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I'm sure glad the Arlington store is not on the chopping block because to stay in business things will have to change for the better.

oohrah wrote:The Waco store is on the hit list. Not at all surprised, I always went to Cabelas. Went in to the GM store once, I was the only customer in the middle of the day.

We usually hit all the gun stores a few times throughout the month at lunch. All the times we were in the Waco store, there was never more than 3 people in there. I only bought when they had something on sale. When their prices are over msrp, what do you expect?

The Mesquite store is not on the closing list. I don't see them EVER being competitive on price with anyone. I was in that store in December of last year and spent $100 on ammo, basically ammo that was not available at Walmart(mini mags and such). Their gun prices were laughable, and like most of the above comments, lots of stuff for sale, too many workers doing nothing, not many customers. Plenty of room in the parking lot.

Joe

Man, I can see the one in Killeen closing. Never been in it myself, but it's right in the middle of town, right next to the freeway and very easy to get to. No competition within 60-80 miles, except the Academy on the other side of the freeway. It opened about a year ago, but I don't think I have EVER EVER seen more than 4 or 5 cars in its big, empty parking lot, and those must certainly belong to employees. I bet that place doesn't get 5 customers a day.

Ruark,

It is easy to get to the Killeen store, but once there, it is extremely difficult to get back on 190. Whoever designed the traffic flow right there really blew it. There is an On-Ramp to 190 almost right across from the GM parking lot, but from the parking lot exit, you would have to go the wrong way on the 1-Way access road for about 25-30 yards. If the parking lot exit had been moved to the east side of the lot, you would have been able to get out of the lot and immediately onto 190.

Not really sorry to see it close, except for the occasional sale prices are WAAAAY to high. Their idea of a sale is to price things at normal Academy price.

Flightmare wrote:

Houston, Killeen, Laredo, Lubbock, Round Rock, San Antonio, Sugar Land, Texarkana, Waco, West Houston

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... ores-texas

Judging by how few folk I've observed shopping at/in the Tyler store, these 10 stores above must be approaching ghost town status?

When I was looking for my xd45 sub compact they were the only ones to have one in stock. I was only in Texas for a few days. After my military discount plus a discount for getting their credit card, the price was cheaper than anyone else. Other than that their prices have been too high for anything else.

mupepe wrote:

clarionite wrote:I support local when I can. But I won't pay 2-3 times local for what I can buy online if I can help it.
I prefer instant gratification, helping the local economy, and seeing what I buy before I buy it.

Last weekend I was looking for a guitar stand. I needed two. I found two, one was marked at $20. Online it was $12. with shipping and the wait, I decided I wanted to buy it local. The other was $35. I could buy it online for $16. I opted to buy it online. Local stores should be aware of the online market and price accordingly. If they don't, they have no one to blame but themselves for the Showroom shoppers.

This is me. I love instant gratification on my purchased so I an willing to spend a bit extra if it goes to support local folks and I get it sooner. Win/win. I started shopping at best buy again when they started price matching Amazon. Guns just seem to be outrageously out of whack most of the time and the folks that work in so many locations tend to be of a certain unpleasant variety. $100 more is generally my limit on guns and its hard to find somewhere that comes that close to online prices. More than that and I think of ammo or reloading supplies and then the tax on top of it!

I like shopping at Dury's. They're higher than what you can order online, but they stand behind every gun they have with a lifetime warranty. Including used guns.

Texarkana made the list too. I drive past the store every day on the way to/ from work and it's always the same employee vehicles in the parking lot. I will say however that last week our local paper had an article about the store closing and this weekend the place was packed.

I didn't go in so I'm not sure if they've started marking items down or not, I'll probably give it a few more weeks and see if there is anything left.

Its too bad Gander Mnt has such high prices. The store itself is very nice and clean and well stocked. The five or six times i have been there i never saw more than 4 customers shopping. It would be a good time to buy a full size safe if they lower the price enough.

and now we know why they are "very nice and clean and well stocked".

Visited the Sugarland, TX Gander Mountain store today and I wasn't impressed with their "going out of business" sale. Big banners displaying 30% discounts, but the most on items I was interested in was 15%. No guns or ammo are discounted. I asked a salesman if the firearms would be transferred to other stores and he stated they had to stay there. He believed in 2-4 weeks they will start discounting the guns, beginning at 5%. Since their prices are so high it will be 6 months until they can match Academy. I'm sure it was a mistake, but they had a Bersa Thunder marked at $569! There were very few sales personnel and I stood around quite a while before a guy with three pizzas in his hand showed up and went behind the gun counter. Then two other guys appeared and one who apparently wasn't hungry assisted me. I think some of their fishing gear is discounted at 30%.

puma guy wrote:Visited the Sugarland, TX Gander Mountain store today and I wasn't impressed with their "going out of business" sale. Big banners displaying 30% discounts, but the most on items I was interested in was 15%. No guns or ammo are discounted. I asked a salesman if the firearms would be transferred to other stores and he stated they had to stay there. He believed in 2-4 weeks they will start discounting the guns, beginning at 5%. Since their prices are so high it will be 6 months until they can match Academy. I'm sure it was a mistake, but they had a Bersa Thunder marked at $569! There were very few sales personnel and I stood around quite a while before a guy with three pizzas in his hand showed up and went behind the gun counter. Then two other guys appeared and one who apparently wasn't hungry assisted me. I think some of their fishing gear is discounted at 30%.

Yes bad business decisions, cause bad business. They could have been a great place, I used to buy from them when t hey had only catalog sales in this area. I'm sure the CEO has "golden umbrella" and will make out like a bandit. They never trained their employees properly, or tried to be competitive on prices. They usually had a bigger gun selection than Cabelas, but couldn't even beat them on price. They tried to have the same market saturation as Academy, but treated customers like a nuisance.

Jusme wrote:

puma guy wrote:Visited the Sugarland, TX Gander Mountain store today and I wasn't impressed with their "going out of business" sale. Big banners displaying 30% discounts, but the most on items I was interested in was 15%. No guns or ammo are discounted. I asked a salesman if the firearms would be transferred to other stores and he stated they had to stay there. He believed in 2-4 weeks they will start discounting the guns, beginning at 5%. Since their prices are so high it will be 6 months until they can match Academy. I'm sure it was a mistake, but they had a Bersa Thunder marked at $569! There were very few sales personnel and I stood around quite a while before a guy with three pizzas in his hand showed up and went behind the gun counter. Then two other guys appeared and one who apparently wasn't hungry assisted me. I think some of their fishing gear is discounted at 30%.

Yes bad business decisions, cause bad business. They could have been a great place, I used to buy from them when t hey had only catalog sales in this area. I'm sure the CEO has "golden umbrella" and will make out like a bandit. They never trained their employees properly, or tried to be competitive on prices. They usually had a bigger gun selection than Cabelas, but couldn't even beat them on price. They tried to have the same market saturation as Academy, but treated customers like a nuisance.

I agree with your assessment of the business practices. I ordered from them when the were catalog only, too. If I didn't need a name brand item my go to catalog supplier was Herter's.

puma guy wrote: I'm sure it was a mistake, but they had a Bersa Thunder marked at $569!

Nah... Went and looked at a Sig P938 and they had it listed at $999. Like really???