Honest answer:

Twin Peaks/hooters type employees. Most guys go in looking for what they already want, don't need some know it all former "SF/SEAL/Fommando" dude saying his personal preference. Screw it. Have 1 knowledgable guy (you) and the rest above average looking girls flirty and willing to help.

Do transfers cheap, sell pmags, ammo, and other things people would want with their transfer items. Basically, screw trying to sell guns (slow movers/expensive inventory). Build your business model around doing transfers and selling add-one people would want. Again, attractive maybe scantily clad girls, give them a 1-2 day crash course on guns, transfers, etc.

Guys will want to do transfers there for good prices and nice things to look at.

Sure, have some gun inventory bt not much. Focus on the add on and accessory sales.

IMO

Would go into further detail if interested OP

Except when 50% of what your customers want is allocated or out of stock.

This isn't the car business where you can get what you want, when you want it.

Great advice here.

This is kind of like the question "what do you want in a woman?" and ignoring the reality of what is out there.

Good luck. Unless you're somewhere off the Wasatch Front, the market is saturated. Tons of new Gunstores have opened in the last five years.

I asked this question a while back, a lot of the same responses

If you plan on getting your own shop DO NOTJUST SELL GUNS AMMO AND RELOADING. make sure you add an apparl section (even if its just Pro 2A shirts) 1.) they have a better mark up and 2.) almost a easier sell. Someone might not be able to afford a $500 AR but most can afford a $10-$15 shirt that says [insert Pro 2A phrase here]

Get yourself(and your staff) into armorer courses. Its worth the investment. Look at a Glock. While most people can work on a Glock most of your customer base wont be able to justify buying the tools needed just to do it for themselves once. But don't have all your staff on the same product. Have one do Glock other ARs other with Sig etc. it keeps from people going somewhere else or worse never coming back. It adds income. Don't flow blow the pricing but enough o justify the cost of tools and time

Look into making your own kydex holster, specially on the unknown/unwanted/cheap guns. it would boost sales on that leading to a even higher turn around. Many don't pick the gun they want because the lack of a holster selections

If your town only has walmart that is dedicated to hunting equipment and clothing, get into it. When it comes to clothing items many don't like ordering online due to the hassle of the potential return and funds being tied up waiting for it to come back onto the card

Every week offer a sale on a any firearm with  advertisement in the local paper. Customers like deals. It always adds more foot traffic and might night even get the deal but a full priced item (or in addition to the sale)

Keep a time table on firearms. Remember in retail space is money. Empty space = no money sitting product = loosing money (after a period of time). What seems to work is on use firearms is 45 day turn around. Why? you will typically have a better mark up than a new one but still cheap enough for a customer can get. Past 45 days your normal traffic has passed at least once (busier places 2-3 times). If I were you after 45 days put it on gunbroker $1 over what it cost you. If it sold well awesome, if not you know for next when someone brings it in to ask for less. On new firearms I would wait from 90-120 days because of the lower markup. The point of this is able to divert funds into a newer inventory. Don't you hate it when you go into a gunstore and they have the same stuff. Its because they are unwilling to take less for it. New inventory = sales. Stale inventory = stale sales.

I have a bunch of other stuff but ive been working retail for a long time

Given that most distributors are net 30, you already lost money on it.  You also lost money paying someone to put it up on Gunbroker and handling the sale,shipping and compliance.

Transfers... Reasonably priced

I'm sure it's low profit margin compared to selling a new firearm, but go for quantity and advertise it.  I tend to order what I want online because I want specific items,not just what's in stock.  Once I'm in the door though I am much more likely to pick up ammo/mags at a modest markup.

-Mike

Reloading supplies... especially ones that require a HAZMAT fee when ordering online (powders and primers).
You can charge the same (if not a little more) as your online competitors since your local customers can save on shipping and that damned HAZMAT fee.
Most establishments around here that sell firearms, including the gun stores, seem to ignore reloaders.

I have seen this a lot in this thread but it is not consistent with my experience.

