What's up with Blue Northern??

It;s a huge challenge for any gunshop to build itself up to the point where it has a value for a buyer when the founder/owner no longer can/wants to run it. Most shops just close; some end up on business broker sites at absurd prices plus expect the buyer to absorb a lease and pay near wholesale for the inventory. A few, like Four Seasons, would no doubt attract a buyer without a huge about of marketing or salesmanship.
 
I hate to see any gun shop close, but I haven't been in there for at least 10 years, but even when I lived in Mass, it was a long trip for me. The times I did stop in were all random opportunities, if the job just happened to take me by the place, I'd stop in for a quick browse. I'm glad I did because that's where I found my Winchester 250 (high grade) with the oakleaf checkering. I'd had my eyes open for one of those for awhile, the price was right, so I put down a deposit and came back for it on my day off.
It was a replacement for one I had in the 80's, which I traded (along with 4 other guns) towards a Browning Citori. I forget what the others were, but I missed that 250 and was very happy when I found one at their shop.

I can see how the net is killing the independent LGS, they can't compete on price with the web sellers.
I admit I'm guilty in this way too. There's a local shop I use for transfers because their FFL is on file with all the big distributors and retailers such as CDNN, Davidsons, Outdoor Sports Superstore, Palmetto, Buds, Delta, AIM, etc. I can order something online and it'll be shipped right to them, I don't need to call them or anything else. I've done at least five transfers through them but never bought anything in their store. I'm sure the semi-monthly $25 fee they get from me isn't keeping their lights on, but $25 for 10 minutes work isn't a bad deal for them either. I don't think they're really happy doing transfers though, when they have the same gun in their case priced $100 or so more than what my final cost was, after shipping & transfer.
 
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Possible they are on vacation, it's just a guy and a couple of his kids that staff it these days. Expect they'd have put up a sign if that was the case but who knows.
 
never had great service there. one of those places you felt like you were inconveniencing them. I gave them a try twice and that was enough for me.
 
jron said:
never had great service there. one of those places you felt like you were inconveniencing them. I gave them a try twice and that was enough for me.
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Odd. I've sparked up conversation with those guys every time I've gone in there. Friendly as hell imo
 
Zappa;5380362 I can see how the net is killing the independent LGS said:
Zappa said:
I can see how the net is killing the independent LGS, they can't compete on price with the web sellers.
I admit I'm guilty in this way too.
Click to expand...



Same here. It's a hard decision because I'm all for supporting a LGS, but as far as firearms themselves go, there are just too many good deals to be had via online retailers. You can save about 10%, often more, without even looking that hard and also save on tax sometimes. When your talking hundreds or thousands of dollars those savings are pretty material. I still try to buy ammo from local shops if they have a decent deal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I always wondered why they didn't give HSC members a small discount,I would have shopped there more.I think the only thing I bought there was Dewey rods.Hope they didn't fold,the few times I was in there the guys seemed really cool.
 
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jron said:
never had great service there. one of those places you felt like you were inconveniencing them. I gave them a try twice and that was enough for me.
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They gave me great service. Extremely helpful when I got into handguns. But they had little inventory and their prices were not competitive. They couldn't move the volume of some other places and had to pay higher prices. When other stores were getting "some" inventory during the shortages, they were getting none.
 
But they had little inventory and their prices were not competitive. They couldn't move the volume of some other places and had to pay higher prices.
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It is a dangerous time for a business when it sets prices at what they need rather than what the market will bear.

I remember seeing a friend offering a shop $50 over Four Seasons price on an S&W.

Dealer: "We need our price and do not negotiate. Dealers are whoring the business selling too cheap".

Me: Do you buy only from wholesalers with a big enough margin to keep the distribution chain healthy or buy the best deals you can find?

Dealer: That's different
 
I used to enjoy the friendliness of the employees, I would stop in a couple of times a month when i worked in Ayer.
 
Rob Boudrie said:
It is a dangerous time for a business when it sets prices at what they need rather than what the market will bear.

I remember seeing a friend offering a shop $50 over Four Seasons price on an S&W.

Dealer: "We need our price and do not negotiate. Dealers are whoring the business selling too cheap".

Me: Do you buy only from wholesalers with a big enough margin to keep the distribution chain healthy or buy the best deals you can find?

