Local outdoor shop.

[bigpapa]

So yeasterday I went back to my local guy to see about a scope. I just bought a new rifle the week before and they put my old simmons scope on it. I took an old 20ga to see what I could get for it. The owner looked in 2 books and found the highest price (showed me both) and offered me the higher amount for it. My mouth hit the floor. Now last week when they put the simmons onmy riflethey were nice enough to swap out the rings that came with the gun (Ruger) for me. The rings that came with it were low and I needed high's for the simmons (50mm).Aftergetting an amount for the 20ga tradethe owner and I talked for a bit and I told him I really wanted a 40mm scope to sit lower but I was now stuck having the high rings. He shook his head and said "No problem we can just change them out." I was shocked. Was this guy trying to loose money? I got the new scope and he changed out the rings and re-mounted and bore sighted the it for me. He saved me $50 on scope rings twice (once switching them when I got the gun then again yeasterday). Just because. No other reason. As we talked he told me why most smaller outfits charge $3 to $4 more on items. He said that larger companies such as Bass Pro and Walmart have numerous advantages but two of them are when they purchase land to open a store they set up deals with local cities to NOT pay taxes on the land for up to 20 years. This saves them a ton. Where all the small stores have to pay those taxes and fees. He told me that the gun's are really just a draw he only gets about 5% his main money comes from clothing and supplies. Anywho, I have learned quite happlily to support my local guy. I don't mind paying a few dollars extra to keep the quality service I got. I once was a die hard wal-mart man but after the past two weeks. I'm now a FIRM supporter of my local shop. I hope I'm not breaking HNI rules by putting his info on the bottom of my post (if I am mod's let me know) but for what he has done for me I owe him at least that.

[Colorado Luckydog]

Good post. It makes such a difference when you recieve good cutomer service. The few extra bucks ya spend are sometimes really worth it. Walmart has great prices, but you rarely recieve the kind of service from an hourly employee that you'll recieve from a local business owner. I'm not saying Walmart service is bad, I'm saying a lot of local shops are excellent.

[stalkingbear]

Excellent point. Also when you step into a shop such as mine,you willrecieve knowledgeable service directly from experience to help you make wiser decisions. And that saves you money in long run,as well as having setups that willsatisfy youfrom now on. We depend heavily upon word of mouth and have a reputation to uphold. You won't get the same class of service from wal-mart employees.

[longknife12]

Stalkingbear, Mom n Pops are along gonebreed..............where is your shop?
Been trying to find one for years!Hope you are in the Denver area. Even
Sportsman Warehouse is not that knowlegeable..............finding one what knows what they are doing is rare!
Dan

[Aught Six]

Yep, the small local stores with smart owners know how to bring customers back time after time. Sometimes you can get a better deal buying from a national dealerselling online, but it's always a good idea to double check at a nearby shop just in case. And good service is the icing on the cake.

[Paul L Mohr]

My local shop does me pretty good on trade ins and what not as well. I took a bunch of stuff in one day, even some paint ball stuff. I didn't tell them what I wanted for all of it, but I told them what I wanted to buy with the money they gave me. I was very surprised at the amounts they gave me for what I had. I really thought I would get raped, but I was pleasantly surprised.

They told me they new I was a fairly regular customer and figured I would be spending the money there anyway. They were right, I spent everything but about 2 bucks on the slug gun I wanted, a scope, sling and some ammo. I was hoping to get a bit more than half what the gun cost and kick in the rest. I ended up getting twice what the gun cost and put it towards the other stuff. Not to mention they spent about 3 hours with me by the time I walked out.

I don't see that happening at walmart. I can see me waiting 3 hours, but not getting real service out of it.

Paul

[stalkingbear]

Sorry guy,my shop is in ky. I'm not trying to drum up business as I specialize in building rifles and stay back logged usually about 5-6 months worth of work.