Online vs In Store

[Guest Aces&8s]

I have a great brick and mortar store here, with good prices and great service, so that is where I do my business. I could probably find things a bit cheaper online, but I like to think that my money is staying here, helping out folks in my area, and that is important to me. JMHO.

[Fyrguy]

Excellent responses; for the most part along the same lines that I was thinking (cost vs customer service and supporting local business). Thanks for the feedback.

[Guest Guy N. Cognito]

What??????

How did u come on that stantment please.

Oprymills mall is 10 years old . And since it opened 100 oaks mall , Bellevue mall and hickory hollow mall. Died fast and painfully dead.

Online shopping is 10years old to . And it is rising fast.

And in last 10 years Wal-Mart/samsclub slowly killed off Kmart, circuit city , ,comp usa and so many small business .

U must be living isolated and don't see what is going on in the real world .

It reminds me on Paris Hilton . She said what's Walmart ? O that's hot lol

I've spent the last 15 years of my life working in commercial real estate finance. I provide millions of dollars to developers to finance office, industrial and retail properties. As part of my job, I study the retail industry.

Bricks and mortar retail is not dying, it is changing. For the past 30 years, pundits and the misinformed alike have been predicting that Walmart would be the end of small retail. While they have significantly impacted the local dime stores, local retails have adapted, focusing on specialty goods or higher quality. Wal Mart didn't kill KMart; is was poorly run, over leveraged and uses antiquated supply chains. WalMart just did it better. That's called competition.

Opru Mills did not kill Bellevue. Totally different tenant base and clientele. They suffered from poor tenant mix, a lack of clientele of the proper income level, and competition with Cool Springs.

Circuit City did compete indirectly with walmart, but ultimately died from excessive leverage due to rapid expansion. If any retailer killed cc, it was Best Buy, as they are a direct competitor.

Bellevue and HH malls suffer from location and clientele issues. Too many hood rats and lower income households in the immediate vicinity. The money moved farther south and now shops at cool springs. 100 Oaks is repurposed and thriving, if you haven't noticed.

WalMart and online retail have changed the industry and have put some out of business. It's not the end of small retail. They have to adapt to survive. They'll still be here even 30 years from now. Remember, your online retailer is someone else's brick and mortar store.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I would rather see and handle the exact gun I'm buying. Have never bought a gun online, but maybe someday it will happen. Got no religious conviction against it. It will be bad if local gun stores get starved out from online competition, given the restrictive laws governing gun sales.

Guns are pretty expensive to be buying just from an online picture. Was at Home Depot recently and noticed that you can now buy a pretty nice set of [full-size floor-standing drill press + floor-standing jointer + floor-standing bandsaw] for less than the price of a typical Kimber 1911.

I hate giant malls. It's been at least a decade since setting foot in Chattanooga Hamilton Place mall proper, though with reluctance about once or twice a year will drive into that general vicinity. Traffic is way too bad to go into the area unless there is no other choice. I buy a lot of things online. A lot of online businesses are mom&pop operations. Nowadays it is probably easier to run a smalltime profitable online biz than to run a successful smalltime brick'n'morter operation.

My crystal ball is seriously defective, but I suspect that eventually a lot of point-sales operations will become manufactured-on-the-spot to customer spec. Eventually get CNC manufacturing so slick, and eventually the sheer mass of available products will out-strip the ability to stock all the products. So you go to a store and request a product out of the Cad/cam catalog, and the store just stocks raw materials. After you pick your purchase, they just push a few buttons and manufacture it on the spot.

It will have to go that way eventually. We'll never be able to colonize space until we have inexpensive generic computerized manufacturing machines. There's no way to carry enough spare parts on a serious space mission. Gotta just carry some of the rarer raw materials + collect the rest wherever you happen to be, and make spare parts on the spot.

[A.J. Holst]

Not saying it's right or wrong, but here is what internet sales does to the brick and mortar retailer:

Since most folks like to handle the gun they are buying, they visit a brick and mortar or 3; take up the sellers time window shopping; they probably ask questions to get their "expert" informed (or un-informed) opinions; then work the seller for their "best" price, then they go buy on-line.

The only way the LGS can compete is to build value! Yes, it may be $75 - $100 more, but what you get is...

