What's up with Blue Northern??

It is tough for small stores in any retail market.

I have not bought shoes at a local store in ages. They never have your color or your size. I can order 10 pairs at Zappos and then find one that fits and mail the other 9 back.

With guns, I think, most LGS will have to find some kind of gimmick. Some will probably be mostly instructor/training places with guns as a secondary source of income.

As far as online ordering, I usually get a slightly better price when special ordering through my LGS. Gunbroker prices for anything decent are usually nasty.
 
durask said:
With guns, I think, most LGS will have to find some kind of gimmick. Some will probably be mostly instructor/training places with guns as a secondary source of income.
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I think the other reality is that lots are going to strip down to a low overhead configuration and transfer fees are going to go up, and the only people getting cheap transfers are the frequent fliers, etc. The random guy getting his fudd shotgun from PUDS or wherever is going to pay $50 every time, so eventually, the skinflints will be punished, one way or another... either that or they can get the deli ticket at FS. Cattle either way. [laugh]

The other possibility in the long run is eventually there is a revolt and the mids and some dealers throw massive temper tantrums and every major gun manufacturer adopts a MAP policy that applies to all forms of media other than verbal. EG; they will try to prevent people like PUDS from undercutting everyone by forcing them to only post "buy now" prices on GA/GB at the MAP level and no lower. I'm surprised that hasn't happened already, actually. I mean when it comes down to bones gun shops that have to use mids, 75% of them can't even be price competitive with the shops that use buyer's groups.

-Mike
 
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Rob Boudrie said:
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.

I think cost of product is more of a factor.
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We agree, just stated differently... those shops I just mentioned- the low to medium volume guys... those are the guys who are overpaying for stuff- they are buying guns from douche mid distributors probably on the shit pricing tier. They don't have the juice to buy 20, 50, 100 guns at once. Those guys have a tougher time competing with dealers that cut out the mid level via buyers groups, etc... or even the dealers on the best douche mid pricing tiers with better reps.

-Mike
 
I remember the original owner(can't remember his name) when he had the shop in the little strip mall next to the packie across from Wendy's at the rotary in the 90's. He had an M1A that I wish I bought at the time. I was in there about a year ago and stock was low and I didn't think the shop would last much longer. Hope another dealer buys them out and revives the business.
 
Tom Lynch took early retirement from IBM to build his dream to own an outdoor store not a LGS. Although guns were at the heart of Blue Northern, it was a true outdoor store in the tradition of Lew Horton' s in Framingham or the Maynard Outdoor Store back when they sold guns. Originally located where the liquor store is located on the Ayer Rotary, Tom and his late wife Peg became very popular especially with the GI's at Ft Devens. They moved location to the former C&W Bar The Mill Stream which had been fire damaged and enjoyed a successful business for years.

Times change and the nature of retail has changed. The Lynch family are great Americans and I truly lament the passing of Blue Northern if it is the case. I have many fond memories and some great guns that I purchased there. I wish the Lynch family well in all future endeavors.
 
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After 30 years, Blue Northern is officially closed. There's no new gun shop going in there; the building will be put up for sale at some point in the not-too-distant future.

They're going to have a final "Going-Out-Of-Business" sale at some point in the next few weeks. I'll post about it here when I find out the dates.

This makes me very sad. I love those guys like brothers.
 
Pretty sad news. My wife and I have been going there since we moved to the area. This was always a great place with some of the best people. When my wife got here LTC, she took the safety class there and it made all the difference. They were very respectful of the women who made up about 50% of the class.

When we wanted to buy something, we would always go there. Sure we could have saved a few dollars going to FS or some place. But it was nice to support a local family (and not have to drive a half hour or more).
 
Great guys, yes. Too bad. I could kind of see it coming when they weren't bringing in much new inventory over the past couple of years.
 
I drove out ther once about 2 years ago based on the feedback from this forum. They had like 10 guns. Massive waste of my time. I'm sure the Owner is a great guy, but I'm still kinda pissed about wasting a perfectly good Saturday checking it out. Always sucks to lose a shop though.
 
7OGlock said:
I drove out ther once about 2 years ago based on the feedback from this forum. They had like 10 guns. Massive waste of my time. I'm sure the Owner is a great guy, but I'm still kinda pissed about wasting a perfectly good Saturday checking it out. Always sucks to lose a shop though.
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You're ****ing kidding right? A guy/family loses their income and you're still butthurt over some wasted time? Go sit in the corner and think about how self-centered you are.
 
noxin said:
You're ****ing kidding right? A guy/family loses their income and you're still butthurt over some wasted time? Go sit in the corner and think about how self-centered you are.
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Did the family own the building? This could have been "cash out time".
 
noxin said:
You're ****ing kidding right? A guy/family loses their income and you're still butthurt over some wasted time? Go sit in the corner and think about how self-centered you are.
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[thinking] You're a quick one I see. The point was you aren't going to stay in buissness with no inventory. No one want to go more than a few minutes to check out a place that feels like a ghost town. I don't know what led to that, or if it was just always like that, but as I said, this was a few years ago, so this outcome was a long time in the making.
 
Nice guys. Bought my "Engagement Shotguns" there. Bought a few others as well, always made it a point to stop and look when passing by. I think they were looting their own personal inventory to put some pretty special guns in the case to have some kind of inventory. The bear was cool:)
 

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