Last year, many hunters and shooters were angry with Dick’s Sporting Goods decision to stop selling modern sporting rifles (think AR-15s and similar). In addition, the company stopped selling all firearms in 10 of its 700 stores.
Of course, competitors of Dick’s benefited from the company’s decision with more gun buyers walking through their doors. Well, it appears the trend will continue in 2019 because Dick’s recently announced that it will remove all guns from another 125 stores.
Evidently, Dick’s Sporting Goods plans to replace firearms and hunting gear with products it believes will sell better. These items include apparel, athletic footwear and team sports gear.
During a recent earnings call, Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack said, “If it goes as well as expected, we would probably take another batch of stores next year.”
Sales Continue to Slide
The decision by Stack to remove guns from nearly 20 percent of his stores comes as Dick’s Sporting Goods sales continue to slide. Stack says that adjusted same-store sales fell 3.1 percent in the 12 months that ended Feb. 2 when compared to the same period a year earlier.
Will Stack’s decision to distance Dick’s Sporting Goods from firearms and hunters ultimately help or hurt the company’s overall sales in 2019? Only time will tell. One thing is for sure: When a large retailer such as this one takes itself out of the gun market, it forces more consumers to look elsewhere — like your store — to buy firearms.
Note: It appears that Ed Stack’s decision about selling firearms in his stores is driven by more than a belief that soccer shoes sell better than Ruger 10/22s. Last month, Stack was one of four CEOs to sign a letter supporting a gun control bill recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also joined the business council of Everytown, the nonprofit organization founded by Michael Bloomberg that advocates for gun control.
