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Dick’s Sporting Goods won high praise from gun grabbers and the media for their knee-jerk reaction to the Parkland school massacre. Under CEO Edward Stack, the chain pulled magazines and modern sporting rifles from their shelves. They also unilaterally decided to end sales of all guns to anyone under 21.

It hasn’t gone well for Dick’s since then as sales have sagged. Fortune Magazine reported on a “deeper-than-expected sales decline” for the sporting goods chain. What’s more, the company’s stock price hovers near seven-year lows. For those really keeping track, it sank 5% on Friday.

Ever the intrepid reporter, I stopped by the Champaign, Illinois Dick’s-owned Field & Stream store to look around.

Sure enough, store staff replaced the rows of America’s favorite rifle and many others with widely-spaced long guns on display. It’s almost as if they’re trying to conceal the massive inventory gaps left by the suddenly banished, hot-selling modern sporting rifles.

Dick's Fills Shelf Space As Sales Sag

Shelves formerly jam-packed with AR magazines and accessories now display long strings of ammunition spread out, in many cases just one box deep.

In the next aisle, I found quite a supply of Rem Action Cleaner and other Remington products.

Dick's Fills Shelf Space As Sales Sag

It looked as though Dick’s ran out of enough cans of Remington’s products to cover the empty space on their shelves.  Lacking product, Dick’s staff simply removed one entire shelving unit near the gun counter. In its place stood a lonely clothing rack filled with a few shooting vests.

On the counter, I saw the new sign announcing Dick’s arbitrary policy to deny 18-20-year-old adults their constitutional rights. I snapped a picture of the troubling sign and nobody said a peep.

Dick's Fills Shelf Space As Sales Sag

Looking beyond the rows of .22s and gun cleaning stuff, I found lots of hard-cases spread out to take up the maximum amount of shelf space.

Dick's Fills Shelf Space As Sales Sag

In a world where performance is measured in gross sales per square foot of floor space, Dick’s must be putting up some scary-low numbers these days.

What’s more, in a store almost completely devoid of customers on a Friday near noontime, those of us who were there weren’t exactly bumping into each other.

Of course, Remington recently filed for bankruptcy.  The question on many minds now:  How soon before Dick’s does the same?

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114 COMMENTS

  1. Good riddance to Dick’s Sporting Goods. You sold out and thought the 2nd Amendment was up for compromise. You are terribly mistaken.

  2. Make ’em eat it! POTG may not get air time, but we vote with our wallets. Buy lots and lots of guns, ammo, reloading supplies from pro 2A stores (or at least neutral ones) and fuck Dick’s.

  3. When they really hit the skids and start seriously slashing prices it will be time to go in and clean them out on products like Rem-Oil.

    Buy a gun from them? Nah, but I’ll take fire-sale priced cleaning products and ammo!

    • If they have a gun you want and are desperate enough to sell it below their cost, why not help push them closer to bankruptcy?

      • We don’t have Field & Stream around here and Dick’s has never had anything I’d really want so that’s not much of an issue.

        Now, IF they did that might be a different story, depending on price, but I rate the chances of that as hovering around 0%.

        As for their potential bankruptcy vs buying something from them at fire-sale prices: Why not buy it?

        Why should I pay extra somewhere else? Were such a situation to happen they’re fucked and going under/reorganizing regardless of what I do (at which point the management will almost certainly change and change the company’s anti 2A policies which helped put them in this bad situation in the first place). They’re just trying to pay off the first traunch or two of investors/creditors at that point.

        As such there’s no downside to taking the deal and no upside to paying more somewhere else. At that point I’ll quite happily take a dozen cans of lube for less than I pay for four cans somewhere else.

        • Oh, I have no issue with someone buying something at a fire sale price. I was merely pointing out that people buying stuff, even at fire sale prices, is better for them financially than if no money at all was coming in. 🙂

        • My point is that if they’re bad enough off that it’s already a fire-sale price then the company is 1) fucked and going under or 2) much more likely, they’re going to reorganize under bankruptcy protection laws and come out the other side with completely different management.

