Gander Mountain Bankrupcy?

[Floivanus]

Went to the merriville location today after spending a few hours at the range, never been there before today, looked around to replenish my 7.62x39 ammo, they don't stock it, employees told me that 'they don't get it anymore, blame the previous president' and tried to say obama banned import of 7.62x39, and that gunshops can't even get AKM anymore.

needless to say, not going back

 

[hog slayer]

Terre Haute was open today and having that 20% off sale. I talked to an employee who I know and just asked. She said they are not closing and the bankruptcy is just some restructuring. Whatever that is worth to anyone here make your own case

I went to Terre hate store yesterday just to have a look see. 3 days ago they had the doors locked at an odd time. Rhino hooked me up, though(so I didn't miss the boat). It is strange, to say the least.

 

[reno]

Like manu I used to order from the catalog quite a bit. I thought with the opening of stores it would be a great thing. Prices were always an issue. Although I will say I walked into the Greenwood store maybe 5-6 years ago and there was a six inch model 29 Smith and Wesson, Used, the tag said $350.00 I stood there until I could get someone there and bought it.

Someone was sleeping.

I would occasionally buy a few boxes of shotgun shells if the price was decent.

Generally the prices were to high for me. Then the attitude of some of the folks in the gun department just rubbed me the wrong way.

Plus my big thing is supporting privately owned small gun shops. Small being a relative term. My personal feelings are they are part of the fabric of America and as gun owners it is almost a responsibility and maybe even a trust that they should be supported.
And honestly, if you are a frequent visitor and then a customer you will get better deals from the mom and pop, private gun shops than anywhere else.

So I really do not frequent the big box sporting good stores for guns and such equipment.

 

[PGRChaplain]

I stopped by the Ft Wayne Store because I was in the North end of town. Still Outrageous Prices on everything. Biggest laugh, an 870 Wingmaster, plain Barrel, 12 Ga. Hardly any Blue on any of the Gun. The Wood appeared to have about 20 coats of Krylon Clear on it. Gander Used Gun Deal, $495.00........ In the Fishing section about 1/2 the hooks for Crank Baits had Out of Stock tags on them.

 

[Indy317]

Their prices are too high on hiking, camping, and guns for sure. Other stuff I couldn't say. About three years ago I purchased a bunch of hiking gear. Most of it came from Amazon and other on-line shops. I did get some brick and mortar stuff from Walmart and REI. REI is costly like GM, but REI has a better selection and better customer service and sometimes they have decent sales.

I was shocked when they opened a Greenfield store. While they could pull customers from Anderson and New Castle, wages in these areas aren't all that great and I never thought the store would be profitable. The few times I was there there was hardly anyone in the store. I would at least see people in the Greenwood and Castleton stores.

 

[Chase515]

I was in gander this week and the manager said he would price match anything I wanted to buy. M&P 9mm 2.0 579$ I told him I'm going down the street and getting the same gun for 519$, His reply was how about 504$. Over half the racks in the store have 65% off signs on them.

 

[jgressley2003]

Just got home from the Ft Wayne store, I bought a Vortex strike eagle 20% off and a lb of Unique. I paid $131 including tax and cashed in some gift cards along with certificates from my credit card. I asked the guy about the bankruptcy and he said it was a false rumor, that they wasn't going out of business.

 

[totenkopf]

I've only ever purchased one gun from GM, a Sig 227. Went looking for one and was told by several LGS proprietors about how they could get me one on backorder for about $200 more than the msrp. One even wished me luck in finding one as "demand has skyrocketed since ISP went with them." So lo and behold, out of desperation, I decided to hit GM in Greenfield, and they had 4 in stock. I didn't get the gun for a steal, but I'm happy with what I paid. Myself, I'm sad anytime a gun dealer goes under, be it big box or lgs. I've had good and bad experiences at both.

 

[Knuckleduster]

Oh NO! Where can I go now and pay new price for a used rifle?

 

[in625shooter]

Oh NO! Where can I go now and pay new price for a used rifle?

Not saying they are the smartest but in fairness it seems like the schmucks fro. The suburbs (the types that only buy one or two guns in a lifetime) are the ones that regularly purchase (as in new sucker every min) They have money show up, overpay on a whim because they see a hunting g show and it sits in a closet for 20 years

Those of us that know and buy several types of guns to use recreational Aly k ow better.

