tanzian

Ever try Hendershots in Hancock MD? It is a great store.. ALWAYS over 3000 firearms in stock and can get most "special orders" in 3 days or less. Very fair on prices and trades. I know it is a bit of distance from you but it is all interstate on 70. A very knowledgeable sales staff and smiths on site. Glad I am only 3 miles across the river from them. They also have a vast variety of handloading supplies.. a rariety anymore. If you want directions just drop me a PM.. the are only 1/2 mile off of 70.

Doe Dumper

Well about the only good I see in Wal-Mart is the fact that most of the local gun stores around here will match their prices to get the sale. I wouldnt buy a bag of kitty litter from Wal-Mart if I could help it. I wont say never...but i dont spend anything there unless I have to have it and no one else has it....or I need something late at night. Wal-Marts are killing the small businesses in this country. Have any of you folks noticed how many made in China labels there are in one of their stores? I know I'm not gonna change anyones mind....but you really need to dig a little deeper on Wal-Mart. I'm getting off my soapbox now...but the drive to save $1 or 2 over a mom and pop store just dont get it. You spend your money local and it stays local...spend it at Wally World and watch it go to China and listen closely for one more nail being drove in the coffin of small businesses all over America. Isnt the American way of life worth an extra buck or 2?

MOTurkeyTamer

I'll second that!

Doe Dumper

Heres some good reading about Wal Mart if anyone is interested....



http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html



I will gladly support the local gun shops.

Todd1700

I know thats true oldelkhunter and I didn't mean to paint with too broad a brush. Where I live however there are only 3 sporting goods stores within a 50 mile radius of my home. The one in Selma has knowledgeable people but their prices are outrageous even by Retail hunting store standards. And their salesmen are the most arrogant bunch of snobs you have ever encountered. If you aren't one of the local Selma rich upper class or about to drop 2 grand in their store they act like they couldn't be bothered to piss in your face if your eyebrows were on fire. If they do bother to speak to you it will be to try and talk you out of what you want and into something they want to sell. The second store is in Thomasville and is the one where 90 percent of the time the guy has left either his mother or his brother running the place while he is out fishing or hunting. Nice people but neither of them hunt or fish and when it comes to the outdoors they don't know their a$$ from a hole in the ground. Also the prices are murderously high but not quite as bad as the Selma store. The third store is a decent place in Butler. High prices but decent people who are fairly knowledgable. Only problem is its 50 miles away from where I live which makes it a tad inconvenient to visit routinely.

True, but then I always know what I want before I even go to the store. I don't need a Wal-Mart employee to tell me anything about a gun. All I need them to know is how to work the cash register. And one other thing I like about Wal-mart is that since I am dealing with an hourly wage employee and not the owner or a salesman working on commission they don't try to steer me in any direction or sell me a bill of goods. It makes no difference to them if I spent 10 bucks or 10,000 dollars. They just say "yes sir" and hand me what I want to look at. Maybe I'm strange but I like that.

I agree. A good hunting store can survive close to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart doesn't carry a lot of specialty items or have nearly the selection of items that a good sporting goods store carries. This is especially true of high dollar bows, guns and scopes. Heck Wal-Mart hasn't closed any of the three in my area over the past 10 years and as I said before two out of the three of them suck.

I thought free market capitalism was the American way. You know Wal-Mart didn't start out with thousands of stores all over America. They started with one and a way of doing business that obviously appealed to people because it has certainly thrived. I haven't gotten so old yet that I've forgotten the Mom and Pop days here in good old Pine Hill Alabama. And while we all like to look back on our childhood with a certain quaint nostalgia I must be honest and say that most of those stores sucked! High prices, unfriendly store hours for a working man and a poor selection of goods. Why on earth would I want that back? Also the hired help at Walmart have insurance and a 401k plan. The hired help at those Mom and Pop stores had minimum wage and nothing else. In fact I'd be willing to bet the local Wal-mart superstore here employs way more people than all the stores that may have closed because of it. Which hasn't been many as far as I can tell. Not to mention all the other business that has moved here just because of the Wal-Mart store. Thomasville has boomed since it got that Wal-Mart. In fact its nearly doubled in size.

Doe Dumper

Well I agree with the free market capitalism....and I wont argue with that...in this case it comes with a pretty high cost. Check out the link I posted above. It will give insight as to why I said what i did. Also...the average wage at Wal Mart is $8.23. Only 38% of Wal Marts employees have health insurance. They must pay for it themselves. It also has a $1000...yes 1000 dollar deductible. I bet ya cant guess who foots the bill for the other 62%?? Is it still sounding like such great prices? Dont mean to start anything...just trying to point out some things that a lot of folks never reallized. Im not really gonna get into many specifics...but just go to google and do a search...lol. The truth will either set you free, make you really mad or at least open your eyes. Free market capitalism is a great thing if the competition is fair...but I hardly think trying to compete with $1 a day Chinese wage earners is a fair competition....