75% of people doing transfers buy absolutely NOTHING in your store and tie up a salesperson for 15-45 min.  If it wasn't a death sentence for gun retailers I would choose not to do transfers at all.

As stated used firearms is what you need to get rid the quickest. Just because you liquidated only means you lost money initially but if it doesn't sell with in that time you already lost money. Its better to liquidate and invest money into a faster selling (turn around) product. And if you have the knowledge set up your own website. heck cabelas gun library does the same thing. Allows for 45 days doesn't sell by then they put it up on the website. If gun stores invested into their own website and actually advertise you wouldn't ever have to worry about liquidating

Definitely agree with the last part.

I think that B&M only stores are damn near extinct.

Cheap transfers and "modest markup" on ammo won't keep the doors open and the lights on.

Your guys' LGS must really suck. Mine's great. Decent pricing on most everything and very knowledgeable people.

B&M stores are almost but extinct because many owners believe that its a privilege that you came in their store. They also specialize in Guns Ammo and Reloading which in of itself is one product. If you want to make it in todays market. You need to be modern, you need to advertise, you need to be willing to liquidate (look at any big box chain clearance is liquidation) need to sell much more product other than guns ammo and reloading, need to not look like my garage (stuff all over the place with dim lighting) have friendly (non family) employees, welcome every customer that comes in thank every customer that leaves (even the ones that don't buy) and most importantly be willing to work with your customer on prices your products are meant to be sold and of course willing to do bundle deals/and sales. I've yet to see many old LGS take these simple items and implement into todays market

i like this.

have a wall of of premade examples to fingerfuck and let people point to the stuff they want

i want that stock, that grip  that rail  and those sights with that muzzle device.

have pre-assembled lowers and barreled uppers and slap everything on and GTG.

If you refuse to sell other products to make up the cost, you should go out of business

Not how the industry works.

Rock River just called to tell us that they are ready to ship rifles that we ordered in Fall 2012.

I'm curious as to your experience in firearms retail. I had none, other than anecdotal fom knowing a few gun store owners, until I decided to help a local independent chain with their interstate expansion. It has been an eye opening experience.

In no particular order:



Courtesy.



Friendliness.



Customer service.





Most gun stores you go in these days treat you like an annoyance at best.  It's like going to the DMV.

This!    Cheap transfers!!   Every place around me has way overpriced guns and $50 transfers.  And no discounts for multiples.  So say I want to buy a 3 pack of lower receivers from a place.  That's $150 in transfers!    You're probably not going to stick what I want at a price I can find it for.  So let me give you my money for a transfer. A reasonably priced one. I would be buying a lot more guns if I had that.
Other than that friendly actually knowledgeable staff and I would go there constantly.

To the OP.  Do you see the common idea in this thread?  Most people want you to sell cheap.   To most this means matching internet pricing.   Of course the online dealers will not have your overhead and they will have 100 times the volume.   Online prices are usually within $10-$15 on my dealer cost.

Clothing does not sell well and at the end of the season you have half the inventory in odd sizes that you have to clearance out at below cost.

To the guys that claim that the people doing transfers will buy other items to make up the difference in margins.  That rarely happens.  My wholesale cost on ammo is within a dollar of the costs advertised by online dealers.  So no profit there either.

To the guys advocating having an online presence.   This might work if you can move a ton of inventory. but Buds already has that market covered.  Not many start up businesses can beat them out anymore.  By the way Buds never even touches many of the guns they sell.  The guns are drop shipped directly from the distributor  

There were a few suggestions that you should carry a variety of high end guns and many different types of handguns.   This will allow the customer to come in spend a lot of your "gun babes" time showing them, then they will buy online to save $100 in cost and another $100 in sales tax and want you to do the transfer for $15.  

Of course they will want free coffee and a place to read your gun magazines while the background check is being processed.  Then they will want you to show them how much you appreciate their business by selling them a couple of boxes of ammo for $2 profit per box.  Thank you very much sir come back and see us soon.

