What I learned from black friday

Did my black friday shopping and was going to make a post bashing a certain ammo/gun selling retailer but isn't it funny when guys behind the counter give you a 1 minute sob story about why their ammo prices are high, meanwhile their competition down the road sells the very same thing for 15% cheaper (NOT on sale).

It's obvious chains set the prices and not the stores individually so it kinda pisses me off listening to the guy behind the counter trying to talk to me like he's some small business and how the consumer has to pay the increased cost because of rising demand and lack of supply, meanwhile like I said above another retailer is selling it for cheaper and if I really wanted to save a couple bucks I could simply order in bulk online.

It just ticks me off when retailers have their few opertunities of the year to shine and show that their deals and prices are better than online vendors they blow smoke up your ass.

You do realize these people get paid like 9 bucks an hour... After taxes it's more like 6.50. A 150 round .223 reload from dicks sporting goods is $78 bucks now which is 12 hours of work... The person behind the counter is just trying to make a living and pay for food and gas.

I'm trying to understand your response to the poster, but maybe cause its early for me, I'm not understanding what you are saying...

While I understand the principle behind retail stores having to charge more because of "overhead", I'm not sure what correlation you are drawing between that and an hourly employee having to pay for food and gas?

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Originally Posted by Ashton

You do realize these people get paid like 9 bucks an hour... After taxes it's more like 6.50. A 150 round .223 reload from dicks sporting goods is $78 bucks now which is 12 hours of work... The person behind the counter is just trying to make a living and pay for food and gas.

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Dear Diary...

If you've ever owned a business you'll understand why any store-front retailer, large or small (but especially small), has very little ability to compete price-wise with most online sellers.

It's easy to bitch in an online forum without considering the dynamics involved.

I'm getting ready to go to work at Firing Line- not looking forward to the day based on what I heard about yesterday. We do not make a lot of money as employees, and the days lately have been long and hard. Also- we have not raised prices one iota due to supply and demand.

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Originally Posted by Bailey Guns

If you've ever owned a business you'll understand why any store-front retailer, large or small (but especially small), has very little ability to compete price-wise with most online sellers.

It's easy to bitch in an online forum without considering the dynamics involved.

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Agreed. This is what Black Friday should teach.

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Originally Posted by Bailey Guns

If you've ever owned a business you'll understand why any store-front retailer, large or small (but especially small), has very little ability to compete price-wise with most online sellers.

It's easy to bitch in an online forum without considering the dynamics involved.

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A big +1 to that. If every american was required to operate a small business for at least one month in their life, and haul a radioactive hazmat load for a week in a semi, the country would be in alot better shape.

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Originally Posted by streetglideok

A big +1 to that. If every american was required to operate a small business for at least one month in their life, and haul a radioactive hazmat load for a week in a semi, the country would be in alot better shape.

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YES!!!

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Originally Posted by streetglideok

A big +1 to that. If every american was required to operate a small business for at least one month in their life, and haul a radioactive hazmat load for a week in a semi, the country would be in alot better shape.

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I agree. I just don't think most people could handle either one of those. Not to mention operating a small business and having to make payroll, week in and week out, for a few years at a time. Employees expect to be paid whether the business is doing well or it's struggling. It's not easy.

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Originally Posted by Bailey Guns

If you've ever owned a business you'll understand why any store-front retailer, large or small (but especially small), has very little ability to compete price-wise with most online sellers.

It's easy to bitch in an online forum without considering the dynamics involved.

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Oh I know, but my main complaint is listening to a large size retailer employee giving me a speech on why the prices are so high when an equally sized retailer down the road is selling the very same thing for significantly cheaper (and not on sale) The only reason large retailers can offer cheaper ammo prices is because they have the capital to buy in bulk which lowers down their cost and small businesses cannot compete with which again wasn't the case here.

I went out to pick up my very first Glock, a Glock 19 G4, that I wasn't able to get on Wednesday ...largely due to a wee bit of laziness IMHO on the part of the guy behind the counter, but I'll leave that for another day. Anyway, picking up my Glock 19, and I was number 693 in the queue for background checks. Seems Black Friday was a good day for firearm sales.

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Originally Posted by Bailey Guns

I agree. I just don't think most people could handle either one of those. Not to mention operating a small business and having to make payroll, week in and week out, for a few years at a time. Employees expect to be paid whether the business is doing well or it's struggling. It's not easy.

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The best is when employees aren't liking their commission-based pay, are told to hang on because business is predicted to hit a slow period, and then they beg to be laid off so they can collect unemployment for a couple years without having to do jack shit for it.

The issue I see here, is that an employee of a large retailer is rarely qualified to be having a conversation about pricing with a customer in the first place. Owning a business, and working at a business are two vastly different things.