The problem I have though is that the local gun shop which is the only one in this town charges $50 to do transfers. They literally just don't care what they charge for anything. Now I can drive to the small shop 25 minutes away that will do them for $25, or I can drive an hour to a shop that charges $22. However, that's still fairly high, and by the time I buy online which is usually already more than what Walmart's charging then add in that fee, I'm not as high as the gunshops, but I'm still paying a lot more for something that I'd get no benefit from over buying it from Walmart. I just don't see the point in paying extra money. Maybe Walmart doesn't have the best business practices, but at the same time who wants to pay more for the same product. Now if I want something Walmart doesn't have, I will buy it online or find a shop that has it. I mean if they just let the distributors walk all over them and rip them off they wouldn't be able to offer the low prices they do. My understanding, and this is just my understanding from what I've heard, I've never personally dealt with it, but is that with some of the local gun shops selling stuff marked up crazily high, that it's not all that they are just marking it up, but that the distributors are putting huge mark ups on the products. So I mean, when you are as big as a company of Walmart, you can't let them do this either. That's kind of my feelings on it, but I do agree some of the business practices don't seem to be the best, but I fail to see what they are doing that's so wrong.

If the products are of lesser quality, and the guns still shoot sub moa groups, and the ammo still shoots the same and kills deer just as well, how would I benefit from paying twice the amount for one from the local shop that's "supposedly" higher quality?

I don't think there is a single store out there that doesn't wish they had the buying power or Walmart.


For example when I went shopping a few weeks ago for a set of scope rings, the first store I went to tried to sell me some very overpriced Simmons rings that just looked cheap as heck. They claimed that they didn't have any other .22 rings in the size I needed. The next shop had some vastly overpriced Tasco rings that were also very cheaply made. I ended up buying them at about double the online price just because I wanted them right then.
I shot the gun the next day and sure enough the rings are so cheap that they won't clamp tight and keep sliding around. I ended up stopping by Walmart and picking up some Weavers for $4 cheaper that worked fine. Had they not worked, Walmart would have taken them back though. I asked the gun shop if they'd take the Tasco rings back, and their reply was "nope, maybe you can give them to a friend or something." They also love to try to tell me how I should just save my money and buy overpriced Tasco or Simmons scopes instead of something quality. I've noticed this at several gun shops. The only one I haven't seen this at locally is one who really pushes Leupold products.

So if they are selling the same cheap crap that's made in China that Walmart sells, only more of it, and don't except returns should you have a problem (Walmart will at least take it back), what makes what the local gun shops are doing any better than what Walmart is doing?

I'm just really failing to see what Walmart is doing so bad. Yes they sell a lot of crap, but at least they take returns if you don't like it. It's not like other stores aren't selling cheap crap.

IMO if the gun stores get run out of business by Walmart, it's their own fault. Plenty of people are willing to pay a few dollars extra, but when it gets to the point of ammo that's $22 a box at Walmart being $45 at the gun shop, people just draw the line. Or a gun that's $400 at Walmart being $650 at the gunshop. I mean they don't have to charge those prices. They could sell the ammo for $25 a box and sure they would only make a few dollars a box, but they would sell a ton of it to people wanting to help out their local shop. Then when there is an ammo shortage and Walmart is selling it out as fast as they can get it in, the gun store would be too. Making $3 a box and selling 1000 boxes is sure a lot better than making $23 a box and selling maybe 10 boxes and still having your shelves packed full during the ammo shortage when everywhere online and Walmarts are sold out and can't keep it on the shelves.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like many shop owners are smart enough to see this, and instead they want to get greedy and think they can way overcharge people and that people should pay it because they are a "mom and pop shop".

You also have to remember, Walmart started out as a mom and pop shop. They just didn't rip people off, and treated people right and grew to be the massive chain they are today.

Another thing that gets me is that I have a guy I talk to every once in a while that works at Walmart. It's funny because he told me that they have had a local gun shop owner come in and ask to buy ammo by the case. Since they no longer have a limit on how much you can buy, they sold him what they had. So the gun shop is obviously selling the same exact ammo at a higher price. So how am I getting a better product. I even noticed that some Federal .40 S&W pistol ammo was in the gun shop with the product code WM and then the numbers. You can tell it's from Walmart since it had the WM in the product code. Oh you guess it, at a higher price too. I think this happens a lot more often than most of us would care to admit too.