An important part of any formal business plan is an analysis of your competition's strengths and weaknesses with an eye toward how and whether you are going to go toe to toe with them and what you will offer customers that your competition does not. It will be a tough sell to argue that any local brick and mortar gun shop (especially a start-up) is going to offer anything but greater customer service when compared to the large online sellers. Price just isn't possible. Neither is selection. Your charming personality and outstanding customer service is all you have.

It's one thing to say that you offer the customer the opportunity to touch and feel products before they buy . . . but inventory costs money and having the item in stock for the customer to examine does not preclude them from going home and ordering online. Happens a lot.

If the question is directed at me I have sold at Cabela's and Academy. Granted these aren't your typical "gun store" the point remains valid. Any of your big box chains no matter what it is doesn't depend on the firearm section alone. Next look at any of these chains Why do you think all these chains has 50% of the floor plan dedicated to apparel. Its because clothing items have a typical mark up of 40-50% (and sometimes higher than that). That's where about 60-70% of that store's income is from. That's why I personally harp on the idea when any of these threads. Now of course im not telling your LGS needs to have 50% of your floor plan dedicated to clothing but even if you had 20% dedicated to it you would see revenue that you didn't see before.

It also kinda brings me to another point, "panic prices". How many LGS around the country went and raised prices super high super quickly. While I do understand supply and demand and the "their shop their rules" I almost guarantee  you for everyone customer buying a gun at the panic at least 2 customers decided to never shop there again. A good salesman adjusts prices to supplement demand, a great salesman doesn't need its top sellers to stay in business. That why I don't give a [bleep] when LGS complained not having product in. It showed poor salesman ship if you only depend what was going at a premium. During the panic I didn't see one LGS buy body armor (or a different product). Why not? thought it wouldn't sell or too lazy to try. Heck even AR500 armor I think has a decent mark up (at least last I talked to them) and yet could have sold that during the panic and everything else associated with that vest mags holders moral patches etc. But no it lead to over MSRP prices and many gunstores going out of business because they refused to keep themselves in business. Say if they had that section of body armor that I mentioned and keeping firearms price point at MSRP (I look at it as its not banned just threaten of it so no matter what it was MSRP should have been your top price) you might have been able to save your customer base yet added a new one.

CCW classes are a steady profit maker. Add on basic hand gun classes, shotgun, carbine classes etc with prerequisite for advanced classes.

Most people who buy their first hand gun know nothing.  If a person bought a new pistol there was a free one hour class with the gunsmith on how to disassemble and clean. Of course he recommended a cleaning kit which we had put together and there was profit built into the kit and some self defense ammo.  Of course there were classes that the new gun owner needed to take etc.

There were a lot of females in classes and most bought a gun purse, pepper spray. There were even classes on CPR that had nothing to do with firearms. The profit on classes (since most were taught by the owner) was in the upper 90% range. ymmv

Like I said earlier, the people on this site are not like the majority of customers who visit gun shops.

I've never seen anyplace move apparel except Bass Pro. And I'm not sure about them. Everyplace I've seen with any sort of clothing had it sitting there forever.

It does move you need to market it. How many LGS that has clothing displays it. None out of the places ive been to. If you don't display why bother selling it.

Two counters, one for window shoppers/finger fuckers and one for people making a purchase.  Competent employees who won't muzzle sweep you and keep their BS conspiracy theories to themselves.  Reasonable prices on guns, ammo and accessories.  A nice selection of cleaning supplies and perhaps even a tool rental program for sight tools, barrel wrenches, etc.  Cheap transfers for regular customers and like the other poster suggested, boobs are always nice.

Responses in red.

ETA Point is don't blame the customer if they can find another place to buy for less. If you want to stay competitive, you need to set your business apart from others and always adapting new products and services to stay competitive. Most LGS don't and I don't pity them when they are unwilling to adapt

It's virtually impossible for any B&M business model to beat internet pricing, and then 75% of those people don't buy anything in your store, but you are still expected to do dirt cheap transfers.

I don't know how people expect this to work, really.

If B&Ms treat firearms as an add-on sale instead as a primary sale its easy to stay competitive.