          If #2 occurs it’s very, very likely they will change their policies because it’s those very policies that are pushing them into bankruptcy. That’s a double win for us. We get cheap gear in the immediate and after the company reorganizes they return without the anti 2A bullshit. The new company that emerges isn’t anti 2A and you have a lifetime supply of gun lube at a cut rate price.

          Where’s the downside?

        • There ya go, Nine.
          When Gander Mountain went mag-floorplate up the other year – I thought nothing of browsing around a bit to see what bargains could be gotten for a song (not much! Their so-called clearance prices simply brought them down to local competition prices). So yeah, by the time closing sale pricing is announced, the final nail is already being hammered in… they’ll just be trying to offload remaining inventory at that point.
          We shall watch and see.
          🤠

        • You also have to take into consideration who is hurt the most during a bankruptcy, the vendors. Any money that doesn’t come in is money that doesn’t make it to pay their debts, and I imagine their firearm and ammo inventories are worth more than most anything else in the store.

    • Rem oil?
      Never did like the stuff.
      Too heavy for cleaning or lubrication!
      Gumms up and freezes.

      Gimmee G96 every time!

    • Absolutely wrong on that one…..Dick’s will not sell their guns, ammo or accessories at a loss….they have a large enough inventory that wholesalers will come in and buy their entire stock and those same products will end up on the shelves of Walmarts, Rural King and other box store giants.

      • Of course Dick’s would take a loss on that product. What wholesaler is going to buy stuff or buy it back for the wholesale price? That’s the price they sell if for, not the price they buy it at. Someone is going to get a good deal on some stuff and probably put it right back into their inventory.

  4. Dick’s sucked a long time ago. I am happy to see it fail along with every other organization or citizen who rejects our constitution. This is how the pro 2A people need to respond, with boycott of any and all who are against the constitution. Start now and be relentless!

    • Back when I graduated from college with a business degree, 50 years ago, the very idea of mixing politics in beside the basic goal of making money for your company was absolutely unheard of, advocating such might have gotten you expelled.

      • As well it should have. I don’t prefer businesses I patronize to “support” causes- even good ones I support.
        Sell stuff for cheap and leave the advocacy to individuals.

        I know that seems quaint nowadays, but that is the way it should be, IMO.

    • That’s because the POTG, unlike the progtards, still have some functioning brain cells. Memory goes right along with still possessing functional grey matter upstairs. And here in the frozen NE of Montana, a brain is still required to survive. The only brainless anti-tards around me work for the government. But they seldom speak up about it, because even without a brain, they know there aren’t very many of them. Its a harsh land and it deals with the stupid ruthlessly. That’s why I like it here. The 40 below zero temps keep the riff-raff out.

    • I guess we can expect nothing more than a shelf full of lube at a store named Dick’s! At least they can go fk themselves off!

  5. Everytime I frequented Dick’s I could never find a sales idiot. As bad as Wal-Mart in much smaller stores. Good riddance…Dick’s SUX😩😖😡EZ to avoid as I only went in one because it was next to Bestbuy and across from Michael’s in Highland,In.

    • “Everytime I frequented Dick’s I could never find a sales idiot.”

      fww, Dick’s business plan requires minimal staffing. It’s really a self-service store with just a few people on the sales floor to restock the shelves and watch for shoplifters.

      If the store was a restaurant, it would be a cafeteria with no table service.

  6. Wouldn’t buy anything from Dick’s store even if merchandise was steeply discounted.
    These people are traitors of the constitution and enemies of Sec. Amendment thus enemies of the US. Let them bankrupt now…

  7. I don’t anyone can know if they are literally failing, as a sales slump doesn’t mean going out of business. We also don’t know if their sales slump has to do with their gun restrictions or not, but it would be nice revenge if it did though.

    • I stopped buying from them the FIRST time they turned up their nose at my gun rights. F**k ’em, feed ’em a fish head and let ’em die!

