Previous Post
Next Post

Dick’s Sporting Goods and their subsidiary Field & Stream stores look like ghost towns these days in America’s heartland. After reading stories about gun companies ending sales to Dick’s, and the company’s hiring of gun control lobbyists in Washington, I decided to visit the Champaign, Illinois Dick’s and Field & Stream locations.

Yes, it’s anecdotal, but from what I saw on a Tuesday afternoon last week, it sure looks like America’s gun owners have abandoned Dick’s. I visited the gun area of Field & Stream and saw a single lonely sales guy cleaning the glass display.

Dick's, Field & Stream Store Traffic Slumps

Nobody else was browsing the shelves for the widely-spaced ammunition.

Dick's, Field & Stream Store Traffic Slumps

Turning around, I looked through the rest of the Field & Stream store, and down the main aisle of the attached Dick’s store. It was like waking up on the set of Dawn of the Dead. I reassuringly tapped my heater with my elbow and felt better. The place appeared completely empty of shoppers – and staff.

Dick's, Field & Stream Store Traffic Slumps

As I walked through the place looking for the restroom, I noticed a number of “SAVE” signs where customers could save $0. Perhaps we could save $0 and send that “cornhole” game to the Dick’s shareholders meeting coming up soon. After all, those owning shares in the beleaguered company aren’t making much money.

Furthermore, shareholders might need something to keep them busy while Ed Stack spends his time alienating The People of the Gun.  Instead of managing his business.  And if Dick’s other stores look like these, their fearless leader will preside over Dick’s descent into bankruptcy, much the same way MC Sports and Gander Mountain have gone before them.

Dick's, Field & Stream Store Traffic Slumps

Cruising back through the gun department, I noticed some of those dreaded “high capacity” magazines. Wait! I thought Ed Stack said his company had pulled all of those evil things. In his own words, as published at USA Today

We will no longer sell firearms to anyone under 21 years of age. We will no longer sell high capacity magazines.

(Emphasis added.) Oh wait, maybe that was a mistake. Someone probably just missed a 13-round magazine.

Dick's, Field & Stream Store Traffic Slumps

Nope. Not a mistake. Field & Stream continues to sell “high capacity” magazines for handguns (these wouldn’t fly in New York or California). I also found a whole row of GLOCK and M&P standard capacity replacement mags.

So Stack did not remove all of his stores’ high capacity magazines. Hard to believe he would lie to Mr. and Mrs. America, right?

Dick's, Field & Stream Store Traffic Slumps

As if this didn’t pose enough bad news for Dick’s, sales remain so slow that dust has begun to pile up on shelves (and the merchandise). These things happen when a big box store has no customers.

Pro-tip for the day: If you have shares of Dick’s Sporting Goods, a good time to sell them would have been last year.

Previous Post
Next Post

121 COMMENTS

  1. Perhaps we could save $0 and send that “cornhole” game to the Dick’s shareholders meeting coming up soon.

    • I drove by Dickheads’ today on the way to buy more ammo and gun accessories- let this be a teachable moment -never spend your money on anything called Dick

  2. Ed Stack & his stores are getting exactly what they deserve. It was an act of cowardice , & just the destruction of the AR rifles made me sick to my stomach. I hope bankruptcy suits him. We all reap what we sow.

  3. Haven’t set foot in Dick’s since the announcement and, also anecdotally, local Dick’s store like a ghost town last week (I made a quick drop-in visit as visiting an actual ghost town was on my bucket list). Maybe Mr. Stack needs to prepare a postmortem statement sooner rather than later.
    Note: In response to an email set to Dick’s customer service re: cancel my rewards membership (won’t ever need it again), they did ask me to reconsider (not!).

    • They’ve opened a couple of the F&S stores around my area, but I just never had a reason to check them out, now I never have too.

    • I did find that article as well.
      They are struggling as a store in general. For some reason Big 5 seems to be surviving I for the most part, while others are folding.
      I haven’t set foot inside a Dick’s for a long time now.
      I have Big 5, and Bass Pro pretty close to me. No reason to go elsewhere.
      They can try and spin this all they want but a 40% decrease in sales while the economy is up is not excusable. If I were a major share holder I would want the CEO’s head on a pike as it were.

