Dick’s Sporting Goods has reportedly retained several lobbyists to urge lawmakers to take action on gun control, months after restricting gun sales in its stores.
The sporting-goods chain is working with three lobbyists from the Glover Park Group to take on the topic, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing a disclosure form filed late last month.
The move comes after Dick’s announced in the wake of the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school in February that it would stop selling assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Owen
Everything but tech support.
Stupid move.
Might be dumbest sports company ever.
From a business point of view, I don’t think so. We all know the extreme pressure on retail stores, in general. In this case, Dick’s target market is the soccer moms and dads who are looking for a new cup for their Little Leager. This is different than the target market for Bass Pro Shops, for example, which is more the middle-aged outdoorsperson. I think this is a calculated move to the left by Dick’s in an effort to differentiate themselves by appealing to the anti-gun soccer parent market.
That’s fine. I am no longer their market. I’ll go elsewhere. There strategy may have some success on the coasts, but I suspect they will suffer in the Red states.
….which leads to the question: “Can one narrow-cast a retail store to success?”
Probably not. It looks like a desperation move. Their stock has been in decline since 2016 while the economy has improved. Their same store sales are down. Net income is down. They closed a handful of stores. This has all the hallmarks of the Board of Directors saying, “we have to DO something to reverse the trend!” They can’t compete with Amazon on price or product selection and fewer and fewer people actually go to the stores (that’s a cultural shift). They are grasping for a consumer segment that will put value on their social justice position as a means of differentiation.
As I understand it, they’ve only stopped selling AR-style gear and high-cap magazines.
Aren’t gun sales down overall since Trump didn’t win the popular vote?
jjf:
Exactly. Now there is no perceived threat, so the hording of guns, ammo and reloading components is way down.
Owen,
I would agree with your assesment on business strategy. I don’t think it is a winning strategy. They caused more offense to a segment that has more disposable income, than what they gained with the granola eating social justice crowd.
Became “Aren’t gun sales down overall since Trump didn’t win the popular vote?”
Dick’s chief financial officer, Lee Belitsky called out the lower sales of hunting gear and athletic apparel as problem areas so ending the sales of assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines probably should appeal to the ‘Never Trump’ crowd but I doubt enough to pull the company out of trouble. Maybe they could install Cry Closets.
Dad asks: ….which leads to the question: “Can one narrow-cast a retail store to success?”
No. Not when you are talking about general “sporting goods”. What Dick’s is doing would be like Home Depot saying, “We think saws are dangerous. We’re not gonna sell any more saws or saw blades.” So if I need a 12″ diamond table saw blade and some cabinet screws for a weekend project, guess were I am NOT going.
I predict Dick’s will be out of business in 3-5 years. It won’t be mainly because of not selling firearms – the nation’s top firearm seller Gander Mountain died almost exactly a year ago – but that certainly is one customer drain.
Dick’s will go the way of Gander, Sports Authority, Sports Chalet, and others. And it’s just because that have nothing that is special and that you can’t find cheaper on-line or elsewhere (FYI: you can buy a cup at Wal Mart)
I have been in a Dick’s exactly one time, maybe a two years or so ago. I remember it was about 75% clothes, the entire middle of the store. The actual “sports” products were jammed in the corners and along the walls. I looked at golf clubs that were anywhere from 10-20% higher priced that I knew what they were going for elsewhere.
Now guess were I am not going.
jjf said “Aren’t gun sales down overall since Trump didn’t win the popular vote?”
Nope. FBI NICS numbers show background checks continuing at high levels since Trump was elected.
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf/view
Seems to be some conflicting data out there.
https://www.statista.com/chart/12920/number-of-yearly-firearm-background-checks-in-usa/
FBI numbers tell us that the possibility of The Drunk’s election pushed NICS checks to an all-time record high 27MM or so. They ‘backed off’ to 25MM last year, but 25MM is still more than all prior years except ’16.
And extrapolating Q1 this year to full-year? We get 28MM, which will be another all-time high, even as The Drunk wanders out of the woods.
Dick’s sales are up this quarter.