LGS Survival?

[nucular]

My apologies if this has been discussed already. I can't help but think that this buying frenzy is going to lead to a long-term absence of buyers from local gun shops.

Not only are the manufacturers backlogged but I bet a lot of the panic bought guns, mags, and ammo are going to start showing up for private sale pretty soon and quite possibly at a loss.

I'm hoping the gun shops are banking everything they are getting.

 

[strokin7.3]

Well there are still people like me who havent done any panic buying and are waiting for everything to calm down before they purchase anything. not every gun owner went out and spent all their hard earned pennies in the last month. I bought 13 guns (all airsoft of course ) last year and hopefully can do it again this year.

 

[Hwseeker]

Many of the shops I visited recently put stock back to take to the Indy 1500 leaving their shelves bare! Others hiked prices on certain guns to nearly double what they were three months ago. Although supply and demand often dictate price hikes like this, I do not feel sorry for the shop owners. They bought into the panic just as did the buyers.

 

[chasekerion4]

When you have LGS that were "loyal" to its customers, marking up a mere 10-15% over cost, they are the ones who are going to feel the crunch.

There is no inventory.

Where a LGS could charge 10-15% over cost on a gun and sell 70 per day, now they're lucky to sell 10. They're lucky to HAVE 10. That's not a lot of profit once you add electric, rent and employee costs.

They have families, too. It's a for-profit business. Panic buying will hurt our dealers more than it'll hurt us.

This latest panic is making a lot of people shift to online purchasing, and this one could last awhile and ultimately cripple a good chunk of the local brick-and-mortar stores.