I say thank God for Wal-Mart. I remember what it was like to be totally at the mercy of the sporting goods stores here in my area. Outrageous prices and stores that closed at 5 pm on weekdays, 12 noon on Staurday and all day on Sunday. Hell, a 9 to 5 working man had 4 hours Saturday morning to shop at the places. As far as knowledgable sales people, well thats not a given at a sporting goods store either. 90 percent of the time when I go to my local sporting goods store the guy who owns it is out fishing or hunting and has left his mother there running the place. And a lot of the guys at hunting/fishing stores that actually do know what they hell they are doing are arrogant SOB's that try to steer you to what they think you need or what they have an overabundance of instead of just selling you what you want.