Dealer: That's different
Click to expand...

^ This

In general consumers will pay a premium over the market (or cheapest price out there) for some value added. What form the value added takes varies by the individual, as does the perceived value. Get too far above the value and well, everyone knows what happens.
 
doxdsgn said:
^ This

In general consumers will pay a premium over the market (or cheapest price out there) for some value added. What form the value added takes varies by the individual, as does the perceived value. Get too far above the value and well, everyone knows what happens.
Click to expand...


Yeah, we have a thread saying What happened to... or What's up with....
 
doxdsgn said:
^ This

In general consumers will pay a premium over the market (or cheapest price out there) for some value added. What form the value added takes varies by the individual, as does the perceived value. Get too far above the value and well, everyone knows what happens.
Click to expand...

I think the gun market is changing, for a variety of reasons, the internet being one. As time goes on gun consumers are seeing less and less value in typical LGS, particularly for hard core enthusiasts the LGS is really only "because the feds wont let me order a gun on amazon and have it shipped to my house". I have a couple of LGS that I like to use for things and even buy guns from, but the market is definitely not what it used to be. I think in the long run the "low-moderate volume medium LGS" - eg, places like blue northern- are going to become extinct because they can't maintain the sales volume to justify staying open. The market is bifurcating- enthusiasts are going off to the internet and kitchen table dealers or other tiny dealers for transfers and the newbs/joe thickhead types are going to big LGS (like FS, MFS, etc. ) or box stores for most of their stuff. It's a hard environment to compete in considering the "money dropping gun a month club members" have almost completely moved out of the market.

Price and availability pressures have played a role as well. 12 years ago when .22 LR was $8 for a 500 brick at walmart nobody gave a shit about paying $11 at the LGS for the same thing because, well, it was only 3 bucks more and you didn't have to set foot in walmart. Nowadays it costs like $25 or some rape amount (I can't remember the exact $, just that .22 LR is rape) and when the LGS gets that same brick for $32 people don't buy it from the LGS because they're already pissed off at the fact that it was at $25 at walmart... when commodities go up, price sensitivity goes up. There used to be "space in the market for everyone to make money" nowdays, not so much. Gasoline was the same way back in the day... before gas crossed 2 bucks a gallon only the frugalest of skinflints even cared about the price of gas. You just bought gas wherever. After the price rollercoastered a few times after 9/11 because of 9/11 and fuel speculators, etc, and all that garbage... now the gas market changes; full serve is almost extinct and towns of people have herds that will drive 3 miles to save 2 cents on a gallon of gas, and 75% of the gas stations are some generic thing, not Exxon, Mobil, Sunoco, etc. There are more reasons than this, but I think eventually we're going to see a market thats heavily bifurcated and most FFLs will either be big box stores, large size LGS volume wise (like Four Seasons, MFS etc) or on the other end of the spectrum you're going to have tiny dealers with low overhead doing transfers; and the those transfer fees are going to up, too- because those guys can't make money selling overpriced stuff at retail anymore. The people that are going to get hit the hardest are the small to medium shops with low to moderate volume that have higher overhead...

-Mike
 
doxdsgn said:
^ This

In general consumers will pay a premium over the market (or cheapest price out there) for some value added. What form the value added takes varies by the individual, as does the perceived value. Get too far above the value and well, everyone knows what happens.
Click to expand...
Yup. In this case, the customer told the dealer it was worth $50 to him to save a drive from Northboro to Woburn, but was not worth the $100 he would charge to save that drive.

I like to use for things and even buy guns from, but the market is definitely not what it used to be. I think in the long run the "low-moderate volume medium LGS" - eg, places like blue northern- are going to become extinct because they can't maintain the sales volume to justify staying open.
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A dealer today needs enough buying power to at least match the prevailing network price, hoping that sales sax will be worth the convenience (except in WA, where they have a system set up in which the dealer collects sales tax on transferred guns). Small FFLs can;t compete with closed "insiders only" buying groups and orders of 100+ guns at a time.

The people that are going to get hit the hardest are the small to medium shops with low to moderate volume that have higher overhead...
Click to expand...
I think cost of product is more of a factor.
 
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mclina said:
What happened to the bear?
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He went with BJ when he left in the truck.

84674457126b6d3499d83fedcb15b322.jpg
 

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