By John Boch via TTAG
Dick’s Sporting Goods and their subsidiary Field & Stream stores look like ghost towns these days in America’s heartland. After reading stories about gun companies ending sales to Dick’s, and the company’s hiring of gun control lobbyists in Washington, I decided to visit the Champaign, Illinois Dick’s and Field & Stream locations.
Yes, it’s anecdotal, but from what I saw on a Tuesday afternoon last week, it sure looks like America’s gun owners have abandoned Dick’s. I visited the gun area of Field & Stream and saw a single lonely sales guy cleaning the glass display.
Nobody else was browsing the shelves for the widely-spaced ammunition.
Turning around, I looked through the rest of the Field & Stream store, and down the main aisle of the attached Dick’s store. It was like waking up on the set of Dawn of the Dead. I reassuringly tapped my heater with my elbow and felt better. The place appeared completely empty of shoppers – and staff.
As I walked through the place looking for the restroom, I noticed a number of “SAVE” signs where customers could save $0. Perhaps we could save $0 and send that “cornhole” game to the Dick’s shareholders meeting coming up soon. After all, those owning shares in the beleaguered company aren’t making much money.
Furthermore, shareholders might need something to keep them busy while Ed Stack spends his time alienating The People of the Gun. Instead of managing his business. And if Dick’s other stores look like these, their fearless leader will preside over Dick’s descent into bankruptcy, much the same way MC Sports and Gander Mountain have gone before them.
Cruising back through the gun department, I noticed some of those dreaded “high capacity” magazines. Wait! I thought Ed Stack said his company had pulled all of those evil things. In his own words, as published at USA Today…
We will no longer sell firearms to anyone under 21 years of age. We will no longer sell high capacity magazines.
(Emphasis added.) Oh wait, maybe that was a mistake. Someone probably just missed a 13-round magazine.
Nope. Not a mistake. Field & Stream continues to sell “high capacity” magazines for handguns (these wouldn’t fly in New York or California). I also found a whole row of GLOCK and M&P standard capacity replacement mags.
So Stack did not remove all of his stores’ high capacity magazines. Hard to believe he would lie to Mr. and Mrs. America, right?
As if this didn’t pose enough bad news for Dick’s, sales remain so slow that dust has begun to pile up on shelves (and the merchandise). These things happen when a big box store has no customers.
Pro-tip for the day: If you have shares of Dick’s Sporting Goods, a good time to sell them would have been last year.