Dick’s CEO Ed Stack, who took over his father’s company, has embraced virtue-signaling as a marketing strategy. Ed’s leadership hasn’t gone well for him, his company or shareholders.
Indeed, as Stack has pursued gun control as a corporate policy to promote his company since the Parkland shooting, competitors have happily taken Dick’s gun, ammo and hunting gear market share.
What is virtue signaling?
[T]he action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good character or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue.
Dick’s (along with the company’s Field & Stream stores) has had an on-again, off-again history of selling America’s favorite rifle and many of America’s best-selling magazines. Most recently, they stopped selling all of the above after the Parkland shooting in 2018.
The company also practices age discrimination by refusing to sell any guns or ammunition to those under 21, even when otherwise legal to do so.
Under Stack’s leadership, the company destroyed their stock of “evil” firearms rather than returning them to manufacturers for credit. What’s more, the chain had a hard time filling all of that now-vacant shelf space.
And publicity left the chain with sagging sales and a dry spell when it comes to customers, too.
All the while, Dick’s CEO continues to peddle his anti-gun virtue signaling to gun-hating leftists who love to applaud him. “Come shop with us! We don’t sell those evil guns anymore!”
Dick’s stock price is up slightly since the Parkland shooting.
Dicks Stack’s latest media appearance?Here he is in his latest media appearance on HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Watch him preen for those who dislike guns…
According to Stack, Dick’s decision has cost that company upwards of a quarter billion dollars in sales, but selling America’s most popular rifles was a detriment to the public, in his estimation.
The good news for gun owners? All of those sales went to local gun shops and other retailers who actually support the Second Amendment.
Competitors like SCHEELS in Springfield, Illinois that hosts monthly Guns Save Life meetings attended by 100-150 gun owners each and every month. Their firearms acquisition manager James Poppenhouse, loves to tell people that SCHEELS sells AR-15s and other modern sporting rifles “because we aren’t Dick’s.”
America’s gun owners know where they aren’t welcome. And there are plenty of other retails who are only too happy to welcome their business.