Look at pawn shops that have FFLs. They don't depend on firearms as their main source of income. A modern LGS has to do the same (or at the very least offer a variety of services to justify it) or have a very high inventory

The absence of overbearing neckbeards that try to convince me they have superior knowledge of all things firearms related and should therefore purchase their fanboy shit...

A gun shop that I would spend a lot of money at wouldn't stay in business.  Sell a lot of Taurass, Fobus, Serpas, and zombie shit and you'd probably do all right.

Y'all can have your shops full of AR's and plastic pistols. You can buy that stuff anywhere. These are the kind of shops I would like to visit . . .

This is a good idea for the 21st Century way of selling guns.  There is no way I am paying $100-$200 more for the same stuff in a store, plus sales tax, when I can just buy it online and pay a $15-$20 transfer fee.

I would like to visit those shops as well.

But I likely will never be able to afford to buy from them.

We would tender a subscription to your newssheet and urge all family members to do likewise.  We think those establishments would do a marvelous job outfitting one for another Babamkulu expedition, although any thinking Rifleman would already be reasonably well equipped with one of our Scout Rifles.

I could only imagine id be afraid to touch anything

I get customers in my store all the time who are quite willing to finger fuck things they can't afford. Some clown who just took out a $20 loan to put gas in his tank wants to "see" a brand new AR-15 or a 1911. He has not more likelihood of being able to afford those guns than I am a $10,000 shotgun. Doesn't stop them from handling the merchandise. Why should it stop me? . . . . oh, yeah, right, because I have at least a little sense.

Trust me on the fudd front. I usually try to show them a used version if I have it

As it comes to the $20 loan to pay for gas, I live in the middle of pawnshops and reservation land and FSA. I thought I saw it all until I moved here.

He's my little story from behind the counter from a few years ago



http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1267975_Had_a_tweaker_start_stripping_his_clothes_off_in_the_store_today___tales_of_the_gun_shop__.html

My favorite shops in this area are the ones where the employees at least act like they want my business, as opposed to acting like they are going out of their way and doing me a favor by selling me a gun.  


eta: and tell your employees not to make assumptions about what customers know or already own.

Do not fucking do that! Have you heard of the term "looky lou"? It's people, who come in, ask to see something, ask your opinion on it, bs with you for 5 minutes, ask to see something else, bs with you for another 5 minutes, then they walk out of the store, without buying anything. It would become a hangout spot for fat pieces of shit, "former scout sniper muhreens", ex-delta force members, et cetera to sit around, occupy space, and not buy anything. The goal should be to sell people what they want (maybe with some upselling for ammo, mags, holsters, etc.) and then get them the fuck out of there, with a polite demeanor.

We need to see a complete selection of:

reloading dies
empty brass
bullet molds
reloading presses

gunpowder
primers

shotshell components (shot, hulls, wads)

glass cases full of pistols

full rifle racks

holsters

friendly, knowledgeable counter peeps

local TV and radio commercials for exposure

Decent air rifles (no junk, leave that to other Big Box Stores)

Blackpowder, revolvers, rifles, shotguns

gunbelts

CC holsters

Affiliate yourself (at least loosely) with some local range  in order to proactively boost the shooting sports, to include posting notices for:
hunter's safety classes
marksmanship clinics
youth rifle/shotgun shooting events

I gots mo ideas, but no time.  Good luck with this.

583 approved post.

Don't bother they will be out of business before you get there. They aren't manking any profit on the store

LOL so true.

The people calling for comfy seats, coffee and yummy snacks are not concerned with "the goal." The goal is antithesis to their plan.

All the AR15 small parts. Detents. Springs. Roll pins, etc.
Transfers $20 each / 2 for $30 / 3 for $50.

Modern Outfitters is probably the coolest/best LGS I've ever been to. They have a lot of what the people here are describing... Quality blasters and high end accessories at decent prices, higher end apparel (big Arcteryx dealer), camping gear, super nice range, classes, custom work, and their cerakoting is the shit.