Gary Reeder
the big box stores like Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabelas
Tuesday, April 23, 2024, 12:19

are seldom the lowest price around. Their advantage is that they have the ammo and the guns people want. Unfortunately the young people looking for a new rifle that is getting full page ads in all the gun magazines don't want to wait for their local gun shop to call around and find that gun for them, often saving them several hundred dollars. So being impatient they go ahead and buy the gun from the big box stores at a higher price. If folks would just get their local gun shop to call around to their distributors they could more than likely find the gun folks are looking for and at a better price. That is the main problem. Gun shops have to go thru distributors. In most cases we can't just call up Ruger or S&W and order a gun and we can't just call up Hornady and order ammo. It just isn't done that way. The big box stores usually have a buyer who buys the guns and ammo for all their stores, which are often in the dozens. They make a huge buy and when the ammo is available or the new guns are available the gun and ammo companies naturally send it to the big box stores first. The gun shops get what is left over. It is just good business for Cabelas and Sportsman's Warehouse and all the other big box stores. They are slowly putting the local gun shops out of business and that is exactly what they want.