    • The NYPost’s time frame is too narrow. Anti gunners flocked there the weekend after the announcement, but don’t really have the attention span to keep going back for overpriced camping gear long term.

      OTOH, decreased sales from less products and fewer customers will hit them in the long run.

    • “Sales are up, and the cowardly gun owners are committing suicide at the gates in terror” –Bagdad Bob

    • That was based on satellite imaging. IIRC, the company posted sales numbers for that time frame that were lower overall. Both this and the NYPost article are based on speculative observations and not on real numbers.

      This is still the worst commenting system I come across on the web.

      • Actually, the Liberal Terrorists™️ have a long track record of short term support for companies that engage in virtue signaling by adopting leftist principles. I posted as this happened that these subversive, bonafide domestic enemies would go out of their way to give Dick’s their business to show support. But like everything else these American traitors engage in, it’s usually only very temporary. I have no doubt that support has literally vanished. It all comes out in the wash. We can all look forward to Dick’s next earnings report, as we can anticipate their eventual bankruptcy. There’s no way field and stream can survive without hunters and outdoorsman, which are overwhelmingly one and the same. Dicks will attempt to become a new fangled sports authority or REI, but are doomed to failure because of market over saturation tempered with diminished demand. Internet sales for outdoor camping equipment dominates the industry. Dicks was barely hanging on before they alienated the majority of their customer base.

    • Trust the New York Post not to get anything right. They still are still having trouble getting past Hillary not being the president and have only recently emerged from their safe spaces.

  4. I doubt this is whats hurting dicks. Who actually buys ammo and guns there? No one i know does anyway. You can go to walmart down the street and get ammo way cheaper. Their ammo and their guns all way over priced and sold at MSRP. I always figured they knew people werent buying guns and ammo there any way and there trying to get more revenue from soccer moms buying their kids under armor and kleets.

    • I bought a CVA rifle from them a couple of years ago on an impulse. It was the first and only firearms I’ve ever bought there.

    • I actually have found a couple deals at Dick’s, 12 years ago a Marlin 336 which was less than a used one and a couple of Italian made Remington over and under shotguns which were being closed out. The shotguns were made by Sabatti and I bought them for around $900 each, very well made.They also used to have good prices on shotgun ammo.

    • I’ve bought loads of ammo, clays, and cleaning supplies there, mostly because it’s directly between home and the shooting range. I guess I’ll be going a few minutes out of the way to WalMart.

    • I never considered buying guns or ammo there but i have shopped there for home gym equipment (in the past)… but their anti-gun stance is reason enough to never ever set foot in any of their stores for any reason ever again…

      • Bought AMMO years ago using coupons to reduce the net cost. Now? Wouldn’t even consider the cost savings; rather support 100% pro-Second retailers and pay a higher price. Freedom comes with a cost I’m
        happy to pay.

    • “I doubt this is whats hurting dicks. Who actually buys ammo and guns there?”

      Our soccer league uses Dicks “Blue sombrero” system for registration. More than half the coaches sent their 20% dicks coupons back in torn up.

      I certainly will no longer buy any sporting goods from them. It is ALL cheaper on Amazon anyway.

      The effect wont be in the gun department only, but the entire store.

      • Who bought ammo from Dick’s? Well, I did (past tense) once upon a time but NEVER (emphasis added) again. A combination of their pricing strategy + their latest move = loss of this customer and here’s hoping a slew of others, too, who chose action over just threats to give up on Dick’s.

    • I think you are missing the point just because someone does not buy guns and ammo there it does not mean that they will not refuse to buy anything else due to their gun policy .

  5. I went to Champaign Illinois twice this month and never stop by Field & Stream. I always stopped when I went to that town. They can piss up a rope

    • Same here. I always entered Market Place mall through F&S because their doors were not posted ‘no guns’ like the main mall entrances are. Used to occasionally buy something in F&S but not anymore. I’m not going to their bankruptcy clearance sale either.

