Dick’s Sporting Goods Doubles Down On Anti-Gun Policies – Even Though Sales Are Dropping

After the Parkland shooting, Dick’s Sporting Goods stopped selling certain kinds of guns in their stores. Sales dropped and now they’re doubling down on the policy.

The Daily Wire reports:

Amid Dropping Sales, Dick’s Doubles Down On Ditching Guns

After the Parkland shooting in February 2018, Dick’s Sporting Goods announced that it was making some big changes involving gun sales. The company imposed an age requirement of 21 for the purchase of a firearm, banned the sale of “assault rifles” at its subsidiary Field & Stream stores (it had already banned them from Dick’s years earlier), and banned “high capacity magazines” at all its stores.

Within weeks, the company began to see a drop in sales, and in months the situation was bad enough for CEO Ed Stack to start openly blaming some of his company’s financial struggles on its high-profile gun control stance.

Amid continued financial struggles, including an 11% drop in shares Tuesday, Dick’s announced that it would stop selling firearms altogether at 125 of its 729 stores, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Stack announced the decision in a conference call Tuesday. The “gun-free” decision comes after a successful test in ten stores that had been underperforming in hunting sales, Stack explained. The company replaced guns and additional hunting gear with “higher-margin, faster-selling categories such as licensed sports gear and outdoor recreation equipment,” the Journal reports, and saw an increase in sales. That increase occurred while quarterly sales overall dropped 2.2%.

The company is sending a very clear message to conservatives:

I'm done with Dick's Sporting Goods. By removing all guns from 125 stores they are telling conservatives & gun rights supporters we are not welcome. This will hurt sales. Time to boycott & shop somewhere else. Sick of businesses that put politics above customers. #MAGA #guns

— Jeff Kuhner (@TheKuhnerReport) March 13, 2019

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Dick’s Sporting Goods Sales Fell in Year After C.E.O. Restricted Gun Sales pic.twitter.com/YEEpRjnU2Q

— abid (@abid53070569) March 12, 2019

Hot Air has more on this:

If You Thought Dick’s Sporting Goods’ Last Move On Guns Was Bad, Just Wait

As the Daily Caller points out, CEO Ed Stack may not have lost all of his marbles entirely. There’s a strategy behind the choice to end firearm sales in these particular stores. They’re all located in specific markets where “hunting isn’t as popular” and, presumably, guns and the Second Amendment aren’t either. A list isn’t provided, but it’s probably safe to assume that these outlets are in the larger coastal cities.

It sounds as if Dick’s is hoping to lure more liberals into those stores by making a big show of removing all the guns. But that’s a seriously limited slice of the market, isn’t it? You’re trying to attract anti-gun liberals in cities who are also heavily into fishing, camping and hiking? (Yes, they sell some other sports equipment, but that’s the main thrust of their merchandise.) Are they going to also stop selling hunting licenses but continue to offer fishing licenses? This is a confused marketing program from the looks of it.

This decision defies logic. Who do they think their customers are?

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