Posted: 1/21/2008 6:10:30 AM EDT
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Hi all, In a previous thread, someone called into issue the pricing in our store. I thought I would take a few minutes and discuss this. First, I make no apololgizes for our pricing. It is expensive running a "brick and mortar" store. I spend approximately $350,000/year in overhead for our Ft Lewis location. Where does that money go? Salaries, rent, taxes, utilities, etc. That is money spent in YOUR community. We have three full-time personnel who work at our Ft Lewis location. We pay their salary plus health and dental for their family. In the end, it would be easier, less expensive and probably more profitable to shut down our retail locations and go "web only". However, we don't want to be a giant "sucking sound" which only sucks money out of communities and not return anything to them. That is why we do things like support "Toys For Tots" and "The Wounded Warrior Foundation". We want to hire people in the communities around military bases. We want to provide a place where people can see/touch/feel products before buying (where else can you see $500,000 worth of gear at one location?). We feel that we offer reasonable prices and a large selection. As for pricing strategy, someone specifically mentioned that our Surefire was 25% overpriced and they would buy it on line. Surefire has a strict Minimium Advertised Price (MAP) policy and they fire any dealer who does not follow it. Their MAP is MSRP. Our Surefire is therefore at MSRP. As for other pricing, we have "wrestled" with how to do pricing for years. The problem is that everyone coming into our stores expects a discount. That's fine, unless we've already discounted the product. Then we end up taking a discount from a discount. Trust me, it doesn't work. So, we decided to have our "retail" price and then have LE/Miliary discount and then have sales. This seems to work, by far, the best. Of course, it is impossible to keep everyone happy. Dave Hensley President. |
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Dave, I have worked retail for 14 years, owned my own retail business for 4.5 and I am now a Manufacturers Representative. I understand the how's and whys of a brick and mortar vs. an Internet only company. I also understand with our small business unfriendly state, that it is extremely expensive to do business. My biggest and really only concern is the "everyday" pricing or lack there of. Example: Your Lakewood store is roughly 20 minutes north of Cabela's and 20 minutes South of Sportsman Warehouse. Now I know that the buying power of those two giants is 100x what yours is but, you have to try and get close. We stopped by QA Sunday and bought a few things. I am/was looking for 4-5 new Surefire G2's, good, inexpensive, quality lights. $42.00 each I believe at QA (they might have been $46.00, I cannot recall) less the 15% it makes them attractive, but I have to wait for a sale. Sportsman Warehouse's everyday price is $36.00 I love to spend my money with the little guy, but when there is such a pricing disparity, it makes me question the validity of the sale price. I would have each store shopping your competition on a local level 2-3's a month. Regional price differences are normal and need to be monitored. (as you already know) Thank you for listening, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to IM me. This thread could turn into a flame war, with some of the guys floating around here. Bryan |
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Thanks for your comments Dave. My only concern in this thread, is to make sure that the mistake that happened this weekend, does not happen again. I'd also like to see Wes get a GG&G bipod for 25% off. Your stores should be in line with your email ads and your ads. Confusion causes chaos. Chaos causes a shitstorm on ARFCOM.  Thanks for what you do. I appreciate it. |
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I want him to get the bipod as well. Here's the bottom line: It was MY fault that the bipods weren't excluded from the sale. But, since they weren't excluded, they should have been included. I agree that the stores should be in line. I've been spending ALOT of time recently on Information Management within QTS. It is difficult, but we have made HUGE strides in that area. Thanks, Dave Hensley 
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Hi: Thanks for the time to write your response. A couple notes: #1. We have a very generous price matching policy, but without communicating it to our customers, it does not good. I have on my desk a "template" for a GIANT banner to hang behind the counter at each location. It has stuff on it like our mission statement, Return Policy, etc. Of special note is our Price Matching policy. it states: Quatnico tactical will match any local competitors price for any item they stock. In addition, if you find a lower advertised price withing 14 days of your pruchase, we will refund the price difference We need to get these completed and installed. #2. As the company has grown, I grew stretched too thin (plus noone in our company had any retail experience). A couple months ago, I hired a person as our "Head of Retail". He too has decades of experience in retail. He started off with a couple local retail operations, was a store manager for Toys 'R Us and a regional manager for Best Buy. Over the coming months, you will start to see the results of his efforts. In the end, we want to earn your business through; unmatched customer service, friendly/knowledgable/committed staff, best availability/selection in the industry and competitive pricing. Dave Hensley
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A few friends of mine have bought M1AS from QA and they were by far the best local prices I have seen. When I buy mine I know where I will be going. I remember someone on this site made a general comment about most people on AR15.COM that IMHO holds true. You will not find a group of people that complain more about prices but you will also not find a group that spends nearly as much money 
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^^^^^^ ARF can build 'em up and tear 'em down (Robinson has gone on record as supporting a gun grabber and given money from his company to Romney's campaign... Think he finally settled that). The Hive has a long memory too (SNS)... As far as buying stuff, I have spent over 2K in your Ft Lewis store. Its a lot of money to me. More than that at Mary's... Looking forward to continuing business with you both for a long time to come. If there's an issue, I still wont hesitate to call anyone on it (actually, I usually wont rock the boat) so scratch that. I appreciate you settling the issue and announcing the price matching policy, Mr Hensley. Is that policy in effect right now? ~Wes |