 

[Hop]

Check this week's ad. While I don't buy much from them they have a good sale on a couple Liberty safes. I haven't seen a Liberty Fatboy 64 for $1799 (with a $250 Liberty rebate) before. Nice grey with black chrome hardware. I may snag one.

 

[DCowboysCR]

I'm not surprised in the least with as overpriced as their guns are.

 

[BigMoose]

Oh NO! Where can I go now and pay new price for a used rifle?

Thier used guns were a cluster. One in greenfield was trying to sell a California compliant AR with a bullet button. like anyone here is going to buy that.

 

[Mgderf]

Good riddance.

 

[zippy23]

Yes their gun prices are insanely high. Their ammo prices are absolutely ridiculous. What i've noticed is that their clothing prices are even more outrageous. They make dick's look cheap. Every single thing i ever looked at there was priced so high that i always left feeling like i wasted my time...yet ever few months i'd have an hour and roam around. Here's what i really dont understand....as a business, if you are failing then you must do something right? So you decide to spend tons of money to build a firearm supercenter and then increase prices even more?? What a bunch of idiots. When cabela's came to town, i thought maybe they'd lower prices....uuuhh nope. They just spent more on credit and then jacked up prices higher! Who is running this business???? Cabela's, bass pro shop, the big stores have so much cool stuff but you pay for it. Why would you be a smaller store and try to charge higher prices???? Goodness, the stupidity is really mind blowing. The only lines i ever saw were during the ammo shortage on .22. There would be a line every friday of maybe 20 people. an hour later it was a ghost town. Sad. Their location is pretty dang good.

 

[Libertarian01]

There is a production concept known as "on time delivery." Basically, the simple concept is that a factory has all of the components shipped in and arrive early on the day they are supposed to be put together. Only enough arrives that is expected to be produced that day.

This is to save on overhead, storage, excess payments for materials, etc. The concept has some degree of merit.

However, if we go back in history this concept was invented in Japan. We might not care where it was invented unless we also look at the geography of Japan. Japan is an island nation. Japan is very geographically small compared to the United States. Why would this matter? Because most of the component parts that may supply a Japanese company do not have that far to drive or possible significant problems arriving at the factory. How does this concept translate to the United States where some of our companies are embracing this concept? Well, here we can have many more miles to transport, along with tornado's, hurricanes, snow storms, massively increased risk of thousands of miles of highways where a single accident could delay the arrival of parts to a factory.

This is not to mean the American companies shouldn't embrace on time delivery. However, what it does mean is that the goobers on top making the decisions do need to factor in the distance of their suppliers when they want to transition to OTD, otherwise they may get bit in the butt when a snowstorm stalls their delivery by a day or two and they have nothing on hand to put together.

A friend of mine worked at a factory where he ordered a $3,000 part for a machine to sit on the shelf. Management was furious. "On time delivery" they said. What they couldn't grasp was that the company that made the machine and the part was in Europe, and the part takes six (6) monthes to ship out. So IF the machine were ever to go down due to the failure of this critical part that machine wouldn't work for six (6) monthes! Could they grasp that? No. On time delivery they kept ranting, because they were business majors. They had gone to school for years where the beauty of this concept was pushed. Who was the lowly electrician and maintenance guy to tell them that they needed to tie up $3k on a part they could just order?

I tell this story to illustrate how top business managers live so far removed from the ground level that the cannot see the damage their policies are doing. Many of them are smart, intelligent, well educated but that doesn't mean that they can see exactly how the rubber meets the road when their policies are implemented. I don't want to detract from their hard work in college and their grasp of decent concepts, but I do want to point out how even a good, well meaning executive can think they are making all the right decisions but are unaware of the collateral damage it is causing.

Look at how the entire American auto industry was smashed in the 70's and 80's. They had existed in a bubble for decades. They had a veritable choke hold on the American consumer. NOBODY bought foreign cars, and as such our innovation sucked! NONE of them pushed fuel efficiency. NONE of them focused on safety. They had to be pushed kicking and screaming to safety. They cheated Tucker out of creating a great car. Then all of a sudden fuel prices skyrocketed and fuel efficient Japanese and Korean cars were much more embraced by American drivers. Our entire auto industry was brought to its knees by the executives at every single American auto company. Today we have American companies bragging that their cars are beating Toyota or Mazda in safety or innovation. But the gold standard had changed from American to Japanese for a long time.

Stupid doesn't exist in just one company. It can exist in an entire industry, for a variety of reasons.

Regards,

Doug