Gun dealer vs Walmart: Quality of the guns

[killdeer]

Cement man nailed it. Swifts soon to be available .257 bullet should be a winner. Would love a 6.5-06 but .007 is more in the mind....

[Lone Star]

WalMart dictates the product price and specifications to it's vendors.

When I read statements like this I just have to laugh at the ignorance of the writer.  Wal-Mart does not dictate anything to their vendors – the two parties willingly come to an agreement.

This poster obviously has no experience as a WalMart vendor.  Walmart does indeed dictate the price points they desire for specific products, and if the vendor does not comply WalMart uses the biggest stick in the retail world.  The vendor loses shelf space.  This can be a death blow to the vendor, who relys on the world's largest retailer to sell its products.  If you are not on WalMart's shelves, then you will have a rough time of it in the US today.  WalMart is that big, and that powerful.  Willingly come to an agreement?  Ya gotta be kidding!   :-D

This is fact, not imagination - ask the big vendors.  How does WalMart keep on lowering the prices of "standard" brands like Coleman or Stanley?  They force the vendors to build their products overseas to meet the "agreed upon" price point.  WalMart certainly is not going to lower their own profits!  The average American would be dumbfounded if they knew the whole truth.   :shock:

OTOH, I do not know that WalMart takes "seconds" from the gun makers, I doubt that.  But they do stock low end products, and the gun makers do make firearms specifically to meet rediculously low price points.  Anyone remember the Remington Viper?  The worst POS foisted on the shooting public in decades, it was designed to be cheap from the get-go - almost no reputable gun store stocked them, just the big box stores.  It is easy to see why - but did Barbara Walters do an expose?  Of course not.   The lack of an expose is not proof of anything, as the thinking man already knows.  

[DWTim]

Yep, I hear it everywhere. Wal*Mart puts pressure on vendors to keep the price down. The end result is not different from any other general-interest store (like K-Mart): Only the cheapest, ugliest models are stocked. And I have no problem with that. Hey, when I went looking for my first shotgun, it was a K-Mart special. It took a few years for it to sink in, but I finally realized that it's better to pay twice or three times as much for a better model.

And that's fine by me. If I was a local gunshop owner, I'd be more worried about the fact that shottists are a dying breed. People's tastes outgrow cheap guns, one-off Internet-sales incur big shipping and insurance costs, so the threat to the little guy isn't really the competition. Anyway, Wal*Mart's gun section is a joke compared to even the smallest hole-in-the-wall shop.


Here's a list of things that they won't do:

* Staff the counter with a person who knows which end the bullet comes out of (I love being swept by the muzzle of a shotgun!)
* Accept a return, and test a supposedly defective weapon
* Transfer weapons from other FFL dealers
* Sell handguns
* Stock more than one loading of any particular caliber of ammo
* Stock more than 4 calibers of handgun ammo or rifle ammo
* Stock any type of shotshell loading besides clay-breakers
* Trade, buy, or sell used firearms
* Stock even the most basic reloading supplies
* Stock a full compliment of cleaning supplies (no copper remover, lead remover, lead removal kits, different caliber patches, single-piece rods, etc etc)
* Stock a full compliment of hunting gear. My local shops have tons of calls, scents, lures, clothing, and hardware
* Stock mil-surp guns or ammo
* Stock holsters
* Stock archery supplies
* Stock video and books on shooting and reloading
* Stock more than basic fishing gear
* Stock accessories like extra stocks, grips, recoil pads, slings, or chamber gauges
* Stock gun safes larger than a breadbox
* Stock more than one kind and caliber of lead airgun pellets
* Stock any "blackpowder" guns or supplies. Occasionally I'll see solvent in the cleaning section, but that's about it.

Even in light of this, Wal*Marts prices aren't all that great. I can get everything but the guns for cheaper elsewhere. But then again, the little guy beats Wal*Mart again, because he can sell me a perfectly good used rifle for far cheaper than a new one. If, for example, I'm looking for .357 ammo, I'd have to go with garbage 110 grain loads at $15/50. Why would I want to be gouged like that, when my local gun shop has 158 grain loads in bags of 100 for the same price?

I really don't have any animosity toward Wal*Mart, I swear. I like Wal*Mart, and I shop there. But it's pretty obvious to me that their sporting goods section exists to draw the 'outdoorsy male with working testicles' market segment into stores to buy other incidental items, not to actually provide a sportman's one-stop center for supplies.

EDIT: YMMV, this is based on my local Wallyworld stores.

[Coyote Hunter]

WalMart dictates the product price and specifications to it's vendors.

When I read statements like this I just have to laugh at the ignorance of the writer.  Wal-Mart does not dictate anything to their vendors – the two parties willingly come to an agreement.

This poster obviously has no experience as a WalMart vendor.  Walmart does indeed dictate the price points they desire for specific products, and if the vendor does not comply WalMart uses the biggest stick in the retail world.  The vendor loses shelf space.  This can be a death blow to the vendor, who relys on the world's largest retailer to sell its products.  If you are not on WalMart's shelves, then you will have a rough time of it in the US today.  WalMart is that big, and that powerful.  Willingly come to an agreement?  Ya gotta be kidding!   :-D

And at just what point does Wal-Mart put a gun to the head of the vendor’s and say “Sign here”?  Doesn’t happen.  It is the vendor’s choice not to lose shelf space.

[nomosendero]

The reference to being exposed is in regards to "seconds" & not low end
products that could also be bought elsewhere, plain to see & a real thinking man would not need to change the context to attempt to make a point.  

It is true that Walmart does what they can to get the Vendor to drop the price. That is not new by any means, but WM is better at it than the other guys. I have seen some of my customers that make a wigget for WM get in a position where they gear up just for them & then WM comes in and demands a lower price & put that company in a bind, not real good but it is also ignorance on the part of that company to not put their eggs in more than one basket. Some of the survivors have learned to do that &
they can lose WM account for a while & then get them back when the "cheaper" vendor did not perform as expected, I have seen that too.

[Lone Star]

The reference to being exposed is in regards to "seconds" & not low end products that could also be bought elsewhere, plain to see & a real thinking man would not need to change the context to attempt to make a point.  

No change of 'context' was attempted.  Barbara Walters did no expose of "seconds", but that does not imply that WM does not buy seconds.  Clearly WM does sell low-end products, I thought that was implicit and needed no detailed explanation - guess I was wrong.  I clearly stated that I did not know if the selling of "seconds" was fact or not, but "no expose" is not proof of anything to anyone who bothers to actually think instead of immediately heading towards the conspiracy door.   :-D

Sorry for the confusion of both the poster and the reader.  

[nomosendero]

Sorry about that, Lone Star, that post could be read two ways & I appreciate you stating your actual intent. Some of my posts can be read that way also, sorry about the confusion on my part. Yes indeed, conspiracy theories abound!

Time for the Decaf.