  8. Box stores have a very difficult business model right now. Dicks probably doesn’t lose much from their anti-gun moves, although they certainly don’t gain anything. Spoiler alert, the people that want to make sure a 20 year old can’t buy a shotgun probably aren’t going into dicks for anything. They’ve got REI if they want anti-gun overpriced sporting goods.

  9. Mmmmm. Didn’t Dicks stop selling MSR’s in their stores several years ago? The shouldn’t have had any shelf space to fill from removing them. Their subsidiary was still selling them and my understanding was that they have now stopped as well. The whole company changed the age thing and apparently banned high cap magazines. I’m curious how they affected that. Do they no longer sell handguns with big capacities?

  10. Dicks sided with black rock and black rock decided to screw then.
    They can both virtue signal themselves right into the ground for all I care.

  11. I’m sixty five years old, been around guns my whole life and have never bought anything from Dick’s. They have always been overpriced. I certainly will not buy anything from them now. By the way, their removal of modern sporting guns (the dreaded black full semi-automatics) only affected a small number of their stores.

    • As a middle aged father of 2 active children, I have spent thousands at Dick’s Sporting Goods in the past. I have not spent a dime there since their announcement. They lost a lot more revenue from me finding other options for my kids. The LGSs always had my shooting discretionary income.

  12. You can add Walmart to the same boycott. What seems like like cheap prices on cheap Chinese made goods is/has been done to kill mom and pop stores in smaller towns. If they really wanted to be best price, their prices would be the same across the country – they aren’t.

    • Meh…When I was a teen just entering the work force, the mom and pop stores were hiring their kids and nephews. I get it, their stores, their kids, their choice. I went to work at Walmart. WM didn’t care who my dad was and didn’t really care who I was. I worked some crappy hours but I worked. Mom and pops shutdown at 5:30pm and WM worked this high school boy sometimes til way after midnight. Turns out working America needs to shop after working hours and they can’t rush to six different M&Ps before the owners roll up the sidewalks up at 5:30pm. So they go to WM. Anyways most of those teens that worked in their daddy’s store went off to college and never came back, while daddy got old and closed the store. WM showed me what crappy hours looked like which makes me appreciate the 7-4 M-F job I have now…something many of my classmates have not yet learned to appreciate.

      • Truth, and good point. People are always bitching about Walmart, well, they employ thousands of people in rural areas that would have a hard time finding a job otherwise. Say what you will about how they treat their workers, you go into a Walmart in Tennessee you’ll find a lot of people happy to work there and a lot of people buying their stuff there. Yeah, it’s Chinese shit most of the time, but there are also plenty of American made goods, from dog food to Tide Pods to produce to guns and ammo and night crawlers. Mostly, people save money shopping at Walmart, leaving them more money to do other things.
        It’s just competition. Walmart cracked the code and beat the competition. They give millions of dollars to local causes. Is Walmart a perfect company? Of course not, but I believe they tip the scale toward benefitting this country as opposed to the opposite.
        As for Dick’s, I bought a muzzle loader there a few years back, and usually buy arrows at Dick’s online and have them cut at the store because there are very few options around here. Done with that.

    • And now Amazon (despite the President’s latest idiotic attempt to get revenge on them for hurting his snowflake feelings) is taking huge market share from places like Wal-Mart and allowing smaller businesses to specialize and do well. Capitalism at work…

  13. Keep your eyes open as you are making the long trek to the firearms department. Dick’ is primarily a clothing store, where margins are much higher than guns, ammo, Rem Oil, etc. Don’t shop for anything at Dick’s. Discourage your womenfolk from setting foot in the place.

  14. I go to a mom and pop gun shop to buy my firearms now, they use Gun broker, Davidsons, and buds gun shop. Iv’e ordered three guns through them and most recent a
    kel-tec PMR 30
    they give me good deals.

  15. Wait, so you mean to tell me that all those self-righteous (tidepod eating) douchebags that Dicks tried to curry favor with don’t shop at traditional brick and mortar sporting goods stores and the same (tidepod eating) douchebags weren’t likely to demonstrate their appreciation for Dicks ‘forward thinking’ policy by flooding the store?

