendment Arms on 28? Ive been there a handful of times and the people behind the counter were real nice.

I would like to know this as well.

 

[ntomsw]

I love big box stores.

Most local shops are full retard on ammo.

 

[Quiet]

I don't have any experience with the first two proprietors who began the thread.

Having said that, I see these signs on all the local booksellers as the slowly fade out of existence. Pleading won't make it happen when prices are not a mere 4% off but 40% higher than online or bigger stores. And rudeness? Unbelievable at some stores I've been in.

To business owners all: customers are not the enemy to be treated as a necessary evil. If you can't compete with the bigger folks on price, what can you compete on? Education, proper selection processes, wisdom. You can't get any of those from Amazon comments and review sections. Know your audience and the growing segments, like women. Put together your favorite pistols from women of different sizes and shapes to give women an idea what might fit them best. Show on a dummy the different concealed carry options so they can see they can carry and still look sexy. Offer women (or all) one free cleaning a month or a free safety checkup /mo or most anything else to get them into your store. Apple loses money on their One-to-One program in order to get someone into their store on a regular basis where they are surrounded with stuff to buy. Hire female staff who won't scoff at women shooters. Bring in the local martial arts dojo owner for a ½ hour self defense course. Dojo owner wins potential new clients, you get more people buying stuff they see around them. Bring in a guest speaker like a lawyer to answer questions about local laws. Bring in someone from the community to hold discussions on setting up neighborhood watch. Or food storage. Have someone a "Tupperware" party to show everyone a newly introduced gun, or better yet, gather the ladies and talk about "girl guns" ala Mr. And Mrs. Smith. Make your shop a gathering place where you facilitate knowledge, community, relationships.

Find something simple and inexpensive to give away with every repair you do or sale of a gun. Research I've done in real life shows that people who are surprised when they receive something unexpected become truly loyal.

Find a way to bring some of your better customers in for a BBQ or other special event open only to those who've bought 4 guns from you this year. Ask them questions about what products they are buying online, what services they'd like to see, or programs you can offer. Ask people for referrals and give them a box of ammo when their referral brings in a referral card with their name on it and actually buys something. Hold a special shoot for the youth or spouses of your better customers. Do a writeup of your better customers and those who send you business and put it up on your website. And for crap sake, hire someone to put up a decent website on Wordpress for you so you can add stuff to it on your own.

Whatever you do, don't play the buy local card. Differentiate yourselves and give customers a reason to do so.

Acme and Cassadilla, if you want to talk further about any of these ideas in happy to help.

Well that's your Marketing 101 course right there, and actually keeping up that kind of tremendous entrepreneurial marketing energy is a daunting task.

 

[mclina]

Well, to be fair, Blackwater kinda put themselves out of business.

Yeah, the day they told me that the only magazine I could use in MA was a $105 'pre-ban' they had hanging on their wall was the last time I entered their store.

 

[FalArAk]

So we should pay more money for goods and services to stores that can't compete so they can stay in business ?

Or...

Let Capitalism work things out.

 

[PatMcD]

Normally, I'm a "Let capitalism work things out" kind of guy.

But, the problem with the big box stores, Walmart in particular, is this: Gun and ammo sales are a very tiny part of their bottom line. It will only take a few mass-murderers who bought their gun or ammo at a Walmart for the corporate honchos to decide that the exposure is too much. They'd take that stuff off the shelf overnight.

Moral of the story: don't be too dependent on big-box stores for your firearm needs.

 

[CoastieRon]

He's in business the same reason the Gun Room and The Rat (tm) in MA are still in business. The shops have good locations.

-Mike

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, he owns that plaza. My daughter and niece go to the dance school right next door and there have been multiple complaints towards Al for creeping on the dancers (leering and staring), but nothing happens, because he owns the building.

He does not give a f. He will continue to be open because:

a. He owns the building
b. Fudds
c. people will still shop there.

 

[Snora]

I've had better customer service at Dick's than most small gun shops. I must have forgotten to wear the requisite POW•MIA hat.

 

[Quiet]

So we should pay more money for goods and services to stores that can't compete so they can stay in business ?

Or...

Let Capitalism work things out.

Part of the equation is local availability and a diverse resource pool. If my local gunstore had any ammo at anything like a reasonable price, I wouldn't have to enter into that big-box store that is siphoning off the profitable ammo market while not selling any guns.

But .22 at 12.5 cents a round isn't doing anything to win any hearts and mind either.

Normally, I'm a "Let capitalism work things out" kind of guy.

But, the problem with the big box stores, Walmart in particular, is this: Gun and ammo sales are a very tiny part of their bottom line. It will only take a few mass-murderers who bought their gun or ammo at a Walmart for the corporate honchos to decide that the exposure is too much. They'd take that stuff off the shelf overnight.

Moral of the story: don't be too dependent on big-box stores for your firearm needs.

+1

 

[n1bsbri]

Yeah, going to small shops is nice, but here are the hours for a popular small LGS in Southern NH, right from their website:

Hours:
Wednesday 10-5
Thursday 10-5
Friday 10-7
Saturday 10-5

Now that seems more oriented to the owner's convenience, rather than their customers who might have a day job. When you can go to WalMart 24X7, or Bass Pro 10-10 every day, it's hard to compete with that.

And I'm not picking on this particular shop, most of them are like that. They will be the first to complain when people shop elsewhere though.

 

[RadiCS]

I usually do my shopping at Gadsden Tactical in Brentwood. They are a new shop and great guys. They have a small selection right now because they started. You can find them on the top level of their father's shop Brentwood Power. Awesome guys. They do tractor shoots in the summer. Stop and say hi. Dave is the father and Nate is the son.

Though I have to make my way to ACME.

 

[noxin]

I haven't purchased anything but ammo from a big box store, nor do I intend to. However, there are numerous local shops that I won't give my money to because they're *******s (documented), rude, require too much info to purchase normal items (it should be as simple as here's my payment, here's your stuff, end of story), or in the case of one, just gave me a really bad vibe and felt like I was going to get raided by the atf because I walked in the shop.

 

[Kaldone]

Yeah, going to small shops is nice, but here are the hours for a popular small LGS in Southern NH, right from their website:


Now that seems more oriented to the owner's convenience, rather than their customers who might have a day job. When you can go to WalMart 24X7, or Bass Pro 10-10 every day, it's hard to compete with that.

Hours:
Wednesday 10-5
Thursday 10-5
Friday 10-7
Saturday 10-5

And I'm not picking on this particular shop, most of them are like that. They will be the first to complain when people shop elsewhere though.

Most of the shops like that the owners have secondary Jobs, there may not be enough business to go full time. especially if the owner and 1 or 2 other people are only ones behind the counter.

 

[Boghog1]

Yeah, going to small shops is nice, but here are the hours for a popular small LGS in Southern NH, right from their website:


Now that seems more oriented to the owner's convenience, rather than their customers who might have a day job. When you can go to WalMart 24X7, or Bass Pro 10-10 every day, it's hard to compete with that.

And I'm not picking on this particular shop, most of them are like that. They will be the first to complain when people shop elsewhere though.

Maybe they work more than one job? Maybe just maybe if you were going to buy a gun they would stay late for you or show up during off hours to help you