Think about it..you are buying yourself right out of a job...

Todd1700

I hear what you're saying Doe but lets be fair. Wal-Mart is far from the only store that stocks it's shelves with products made by cheap foreign labor. In fact you would be hard pressed to find one that doesn't, Even the mom and pop stores. I wish all of them would buy American but its hardly fair to single out one chain store for not stocking 100 percent American goods. Flip and read the label on a good cross sample of products from the small stores in your home town and I think you will see what I mean. They all do it!

Yeah but at small stores that employ less than 13 people federal minimum wage laws don't even apply. Meaning they can pay less than minimum wage. Don't scoff, I've seen them do it. One poor old black man that worked at a local grocery store when I was a kid had to walk to work everyday because they didn't even pay him enough to buy a car. And he had worked there 15 years.

Well most large companies give you the option to either purchase insurance or not. But I do know this, ALL Wal-Mart personnel are given the option to buy into the plan, from the people who sweep the floors up to the managers and supervisors. If only 38% choose to do so then thats their choice. The fact that they have to purchase it is pretty standard practice at all places as well. I'm a college graduate. I work as a charge nurse over a medical surgical unit at a hospital and I have to buy my own insurance through the company. BUT, being able to buy it through a group plan at work is a helluva lot cheaper than if I had to buy it on my own. Same goes for the Wal-Mart workers. I can't dispute your other facts about Wal-Mart insurance. I have no affiliation with the store and therefore I am not privy to such info. I do know people who work there however and I have never heard them complain about the insurance plan. On a side note however I will say that MOST company insurance plans suck so again we are back to that unfair to single out Wal-Mart deal. However ANY health insurance is better than none at all which is what the vast majority of mom and pop employees have.

TupeloSGA

I would like to voice my opinion on this issue. I am a female employee at Wal-Mart and I work in the Sporting Goods Department. Some of the things that have been said in this forum have made me a little unhappy. I have read everyone's reply and I have a few comments to make.

Quote:
"they handed me the wrong rifle and I didn't pay any attention to that fact, signed everything and ran out."

Ok, you might can place the blame on Wal-Mart for this mistake, but you are also responsible for some of the blame. What hunter, who has just bought a gun, doesn't look at his gun when he makes the purchase. You admit that you signed for the gun. Do you not look at or read documents that you sign?

Quote:
"I have yet to find a Walmart person at the firearm counter that knows anything about guns period."

I personally resent this remark. Maybe the associate doesn't know much about firearms. Maybe the associate is more knowledgeable with baseball, basketball, or even tennis. We are a Sporting Goods Department. There is more to sports than just hunting.

Quote:
"Their only weakness is they have incredibly stupid people stocking up their sporting goods stores..."

This remark really doesn't sit well with me. I am not stupid. I am really quite intellegent. I have graduated high school and I am currently in college. Stupid is defined as, "an unintellegent act or decision". The only act of stupidity I see is in your choice of words.

Quote:
"Only 38% of Wal Marts employees have health insurance. They must pay for it themselves. It also has a $1000...yes 1000 dollar deductible. I bet ya cant guess who foots the bill for the other 62%??"

If only 38% of Wal-Mart associates have insurance then it is by their own choice. Insurance from Wal-Mart is open to any associate who wants to have it. We have an open enrollment policy. There is some truth to your statement. There is a $1000 deductible for our insurance. There is also a $750, $500, and a $350 deductible. The associate had a right to chose which one they want. The 62% confuses me. Once the deductible has been met then the associate only has to pay 20% and Wal-Mart pays the 80%.

I am not trying to single anyone out by writing this. I just wanted to put my opinion out here. Thanks for your time.

Todd1700

Good points TupeloSGA. Glad someone with first hand knowledge could clear up the debate about the insurance. I wonder what the deductable is on the insurance plan at Mom and Pops House-O-Hunting store. Lets see a group plan with a total of 6 people in it. I would place the monthly rates at about 350 dollars with a 2000 dollar deductable and a clause that states it only pays off if you get hit by a truck driven by a 32 year old Lebanese transvestite with corn roles and a gold tooth.

oldelkhunter

Tupelo, let me clear up some points about what I said about Walmart.

1. When I meant stupid people stocking their stores I meant Management who decides what the stores carry.
2. There are totally gun illiterate people in most Walmart stores I totally stand behind that remark.
3. The fault for taking the wrong gun was my fault, I never said it was Walmarts fault just the way I was recieved at the customer service counter was not real friendly.

Thinking about this more last nite and 1 other reason not to buy at Walmart. They offer no reloading equipment period. So between not trading for guns and no reloading equipment who needs them ?


Todd, I know where your coming from with the gunshops in Selma..and I am sure you were talking about Walter Craig. Yes they are run by total buttholes who don't deserve the time of day. I have been in that store about 10 times and bought a treestand and a Leupold lense pen in that period.