    “Look at us, we’re doing something. Please spend money at our failing store”

    Followed by the sound of jazz hand silence.

    Wow, I am shocked!

    • “Tide pod eating” is as real as the “killer clown epidemic”… Everytime someone uses that as an insult, the trolls who faked that nonsense win.

      • Joe Brow, you really don’t belong here do you??????
        You insult our duly elected president like a demoturd and then don’t like the Tide Pod meme for what it is.
        Next you’ll be telling us you support the 2nd Amendment but approve of limits on it against EBR type firearms.
        Your NO FRIEND of any Persons of the Gun. Bet you have a black friend or two also.

  16. Several years ago during the ammo shortage my wife and I went to Dicks to buy ammunition. The clerk looked at us and didn’t know our relationship. We both asked to buy a 325 round box of .22 ammo. Initially he said no and said one box per customer as if my wife didn’t count. He then changed his mind and offered to sell us both the ammo. He acted like he was doing us a favor. He was a jerk in jerk place.

  17. Hey look, the jerk store called and they’re running out of you! (I didn’t think that joke would ever be funny, even if it did take 20 years).

  18. Just as blogger “Hannibal” pointed out earlier ….there has been a major paradigm shift in the way American consumers shop for products…for just about anything really….just look at Sears, JC Penney’s, Gander Mountain and Macy’s for example…Dick’s certainly didn’t do themselves any favors buy implementing their anti 2A policies and I for one never shopped at a Dick’s sporting goods…..they never had anything I wanted that was worth driving 50 miles for ….I have gotten the word out to my pro 2A buddies not to buy from there and I guess we will see how things pan out for Dick”s down the road.

    • Intrestingly, Dick’s stock is UP from 26.99 on November 3 of last year to 33.76 as of the close on April 6.

      UP. Not down.

      • But down almost 50% since their high around November of 2016 which points to a much bigger set of problems in the current market. By the way S&W, Ruger, etc are also down around those numbers…

  19. You people keep insisting that Dick’s is “virtue signaling.” Wake up. That’s bvllsh!t.

    Ed Stack is a Democrat billionaire oligarch who donate $300,000 to a single Democrat PAC in 2016 alone. His contributions were substantial enough to get the Donkey Party to support his sister, Kim Myers, in her run for Congress. She lost.

    Stack probably gets a ration of sh!t from his oligarch buddies because he sells guns. I fully expect that Dickless Sporting Goods will go out of the gun business this year.

    At that point, it will be Kohl’s, but with even worse customer service.

  20. Will keep checking for the big sale on guns and ammo when they decide to give them up for good…
    great time to stock up on all kinds of ammo…maybe buy a few guns I don’t even need…

  21. I’ll spend more money to not shop at Dicks. I’ll continue to support my local guys and a few online stores, where my business is appreciated and the 2nd Amendment is valued!

  22. Of course, Remington recently filed for bankruptcy. The question on many minds now: How soon before Dick’sdoesthe same?

    Not soon enough….I disagree with those saying they would buy from Dick’s at big discounts. I wouldn’t drive the 20 minutes to Dick’s if they were giving stuff away. Just my opinion…..but screw them.

  23. I wont miss them if they go. Havent been in a Dicks store for over 20 years.
    It used to be my weekly ammo stop back in the $5.99 a brick for Thunderbolts back in the day.

  24. The dicks need to be liquidated in bankruptcy!!

    If they just reorganize, they are the same company, just MAYBE different faces! In that case I would NEVER CONSIDER making ANY purchases from them!!

    If they are sold to a totally different company with NONE of the original “leaders”, then and only then would I consider buying anything from the new company!

