It seems that their anti-gun policies are
at the heart of the revenue drop:
Sales at Dick's Sporting Goods dropped in the past three months amid backlash against tighter gun-sale restrictions following a mass killing early this year at a Florida high school.
Revenue dipped 4.5 percent to $1.86 billion amid challenges in the company's hunting business during the quarter through Nov. 3. Sales at stores open at least 12 months – a key metric for the retail industry – fell 6.1 percent compared to the prior year.
So Dick's management thought that appealing to Social Justice Warriors instead of hunters would juice their sales. Seriously:
While Chief Executive Officer Edward Stack previously said the firearms policy brought in new customers and sales were
reported as flat in August, Dick's has now warned that "negative reaction" could affect future results.
Idiots.
8 comments:
Well this is the problem your company is run by businessmen and not by outdoorsmen.
If Dick's has anyone smarter than a garden vegetable, they'll apologize for their stupid actions, and guarantee the people responsible will be drawn and quartered at dawn tomorrow.
Jess, the problem is that this decision was probably made at the top, or near the top
OTOH, sales at MY gun store are up almost 15% over last year, and we saw an increase of 15% in net sales and 10% in units over last year's Black Friday sales.
And in specific, we have people coming to the counter explaining that they are specifically bringing their business to US that used to go to Dicks, or Wal-Mart, or Fred Meyer. So that's definitely a thing- some very small portion of those losses are sales that went directly to MY store.
Wait....
You mean to say, caving to the anti-gun groups and sacrificing the $1,200 rifle sale to a repeat customer* in favor of the one-time $30 yoga pants sale** is bad for the company bottom line?
Who knew?
Oh, yeah. We all knew, and we all warned them.
Every small business owner knows, "regulars" are your lifeblood. Starbuck's, for example, makes more off of individual buyers' daily lattes than all the occasional office "coffee runs" combined, and they know it - for all their faults, they make it a point to cater to their regulars. Efforts to attract new customers (the vast majority of which will be one-time buyers) that alienate regulars never end well. Dick's thought they were big enough to shun loyal high-end buyers in the hopes that low-end buyers would make up for it.
They misjudged a key word: "loyal". Low-end "gimmick" buyers almost never stick around.
[* - Gun owners have long memories, and we're pretty good at rewarding good behavior. If we're happy with a retailer, we'll frequent the place, even pay extra for extraordinary service. If we're not happy, we'll never darken their doorstep again, and we'll spread the word.
** - Anti-gun people, on the other hand, will "support" a business ONCE, and usually with as little expense as possible. Hell, I'd bet that a plurality of those one-time sales from anti-gunners were clearance items; sold close to at-cost to free up inventory space. Some support there, guys. [/sarc] ]
I'm surprised that no shareholders have filed suit yet; the management of a publicly held company MUST, by law, put shareholder return first - numerous managers have gotten in trouble for this in the past; they should too.
Nothing at Dick's I can't get elsewhere. They chose. I chose.
Archer:
I would guess that gun owners that held stock bailed the first time those idiots got flaky about stocking AR's. The remaining ones and new owners don't know enough about the subject, or don't pay attention. Their loss.
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