[mikegideon]

Not saying it's right or wrong, but here is what internet sales does to the brick and mortar retailer:

Since most folks like to handle the gun they are buying, they visit a brick and mortar or 3; take up the sellers time window shopping; they probably ask questions to get their "expert" informed (or un-informed) opinions; then work the seller for their "best" price, then they go buy on-line.

The only way the LGS can compete is to build value! Yes, it may be $75 - $100 more, but what you get is...

I refuse to do it that way. I value good gun retailers. I don't get the absolute lowest price, but I'm always happy with my purchase. I buy a lot of accessories online, mostly at Midway, but that's a different deal. Even big storefronts can't stock that kind of inventory. Even with Midway, it's important to me that Larry is one of us.

[Guest strelcevina]

P

I've spent the last 15 years of my life working in commercial real estate finance. I provide millions of dollars to developers to finance office, industrial and retail properties. As part of my job, I study the retail industry.

Bricks and mortar retail is not dying, it is changing. For the past 30 years, pundits and the misinformed alike have been predicting that Walmart would be the end of small retail. While they have significantly impacted the local dime stores, local retails have adapted, focusing on specialty goods or higher quality. Wal Mart didn't kill KMart; is was poorly run, over leveraged and uses antiquated supply chains. WalMart just did it better. That's called competition.

Opru Mills did not kill Bellevue. Totally different tenant base and clientele. They suffered from poor tenant mix, a lack of clientele of the proper income level, and competition with Cool Springs.

Circuit City did compete indirectly with walmart, but ultimately died from excessive leverage due to rapid expansion. If any retailer killed cc, it was Best Buy, as they are a direct competitor.

Bellevue and HH malls suffer from location and clientele issues. Too many hood rats and lower income households in the immediate vicinity. The money moved farther south and now shops at cool springs. 100 Oaks is repurposed and thriving, if you haven't noticed.

WalMart and online retail have changed the industry and have put some out of business. It's not the end of small retail. They have to adapt to survive. They'll still be here even 30 years from now. Remember, your online retailer is someone else's brick and mortar store.

It makes sense what u saying ,but I still believe that Wal-Mart is 800lb gorilla and online shopping is silent assassin .

Once people get used to online shopping ,who say that brick and mortar warehouse will be located in USA.

UPS will bring it to you on your door step anyway

China comes in mind as a Primary player in that game .

Right now u can have shipment of million Google TV sets from China , to shores of US.

There u will have government run postal service " UPS and FedEx will merge with them" mailing it to our door steps .

Skiping brick and mortar middlemen located in US. Saving us bunch of money .

30 years ago there was nothing made in China

15 years ago there was more than half made in China

Now 99% is made in China .

I'm noticing similar pattern going in opposite direction when it comes to brick and mortar stores .

You will still have old guys following some old principles ,like having a land line phone ,watch around wrist , going out to buy DVD in brick and mortar Store trying to Holla at a ladys

And 90% Others are

Online communicating

Online shopping

Online socializing

Online schooling

Online entertaining

Online dating

New generation don't know any better than online stuff .

[mikegideon]

You can't do direct distribution from off shore. Too expensive. The Chinese stuff is cheap because it crosses the ocean in bulk. It's a shame that Wall Street nearly destroyed US manufacturing, but US distribution will always thrive.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Not saying it's right or wrong, but here is what internet sales does to the brick and mortar retailer:

Since most folks like to handle the gun they are buying, they visit a brick and mortar or 3; take up the sellers time window shopping; they probably ask questions to get their "expert" informed (or un-informed) opinions; then work the seller for their "best" price, then they go buy on-line.

The only way the LGS can compete is to build value! Yes, it may be $75 - $100 more, but what you get is...

Its been going that way with brick'n'mortar music instrument stores for 20 or 30 years. A lot of cheapskate folk will try before buy at a local store, then order online. It isn't exactly the same situation as with gun stores. But the challenge with local music stores has at least two prongs--

1. A lot of local music stores are not especially good or offer especially good shopping experience or have especially good prices. So it is pretty easy to visit a local store and have a bad experience and get mad at the locals and order online out of spite as much as saving a few bucks.

2. Local stores can't stock enough merchandise variety, and why would a person ask a local store to special-order an item, when the person can just as easily special-order the item himself, and have the item delivered to his door?

There are analogies with guns stores, though the analogy is not perfect. For one thing, you don't need to go thru an FFL to buy a geetar.