  25. The Dick’s in my town NEVER looked like the one in the picture. Now, it may have something to do with the fact that I live in California (far northern California), but in our store, the ammo was behind the counter long before California law started requiring it the first of this year. There was always a limited supply of long guns (mostly shotguns) on display, no hand guns, and a smattering of knives and optics. The gun department is WAAAY back in a back corner. I never saw any reloading supplies there, or gun cases, or hunting clothing. The cleaning supplies probably take up 10 feet of shelving, then shifts over to a poor selection of archery supplies. The primary business was sports clothes and shoes plus a big golf section. Sporting equipment, though, was in short supply. The largest gun goods and hunting supply store in town is Sportsman’s Warehouse.

  26. It was a win for LGS across the country. When Dicks made that decision I was like who cares, I don’t know of anyone that thinks of Dicks when they are in the market for a good AR. Yeah you might be able to find a good deal around the holidays of a Remington 870 but that’s about it . Your LGS is where it’s at.

  27. The problem is…at some point, if sales drop enough, they’ll stop selling guns and ammo altogether and that will be just one less outlet by which we can get these items. There are fewer and fewer mom & pop gun stores in many places. While I get entirely voting with our “feet and our wallets” there’s a part of me wondering if we’re shooting ourselves in our collective foot (pun intended). So, yeah, they’ll suffer somewhat, but their product line goes far beyond guns and ammo, which are only a small portion of their sales anyway, and there’s plenty of non-2A’s who frequent their overpriced stores already, so what is to be gained in the long run? Make an example of them so that others might take heed? Well, S&W was made an example of, and Dick’s apparently didn’t learn from that. Neither did Wal-Mart who made the same change. So, I get it, I don’t like giving my money to corpirations that don’t support my rights, and I don’t know what the right answers is. I was a once-a-year shopper at Dicks anyway before this happened. But I do know, that the POTG need retail outlets to foster gun sales, and one less outlet doesn’t help us either. Polls and people listen more to major corps more than the do mom and pop stores. Having DICKS throw up their arms altogether and say it’s not cost-effective anymore to sell guns, will be (considered) a win for the antis for sure, and we’ll have one less outlet to facilitate a transaction.

  28. I’ll agree with Ralph and all the others. Dick’s ain’t going anywhere. Guns just aren’t a big mover for them nor is ammo and accessories, their primary profit generator are the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and other league licensed apparel along with their other sports equipment like shin guards and cleats. Guns, hunting gear, archery stuff, and reloading equipment just don’t have a high enough margin for them to notice the loss of sales from their policies. Any gun shop owner can tell you they don’t really make a lot on new guns, their main profit comes from ammo, accessories, reloading supplies, repairs, and used guns.

    Simply put your LGS has a lot in common with your local car lot from a profit generation perspective. You local Ford Chevy Toyota dealer doesn’t make a whole lot on selling new cars their big profit comes from used cars, Service Center operations, and accessories. That new AR might net 50-60 bucks for your LGS but that gently used Ruger AR556 will net a bunch more depending on how much they can move it for. Then there’s the service side of things, your LGS makes a good deal off that because you’re paying labor, parts (with slight mark up), time, cleaning, and possibly shop supply fees.
    EXAMPLE: Labor: $20.00
    Parts (his cost): $9.00
    Parts (your cost): $11.00
    Time: $10.00
    Supply Fee: $8.00
    Cleaning: $25.00
    Now in that example fixing your rifle he makes $60.00 profit if he can pocket the supply fee. I know doesn’t sound like a whole lot but multiply that by the 4 or 5 simple quick fixes he does a day and not every shop will charge for the cleaning if an actual repair is needed (the guy I worked for usually wouldn’t if an actual repair was needed). Of course, not needing a repair changes the math and you end up only paying for the cleaning and the supply fee.

    Dick’s doesn’t notice you not frequenting their store for gun stuff, but if you went in and bought loads of team licensed hats and jerseys and sports equipment they might notice however, I get the feeling a good number of us didn’t go there for the sports gear (really it’s much cheaper online).

    • Dicks is where the hipsters and yuppies buy their over priced sports gear. They never have been competitive in the gun department. My sympathy is with all the employees who are going to lose their jobs due to their employers political statements. Stock holders should sue the board of directors for their losses. I am changing my auto and home insurance from Allstate because of their political statements. Not going to purchase a lot of other products for the same reason. Vote with your feet people. There are always other companies to buy from that remain neutral on social issues.

