Hi There,
So like most I've tried to avoid Wades unless there is something I need desperately.  Having said that, I had a really good experience buying an AAC 300 blackout pistol from them.  The price was ball park reasonable, service as helpful and no gun store commandos.  Pretty cool.

So I went back there earlier this week, and had a couple of interesting experiences, one with their staff and one listening to a customer:

1) Youngish large male was in there looking at pistols with his mother who was in an electric wheel chair.  Mom wanted a pistol and he had her convinced that she needed a little single action 380, because it was "concealable".  "I carry a Walther, but I'm big...and can hide it".  He then instructed his mother to hold the gun with her support hand thumb wrapped over the back of her master grip hand.  He then went on to praise the "cup and saucer" technique.  "mom, your palm is just like a table, you just lay the gun across your palm...".  Well, at least she can't get her left thumb smashed that way...

SO if you are the male that was in there with your mom, bravo for bring her to the shop.  Candidly, you need to get some instruction before you try and teach mom.  She is going to get hurt.  
1) she is in a wheel chair, and she is your size.  She could hide a full size pistol in there.
2) tiny 380s are hard to shoot well.  
3) cup and saucer and thumb behind the slide are poor techniques.  Best case, she won't be as affective with cup and saucer, worst case, she is going to injure herself with her thumb placement.

How do you guys deal with that?  Smile/wince and walk away or do you actually try and course correct? I overcame my impulse to interrupt him and went about my business

I had a really nice conversation with a clerk about the Beretta 92 compact in the case. We fondle it, I clear it, and hand i back to him.  He mentioned they had an Inox version in the rental cabinet.  So I over and the conversation goes like this:

Me:  Hey there, what can you tell me about the stainless compact 92 in the case.

Clerk:  Its stainless

Me - Internal Voice - No shit Sherlock.  Me -Outside Voice: is the frame stainless or alloy?

Clerk, removing the pistol, clearing it and weighing it in his hand:  It feels like an alloy.  Its pretty light.

Me - reaching for the pistol:  yeah?

Clerk - recoiling:  I can't let you touch this pistol.  Per the owner.

Me:  I was just handling the blued one in the store.  Why can't I touch this one?  And how could I rent it if I can't touch it?  Why can't I hold a used, dirty, rental gun?

Clerk: That's the rule.  

To his credit, he was polite and professional, and I'm sure he is just doing what the owner tells him to do.  But given that I can handle any number of guns about 15 paces from where I was standing, it just doesn't seem to make any sense.  I gave him a "bless your heart" smile and left.

Every time I think Wades is turning the corner, they implement some policy that doesn't appear to make any sense.

Guess I'll order a compact from lowpriceguns across the street.

As for the customer, if it isn't something that may be life threatening, i just don't get into it with people any more. If they don't know better and the sales person doesn't correct them then it's their fault. I've tried it before and sometimes it turns out good where the person appreciates the help, and sometimes it goes complete 180 and the person gets pissed because I just happen to know more than a novice shooter .

As for the handling of firearms in the lobby. Technically it has been in place for a while, at least a couple years now if i remember correctly. A lot of it is to avoid mishandling of weapons and such. Back in the day, when the policy wasn't in place, people would hold guns and end up aiming down the hallway or out the door or directly at the range staff........not the best thing.

As for the Beretta, my opinion is that someone over in Italy found a warehouse of old compact mags and decided that they should be used and reintroduced the compact line. Why they did part of it in inox, or why they added the rail, who knows. Personally, i think they should have just done a regular 92fs compact, like the old custom carry, except without the big white lettering on the side. A centurion, birgadie or a new elite would be cool too, but beretta doesn't make cool stuff anymore.

I ordered one of the Wilson combat beretta's (brigadier tactical G), so they make an occasional cool thing.  Maybe I'm getting old, but I am starting to go retro...  Next will be skinny jeans and a fixed gear bike.

yeah I really just give my gun money to WCA, they have good CS and selections.

As a gun salesman my job is to communicate the features and benefits of those features in a way that the customer can understand. It is not to tell them which gun is better than another or correct technique, unless the technique is blatantly dangerous to others in the shop. Being helpful is a double edged sword.

No it's not.





When I slung guns, I made sure the people where getting what they wanted while at the same time finding out what worked best for them and if it didn't happen at the counter I either got them into my class I instructed or did private lessons.



The end result was I had a wait list on my classes, I always had private lessons, and I had a huge base of loyal customers that would buy from me because they enjoyed what they purchased because they were competent with whatever it was.



Then again as the CRSO, I had a lot of wiggle room.





Being a straight salesman the job is to make sales so you can keep your job.  



 

wow pat

Eh.  There may be lingering resentment.



ETA- I wish every range/ store ran the way Parker and I ran SSNW.

OP, your experience makes me want to make the 200 mile commute to Wades to experience they're customer service.

I don't know how those clowns stay in business. Its confusing because they tend to act like liberals in that they are rude, inattentive or generally uninformed with an "I know everything attitude" But the people who seem to not realize that someone is being an ass hat (other liberals) don't buy guns. I don't get it.

Pat, you and Parker did good things at SSNW, then it got F.U.d by the shield fam. Had fun there the SHORT time I was there, working with you and Parker. WCA was 100x better. Here in No. Virginia we have guns with the fun switch activated and SBS's galore.

They're the closest range to the Google and Microsoft campuses.

LOL yea it still blows my mind he and I ran that place primarily by ourselves for so long.  Can't believe how many employee's have been burned though the years.

I had a great time at SSNW when it first opened. Then there were a bunch of new faces and the place went to shit. the last time I went there was maybe 2 years ago with a friend that had a membership and when I was told I shoot to fast.........I was done. Never mind the USPSA card I produced and instructing a SPD officer that produced cred's. Done. Haven't spent a penny there since. I've walked into that place and dropped serious coin.....wont happen again.



EDIT: Also applied for a job as an RSO there.  Turned down for not enough experience.  USPSA master, USMC expert shooter x7 rifle and pistol, USMC rifle and pistol RSO......fuck that place.

That would have been well after I was gone.





I told good shooters not to shoot fast all the time, but would explain the real reason I didn't want them to...  sympathetic rapid fire. I'd let members shoot fast if no one was really in, but not guests.



Would you have really wanted to be an RSO there if you were enforcing the same rules against other people, that you yourself found so burdensome you never went back to shoot





Not surprised about not getting hired though.  We had so many perfectly qualified applications that never even got looked at it's sick. I worked there 6 days a week and more, 9-12 hours a day because they wouldn't hire people, or the people they did didn't work out for a variety of reasons.  I gave ANYONE looking for a job the contact info...   Even one dude prior service Navy, small arms instructor, going though a D so he didn't want to make anything too far over minimum wage...  I mean... it doesn't get much better from an employer standpoint...





crickets...