tanner71446

Im considering opening a sporting goods store in the next 3years or so, the only problem is the town I live in is not that big. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions, several stores have opened in the past few years and none have made it, a couple of plants and mills are close by so I thought of having safty supplies in addition to fishing and hunting supplies, well just currious of you input thanks for the help.

A mans gotta believe in something I believe Ill go HUNTING

THE DEER SLAYER

If you open one up make sure it has something for everyone.

hunt4fun1

I had a buddy that opened a sporting goods store in south Louisianna in the late 70's and closed it in the late 80's.
He could not compete with the Walmarts and K-marts.
Good luck bro.....don't mean to sound like a downer.
The one thing you can offer that the big guys can't is service.

bobgifford

I disagree with having something for everyone, that is what a walmart or a dicks or kmart is, and you will not be able to compete with the prices. If i were you id keep it very centrallized on hunting and fishing and maybe some high end camping...
good luck
Bob

PaJack

Wal-Mart and the Big K are hard to compeat with! How close are the "BIG" stores to you? Also if you want to deal with guns, you must have a FFL...a pain in the a$$ to get!
Good Luck...<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

Hunt Safe!

Jack

tanner71446

i dont wanna jump off in anything but ive been thinking about this for years i hate going into a store and asking to look at a gun and they say oh we dont have it, i wish i had a place where if you asked to look at something i could say here enjoy, wanna shoot it (lol) and if I dont have it id say come on get in the truck well go find it for you, and if you ask for a box of 16 gauge #6s all im gonna ask is what brand do you want? I just dont know if my towns big enough to support a store because none have made it so far.

A mans gotta believe in something I believe Ill go HUNTING

Portage

I had a couple of friends that ran/run sporting good stores. I guess that selling firearms is pretty capital intensive and very little profit is made from each sale. The problems they ran into was it was impossible to compete with the super stores on commonly purchased items (Remington 700s, core-lokts, etc).

Fortunately our wallyworld sells nothing but bass fishing equipment. The nearest lake or river with bass in it is about 80 miles south. They are able to outsell the competition by selling the correct tackle for the region.

Service is something else to consider. A good gunsmith or someone that knows how to fish for trout goes a long way to keeping customer coming back.

tanner71446

I know some gunsmiths but havent had a chance to talk with them about it they have regular jobs and gunsmith on the side I had been thinking about that too thanks for the advice.

A mans gotta believe in something I believe Ill go HUNTING

keylargo

Tanner,
One pice of advice.Forget your love for guns and look at it strickly from a business point of view.Have you written a business plan to present to a bank for financing.You should contact the small business administration if you have no experience with this and they can help.Even if you dont need to borrow money to get started,a business plan will force you to look at all aspects of the idea.
I am all for as many gun stores as possibe but in a place like Leesville you may have to compete with FFL holders who will order out of their homes for cost plus 10% which you cant do and have a store.I have also found that firearms can be had at good prices around military bases so that is another consideration.
Good luck whatever you decide

hunt4fun1

Hey Tanner,
I did not realize your location when I made my post earlier (see above post).
My friends shop was in Deridder just south of you. You may remember it if you were around in the 80's. It was called Gun Runner and was on S. Pine St.
If you want some tips on the biz, email me and I'll get you in touch with him and he'd be glad to give you some pointers.