  6. Sale ammo at Dick’s is cheaper than at my LGS, a store that’s known for low prices. The same goes for gun prices.

    But at full retail, nobody is buying what Dick’s is selling.

  7. I just fee sorry for the employees who will be out of work. They, and the shareholders, are the ones who will suffer for Stack’s stupidity, not him. I liked shopping at Dick’s, in large part because the employees at my local store were uniformly helpful and friendly. But that didn’t stop me from cancelling my Dick’s loyalty card. I haven’t been back since that day, but now curiosity will compel me to take a low pass to see the activity here.

    • Something else will rise up to fill this void and those employees can get jobs there.
      Unemployment churn is generally a sign of economic growth.

  8. The only big box outdoor stores I have time for are REI for certain things, and Cabellas for everything else. The one in my area is a shooter’s paradise. I hope they don’t go down the stupid rabbit hole too.

      • True but they have some nicer actual backpacking stuff, and honestly I don’t remember them ever having firearms. Before my time I suppose.

      • REI was founded, and is run, by Seattle hippies. They are what they are, and make no pretenses.

        Last spring the folks at Dick’s were actually really good about gearing up my large-headed kids for baseball season. Decent prices too. Too bad I will never go there again.

        • Exactly. They post their ice ax story in every store. They started as a mountaineering co-op and have never had anything to do with guns.

        • That’s my feeling on it too. I don’t tell my anti-gunner neighbors to screw off and I won’t refuse to shop at a place just because they don’t sell guns or are anti-gun. That said, I will not shop at a business that is actually associated with firearms that is going to sell us down the river. REI is at least open and honest about it. Dick’s is a two face SOB (well their CEO and board are a bunch of SOBs).

    • Here’s my thing. This move, unless you were sniffing glue or eating it, made no financial sense for the company. I’ve heard the argument all the time about companies who are doing things that screw over society or aren’t paying their fair share, etc. of “well, they have a responsibility as corporate officers to maximize profit for their shareholders so long as it isn’t technically illegal” (and of course plenty ignore that “technically” and “illegal” parts).

      If it is just dandy for Dick’s CEO and board to put principals before profits, then a lot of CEOs or boards who run their companies like pimps, thieves and drug dealers and don’t give a dry fart about principles or morality need to go get dorked.

  9. To be fair: You did go on a Tuesday afternoon.

    I stopped by BPS today for some flies, leader and tippet. I was basically the only one there.

    • Oh I will. I’ll go in and just absolutely wreck the shitter and not flush, then roll on out.

        • are you a bro?

          maybe you can go dicks. . and use the toilet and wait for friend and have free office for a business meeting yet to be had… dressed accordingly? ?

          maybe dick will apologize and pay you off for not being a paying customer?

      • If the chairman and CEO cleaned the stalls, that’s one thing. However, doing that to some poor stock boy is just mean. And you know that’s who will have to deal with your leavings.

  10. The Dicks in Austin is out at the Hill Country Galleria. My wife needed to return a pair of shoes to a store in the same center. She was confused when I said I’ll go with. I walked down to Dicks to get a look see.

    There was, by my count, 4 people in the store. The gun section was silent and only sparsely stocked. As I poked around, an employee eventually approached and asked if I needed help. I politely told him I was just getting a bird’s eye on how they were doing after their HMFIC shit the bed. He said “we haven’t sold a firearm in more than a week” and “we had a few people in yesterday just looking to see also”.

    I left with 2 others who also didn’t buy anything As a walked through the door one of the other two still inside bought what looked like 3 or 4 campfire sticks. While anecdotal, I’m not sure this store can make it on just a few weinnie roasters a day.

    • I live in Liberal utopia and I was actually kind of happy last year when a Dick’s opened up close to my house (only about 15 minutes away). They at least have okay ammo sales occasionally. And then they went full retard. Won’t shop there again.

      It is a little harder to tell because new stores often have extra foot traffic, but they seemed to be doing fine for the 3 or 4 months they were open before their little announcement. I see about half or less the number of cars in their parking lot when I drive by now, than I did before their announcement. The hallmark store in the parking lot over usually has more cars in front of it.