  29. Does anyone here remember the Smith & Wesson boycott? The collective effort of the American shooter brought the then British owners to their knees with an unbelievable devaluation of a once great company. Boycott Dicks.

    • I don’t recall ever hearing about a boycott, it just happened. I had bought my wife an Airweight a couple days before S&W’s announcement, and I really regretted it. Did not buy anything more, and probably never will. As I recall, those buyers paid 7 billion and sold for around 1.5-2 billion a few years later. Some lessons that should be easy can be really expensive if you refuse to learn.

  30. I’m not going to be much help with a DICKS boycott because after seeing the high prices the 1st and last time I set foot in one of their stores a couple of years back shopping for rain gear, I vowed to never go back. Like Gander Mountain, I don’t know how the DICKS business model ever expected to work with full retail prices that repel customers and sends them to the nearest Academy to buy the same item for less money.

  31. “On the counter, I saw the new sign announcing Dick’s arbitrary policy to deny 18-20-year-old adults their constitutional rights.”

    Can you knock off the rah rah rah sis boom bah ridiculous 2A cheerleading? We all love the second amendment. Got it.

    Dick’s isn’t denying anyone anything. 18-20 year olds are legally free to purchase their guns from anyone else. This is Dick’s business decision. Consider it their freedom of association, which extends only as far as their own front door.

    By your reasoning, anyone who doesn’t even sell firearms is denying people their 2A rights. I guess that list would include McDonald’s, Hobby Lobby, and 1-800-FLOWERS, huh?

    Now, if you want to level that charge against the governor and legislature of Florida, then you would gave something. Let’s not turn the new TTAG into a pro-gun version of the anti-gun sites, where everyone is preaching to the choir and everyone just accepts intellectual laziness as long as it’s in support of our side.

    • So dicks doesn’t sell big macs, flowers and hobby stuff (non gun hobby stuff). So by your reasoning we SHOULD boycott dicks for THAT reason?

      Stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  32. Dicks will survive anyway, in many areas they are the sporting store available for kids to purchase their sports equipment. The company knows this.

    • yell but can they compete with Academy sporting, they price match anything and give you 5% lower price than their competitors. we will just sit back and see.

    • If you really need some gear for your kids and you cannot find it on line or at other retailers, go ahead and break the boycott, but avoid optional purchases particularly clothes, which have exceptionally high markups.

  33. I was a frequent shopper at Dick’s Sporting goods. WAS being being the operative word here. I always went there to buy birthday and Christmas gifts for my family and friends. I haven’t darkened their door and I will not spend one penny AGAIN. I wouldn’t go back to their store regardless of price. They cast their demise when they chose political sides over acts committed by CRIMINALS. I hope they go BANKRUPT. They should have stayed neutral and focused on their customer service. TOO BAD, they were once a nice place to shop.

  34. Good luck you just shot yourself in foot. Good luck selling sneakers and clothing. If all hunter are like me we never enter the store to buy anything hunting related.

    • Don’t limit the boycott to stuff hunting related. Boycott everything unless it is something you really need and can’t get elsewhere ,especially clothes, which have very high markups.

  35. It appears many of us in the 2A community chose not to do business with Dick’s over their choices. This means no purchasing for anything of interest in sporting goods. We have always voted with our wallets and I can only hope it is being heard in boardrooms across the country. We expect our retailers to obey the laws to remain available to us for purchases, but if you choose to infringe on the exercise of our rights we will not patronize your establishment.

    • Why limit our boycott to sporting goods? If you walk back to the gun section, you will notice that Disk’s is primarily a clothing store, which has very high margins. My policy is NOT TO BUY ANYTHING from Dick’s.

  36. It is my policy to not purchase anything from Dicks Sporting Goods or any of their affiliate stores. Glad to see that their insincere show boating has backfired.

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