I have been entertained by this string. Many of the points made are valid about Walmart (both pro and con). I work for the second largest traditional department store chain in the country. Are demographic is middle to lower upper class consumers. I can't begruge Walmart for buying from China or India because even my company does it to a large extent. The fact is that the same Americans who complain about Walmart or Target don't want to pay $25.00 fora T-shirt union made in the USA, but have no problem buying a $5.99 T-shirt.

These same Americans (of all economic classes)
also have retail stocks in their 401k's (many have Walmart) knowingly or unknowingly. Those stockholders expect margin returns from their investments. Walmart has delivered extremely well to their shareholders.

Getting back to guns:
In a nutshell, Walmart primarily sells throw away goods. I'll buy toilet paper, light bulbs, even underwear thier. But most of the hunter's I know and hunt with come from many different economic classes, purchase their firearms and better quality/ long life goods from a local dealer or a Gander Mountain/Cabela's/ Bass Pro shop retailer.

I'm not a snob, but when I buy something as important as hunting equiptment/ firearms, I don't even consider Walmart. I'll save up a little longer to get quality.

As far as service, I have experienced equally bad/ good sevice from both local shops and big box stores.
However, one thing that I will say, I have been buying almost all my firearms from asomewhatlocal hardware/ gun shop. His prices are better than Gander/ bass/ Cabela's etc.. The owner tells me he is a proud NRA member who wants to expand all hunting and shooting related sports. He therefore takes a lower profit marginonfirearms (he does make some margin up in his hardware but nothing over the top). He also explains that he can afford to sell guns at a lower price because he has limited overhead and doesn't need to provide margins to stockholder's since he is not a public company.

Business is changing and no one is holding a gun to anyones head to buy at Walmart. We still have many choices left in this country ( thank God for conservatives). So if you don't like Walmart , don't shop there. Period !!!

Besides, from a retail perspective,
I wouldn't be the least bit suprised that Walmart walks away from this category of merchandise (firearms) even further in the next couple of years. Primarliy because, like I stated previously,
their niche is to sell throw away merchandise and the average hunter wants to buy quality/ long life merchandise. Also hunter's expect a knowledgable person selling them higher end goods. Walmart isn't in the business of paying big $ for well informed asscociates.

-Mathewsconquest2