  11. Another anecdote: the local Walmarts have been adding shelving and expanding their sports and sporting good sections for the past few weeks. Initially I thought it was simply seasonal stocking but they’re in there building shelving and shifting half the store to make room. Preparing to pick up the sporting goods slack when Dicks dies? Maybe.

    • That could just be a remodel. All the stores get one every few years. I stopped buying anything from the Sporting Goods Department when they changed their firearm policy to no sales to under 21, including Black Powder rifles..

  12. Yeah, anecdotal. Dick’s position may be unpopular among gun owners and even people in general, but few care enough to actually act on anything except availability and price. That’s why we got more AWB’s coming down the pike. Eventually, everywhere will look like Connecticut. At least you’ll get shall issue carry for revolvers and handguns that have magazine capacities less than 11 rounds.

  13. Regarding the comment about MC Sports and Gander Mountain, were those companies’ going out of business related to anything political or particular? I’m just wondering.

    • Mc sports, never heard of them, so I can`t say. As far as Gander Mountain, They were a little excited about their pricing on goods. ( as in high) They also went on a crazy store building binge which was not well done. They made a great pile of debt though. A few of those new stores they built, at least here in Minnesota, they built with in a half mile of Cabelas….That was always a head ache trying to figure out the why on that one..

  14. Dick’s must be made an example of. It’s not enough that they and their subsidiaries be driven into bankruptcy, but Stack must be personally sued by shareholders and citizens alike and driven to financially ruinous suicide.

  15. Has anyone else had this bizarre experience? I went to an Academy Sports to check out a handgun that they had advertised at only marginally more than mail order pricing. So I figured, hey, it’s nearby, and I like that they hire local people. The salesman took the gun from the case, but would not remove the trigger lock. I asked how am I supposed to see how the trigger feels if you won’t unlock it? The salesman said he understood; that he had never worked anywhere else where they could not unlock the trigger, but it was “company policy”. I walked out. Add another sporting goods store to the I will never shop there again list.

    • It’s company policy apparently, the two local Academy’s for me are the same way. A few times I told them “I won’t buy it if I can’t feel the trigger” and they would begrudgingly take the lock off. Other times I knew what I was getting beforehand so I didn’t mind. I havent bought anything from them in a long time though, mostly ammo on occasion when its on sale.

      • Huh, my local Academy doesn’t have trigger locks on their pistols, just those orange tab things that they stick in the chamber. Long guns have them but they always remove them before handing them over.

  16. Same thing at the Dick’s/Field & Stream in Fayetteville, NC a couple of days ago. Two cars in the parking lot in the middle of the day. Definitely Ghost Town material.

  17. I have a Dick’s not a mile from my home and one about a 20 minutes drive away that is across the highway from an Academy store. I dropped by the one by my home a week ago and it only had a few customers on the lower floor near the baseball equipment. No one was upstairs in camping, golf, or in the hunting/firearms area. I was in the one 20 minutes away 2 weeks ago for the same reason. It was a total ghost town as well. However, the business at the Acadamy store has really increased. Stack will be filing for bankruptcy soon unless he and the Board of Directors relent and once again welcome gun owners with newly stocked ARs, etc. The reality is that gun buyers are what was keeping the business afloat. Without our business their sales are down 40%. In reality, no company can survive that big of a drop in sales.

    • Academy is awesome! There aren’t any nearby, or even in the state, but I shop online from them all the time.

      • There is an Academy in Florence, SC. I’ve bought a few guns there, but it’s a 120 mile round trip. Prices are better than Bass Pro and a much better selection than the few Walmarts have in my area that sell guns. Which I won’t buy from them ever again due to their new gun sales policy. And I told them that.

  18. I also feel kinda bad for the employees of those stores. Of course, anytime I do feel bad, I remember how rude they were to me, and I suddenly don’t feel bad anymore. 😃

  19. The 2 Dicks out here are thriving. They made a calculated business decision and don’t give a shit about the gun and ammo market share they no longer want a part of.