[Guest strelcevina]

There are analogies with guns stores, though the analogy is not perfect. For one thing, you don't need to go thru an FFL to buy a geetar.

I can imagine future commercial .

For a low price of 299$ u get HCL and FFL licence , so you can skip overpriced gun shops and have it delivered at your door steps .

And one more thing:) if you get it in next few days u get free C&R licence and complimentary I love 2A calendar .

[Guest Guy N. Cognito]

I can imagine future commercial .

For a low price of 299$ u get HCL and FFL licence , so you can skip overpriced gun shops and have it delivered at your door steps .

And one more thing:) if you get it in next few days u get free C&R licence and complimentary I love 2A calendar .

Gee, wonder why no one does this? Wonder why most ffls set up a store front?

[mikegideon]

Gee, wonder why no one does this? Wonder why most ffls set up a store front?

Uh... 'cause it's a condition of the license?

[Guest Guy N. Cognito]

Uh... 'cause it's a condition of the license?

Could be ...

[Guest strelcevina]

Gee, wonder why no one does this? Wonder why most ffls set up a store front?

Same reason phone companies are still selling Land Line services and 56K online connections . There is still some market for it.

[mikegideon]

Same reason phone companies are still selling Land Line services and 56K online connections . There is still some market for it.

So you think federal firearms laws are gonna change because of trends?

[Guest DRO]

+1 for CDNN. I recently made a good buy that came with great service and fast shipping.

[Guest strelcevina]

So you think federal firearms laws are gonna change because of trends?

Next president who offers to change that law ,may get extra votes .

So it is possible ,I think

And talking about trends , if legally possible Arnold "terminator"would be next president .

So everything is possible

[Guest Guy N. Cognito]

Next president who offers to change that law ,may get extra votes .

So it is possible ,I think

And talking about trends , if legally possible Arnold "terminator"would be next president .

So everything is possible

Uh,ok.........

Baring any legal changes, the current laws make it quite unrealistic for the average gun buyer to obtain a ffl simply to avoid dealing with a gun store.

[mikegideon]

Uh,ok.........

Baring any legal changes, the current laws make it quite unrealistic for the average gun buyer to obtain a ffl simply to avoid dealing with a gun store.

... keeping in mind that the LAST thing to get fixed, if ever, will be the laws we're discussing here. We're blessed in this part of the country, but there are lots of gun hating idiots in the US. It would be a bloody battle. I don't see your basic DC politicians burning that much political capital for the sake of mail order guns.

[Guest Pig957]

Just alittle off track, but up here we have a gun show (1500 Gun & Knive show) about 5 times a year. I save up my money and then I have a very large selection of venders to choose from. I get good deals and 3 days of window shopping when the money runs out.

[Guest motonut]

My last 3 guns have been bought from an online shop. One was hard to find but the store I did the FFL with had one for almost $150 more than I paid. The other 2 I just got really good deals on. I would prefer to buy local for obvious reasons but when they have to tack on an additional 9% sales tax on top of the higher prices it just doesn't make sense. If I'm only paying the sales tax/FFL xfer fee upcharge I'll gladly buy local, if it's much more than that, no way.

[memphismason]

Brick and Mortar for me

[Erik88]

I always try to support local business when I can but if I find a great deal online I go with it. Now when I say local business I'm talking about a sole proprietor. I could care less about Gander Mtn or Dicks etc. Their prices are disgusting.

The last gun I bought new was from Bill's Outpost and I know I will definitely buy from him again. But if I'm looking for ammo or other items I usually find a better deal online.

[Guest Gopher6]

With the exception of one store in the middle Tennessee area, I have found that online sources; CMMG,CDNN, Buds; are 20 to 30% cheaper than local gunshops. If the locals ever match the online price, it's 6 months later and you still have to pay sales taxes and transfer. The last 4 guns I've bought, I bought 2 from the local shop and 2 online. In all 4 cases, I felt I got a fair or better than fair price.

[DaveTN]

Brick & Mortar gun stores aren’t going anywhere. I buy a lot of guns and I buy new from forum dealers. I bought one gun (My PLR-16) from Buds because my local forum dealers didn’t have one and really didn’t seem interested in getting one.

We see new guns stores pop up all the time and rarely do we see one go out of business. So the market must be here.

I don’t think I pay anymore from the forum dealers than I would on-line. But I also ask for the “Forum Discountâ€.