  20. This is why you can’t trust liberal gun owners or liberal gun store managers. Their ideology will override their business sense and they will commit “suicide” and destroy the company and the investors investment.

  21. There is a Dick’s in North Myrtle Beach that opened a few years ago, I think I’ve been there twice and bought nothing. Maybe I’ll take a trip again just to get pictures of the place and see if they are like those posted here.

      • What are you doing here? Posting unfunny crap. At least try to make it funny. Sanders kicks the asses of whining libtards on a daily basis. And, even as a woman who has had 3 children that actually testifies to her gender, she likely still has more testerone in her than you do. Say hi to Trigger for me.

  22. so long, so sad, see ya, Adios, Ciao, Adieu, Sayonara, Auf Wiedersehen, Good bye, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!

  23. Field and Stream will probably get sold off because they cater to the outdoor crowd but Dick’s brand Dick’s is a general sporting goods store that doesn’t have much firearms space to begin with.. They will lose some business as shooters who play golf, do fitness or fish go elsewhere. If Dick’s goes under it will be for other reasons. TTAG readers need to get out of their echo chamber.

    I have always said that Mr. Boch has not been a net positive for the site. At his best for every good article there is a bad one. This a bad one.

    • Echo chamber, really? Your “stellar” business analysis hides a fateful truth. There is no fix for stupid, as in “stupid is as stupid does.” Forrest’s Mama apparently was “woke” before her time. You appear to live in an “echo chamber” yourself as the guns and ammo business was a very large sector of their earnings Nationwide. You don’t devote that much retail space to a sector for nothing. But perhaps not where you live. Where is your echo chamber exactly? Connecticut maybe?

      • Here we have an example of a member of the echo chamber. I live in the heart of huntimg country. About 10% of my local Dick’s is devoted to hunting let alone firearms. That’s about the same percentage of space found at my local Dick’s when I lived in Virginia. There were a couple of stores that might have pushed 15%. The golf Department was twice the size and did a lot more business. Dick’s brand Dick’s is not big in the firearms business. Field and Stream is their “dedicated” outdoor store. I have never seen one.

  24. I think they were hurting before all this happened. At least the one by me anyway.

    For me whenever I go there they usually had everything I was looking for but not the exact type of the thing (brand, model, features) I wanted and their price was very mediocre. It’s a business model that would have worked great pre-2000s. But now that everyone has the internet we have a better idea of what they want and how much worth.

  25. Any REAL AMERICAN would avoid those stores. However, knowing how FUDDS and soccer moms think, they surly get some traffic.

  26. Sucks to be them. Only a fool would eve mix politics with business, unless politics was their business. I will never do any business with that chain. They made their bed, now they can lay in it.

  27. Wow…..$35 for a glock 23 mag…..I can buy them all day for $20 ea. Anything short of them filing for chapter 7 liquidation I would be disappointed. They need to be taught you don’t F**k with the American Patriots.

  28. Have they discovered that more of their customers than they thought are gun owners and just don’t demonstrate it? The Field and Stream part is hilarious, a company directed to hunters otherwise there is no reason for them to exist.

  29. Drove by our local Dick’s (never been in) to the hardware store across the street over the weekend. It had maybe 3 times that many vehicles park in front but it also shares the parking lot with 15 other stores. Not good for them.

  30. For the most part, the only people who bought guns at Dicks and Field & Stream stores are those that didn’t realize they were overpriced and paying a premium. Sure, there were occasional sales that might present a decent price, especially in the Fall, but by and large, the regular price was more than the LGS.

    Personally, I’ll shop there on two occasions:

    1. I can’t get the item anywhere else at a similar price (Given their prices and selection, I don’t see that happening often.); and
    2. When the Field & Stream stores go into Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and starts to liquidate inventory, I want to make an offer on the full body mounts of a Mountain Goat and Wolf at my local store because they’d look good on either side of my TV.

  31. I have been in a Dick’s store exactly twice. The last time was over 5 years ago. Both times I asked if they had a specific firearm in stock so I could look at it. Both times I was told no by an employee that didn’t even look at his rack, because he made it obvious I was interrupting his playing with his phone. I’d have to say it was the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I still occasionally scan their sale fliers, but I’m not impressed with their “sale” prices. I was not surprised to see the photos of $0 dollars saved signs in the store.

  32. Dick’s stopped selling “assault looking” guns because they were out-sold by other retailers in that market and the price of keeping that inventory is very expensive. It was only a business maneuver at a time when they could double-up on publicity. One of our stores in the St. Louis area almost never has people in that department, even though the rest of the store usually has 40 or 50 customers at any one time. If Dick’s was dropping any of their other types of products, you wouldn’t even notice. It isn’t about the second amendment. It’s about money.

    • If it was a monetary decision then it was made by a moron who had no clue who the customers are, while trying to cash in on the horrors of a school shooting. Sick and sicker. Those Dick’s can’t go broke fast enough.

      • I believe that most of the people who work in retail stores care about their customers. That is true of all retail and wholesale outfits. A bunch of the people at the company headquarters only care about the money that the company can make from the sales of their products. Unfortunately.

  33. The only reason to go to (through) Dick’s that I have is to get to Sears and V-Stock at the mall. When Sears goes under there will be less need to transit. PS, I recently bought a shotgun at Academey Sports — just across the Interstate from Dick’s — and told the salesperson he could thank Dick’s for the sale.

  34. Could not happen to a better Anti-American, Anti 2nd Amendment group of gutless Old Blue Haired Grannies. I sure hope this Loser of a CEO is relieved of his job because his share holders are the ones who are going to take the Big Hit financially.

  35. That’s exactly what they get for messing with TRUE American’s 2nd ammendment rights…..bye bye Dicks…..never bought anything there anyway……” you can keep your change…..I’ll keep my guns”
    SO LONG SUCKER!!!!!

  36. Reminds of the Gore campaign in 2000 when they were really pushing gun control and then suddenly backed off when they discovered that a high percentage of union members were gun owners and members of the NRA. To quote Gomer Pyle, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!!”.

  37. When I was a kid my father would take me to Dick’s. They started out with one store in Binghamtion, NY. Back when they opened their first store (early 1960’s) it was great place for a young boy who dreamed about some day going hunting with his dad. After this latest fiasco my poor old man must be spinning in his grave. What a shame! There’s no one to blame but their own CEO. I know I’ll never set my foot inside one of their stores again.

    • I remember the Dick’s store in Binghamton when it opened. Dick Stack was the owner, and a very nice man.. He had a Big Buck contest every year durring deer season, (but I was never fortunate enough to win!!) He was a great man, and if you needed a brake he’d make a special deal for you on a purchase. I’m sure he would not be in favor of this new policy. Perhaps his son should rethink it… I left N.Y. 40 years ago, but every time I revisit I’ve always revisited Dick’s on Court St. just to look around.

  38. Local outlets (stores) often have needs that never reach the “decision making level.” In sales, “The customer is always right,” if neglected, leaves the sales staff meeting the customer helpless to keep them satisfied. Any policy contrary to the law, local politics, and moral turpetude, should have more flexibility. Unlike the old days, when a Trading Post was the only outlet for 50 miles, retail is very competetive. Gun owners watch for any policies that erode their 2nd Amendment rights. Rogue politicians have attempted over the past years to take away individual rights, including gun ownership/carry, and it is always a hot topic. Store owners have a right to believe either way on the firearms issue. However, they must follow current law and avoid openly offending potential customers. Dick’s constraints on guns has helped their competetors and empted their parking lots. Even if they switch policy, things will never be the same as before. The end is near.

  39. Dick’s should have stuck to the Adult’s that make the decisions rather then the politicians Chuck Schummer, Nancy Polsie using these young under age people to push their politic’s rather then compromising with all the other adults! The NRA are the majority! we put these people in position to protect our right;s from worms like Chuck and Nancy! All they care about is power not people! they use people to get what they want! Not what the Majority want.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here