Their anti-gun activities continue to dig Dick’s a deeper hole. Huge losses signal that Dick’s is dead in sportsman’s eyes. READ MORE
SOURCE: NRA-ILA
For the last year we’ve been reporting on the bizarre saga of Dick’s Sporting Goods’ transformation from a relatively functional purveyor of mainstream sporting goods to a groveling symbol of modern corporate virtue signaling. Last Friday, new evidence emerged of just how much that crusade has cost the retailer.
It hasn’t been a pretty story.
Dick’s CEO Edward Stack — with evident pressure from the media and anti-gun lobby — has embarked on an escalating series of policies to restrict the chain’s sale of guns, at one point a significant part of the company’s revenue stream.
Whether Stack had a sincere change of heart on the morality of his business model or whether he naively sought to protect his company with a futile attempt to appease a frothing mob that hates guns and capitalism with equal fervor is anyone’s guess.
But Stack went so far as to formally collaborate with the Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety and to sign a letter endorsing gun control bills pending on Capitol Hill. His company even retained corporate lobbyists to press Congress for additional gun control.
Needless to say, these moves resulted in Dick’s becoming synonymous with Benedict Arnold in the minds of well-informed Second Amendment supporters. Shoppers and major suppliers in the pro-gun community stopped doing business with Dick’s.
Now Bloomberg’s own media outlet, Bloomberg.com, is reporting that Dick’s itself estimates the price of its anti-gun advocacy at $150 million in lost sales in 2018, or almost 2% of the company’s annual revenue.
And while anti-gunners insisted they would reward Dick’s with increases in their own business, the same article mentions a new Stanford University study that casts doubt on that premise. According to that research, “Respondents said they were more likely to buy a product to support a CEO’s political stance than they were to boycott in disagreement, but their actions revealed the opposite.” The article continued, “When asked for specific examples, 69 percent could name a product they’d stopped buying, and only 21 percent could recall a product they started buying.”
So it seems, unsurprisingly, that being boastfully anti-gun is a dumb idea for a gun store, as is counting on the professed loyalty and support of anti-gunners (who, let’s face it, probably aren’t likely to be the most athletically inclined people and to need the other types of wares that Dick’s sells anyway).
Nevertheless, Stack remains defiant. “It was worth it,” the article quotes him as saying.
Easy for him to say when he’s successfully elevated his own perceived moral standing with his high-society peers by gambling with the money of his shareholders, who of course assumed much of the financial risk for Stack’s very public moralizing.
But make no mistake, Ed Stack remains a fabulously wealthy man, and the Dick’s retail empire remains big enough that it may successfully reshuffle its business model to remain viable.
But Ed Stack has done gun owners a favor by allowing them a myriad of opportunities to express their pro-Second Amendment commitments simply by avoiding any sort of purchase they may otherwise have made in his stores. Be it guns, ammunition, or even kayaks or baseball gloves, there are plenty of other outlets eager to serve the pro-gun public without condescending to them and collaborating with organizations that would take away their rights.
Dick’s corporate largesse may buy Ed Stack the fleeting admiration of the gun control and media elites.
But gun owners have long memories, and they will hopefully continue to add to the 150 million reminders they’ve already given Stack.
I’m from their founder’s area (Southern Tier of NY), where Dick’s was the “Walmart” of sports. After all the rifles, shotguns, sneakers, and ammo I’ve bought there, it doesn’t bother me a bit to turn my back on the retailer that turned its back on me. It’s fitting they moved HQ out of NY, because NY couldn’t offer enough to stay, and I will just continue to avoid stores that refuse to offer what I want.
I traded regularly with Dick’s in the Arkansas town where l live until they announced their on my second amendment rights! Then they took it upon themselves to change the law that allows an eighteen year old to purchase a rifle or shotgun, raising the age required at their stores to age twenty one! I haven’t been in their store since and judging by their parking lot during business hours, a lot of people are doing the same as I am! I certainly won’t lose any sleep over this organization going under! So long Dick’s and good riddance!
We don’t Need more gun control laws. You have to get the guns away from criminals & crazies. But, don’t feel too bad – I’m living in Germany right now & they also have lots of gun control laws – that do nothing to stop criminals, terrorists or other idiots.
Stack does not care, a liberal with more money then he will ever need. Even if the business goes away he is still rich.
I have bought a gun from Dicks and was treated like a criminal. The gun was carried to the check out by the salesman and even carried out to the lot before I could take it to my car. Never again and I would not but a “T” shirt there.
Dick’s has not only list my gun and ammunition business but my fishing business, my camping business, my boating business and my clothing business. I go elsewhere for anything I need. I’m not going to help finance everytown.
Dickless hides the sale under Field & Stream!! Went into the store in my area low and behold Field & Stream gun racks were full!! Typical liberal C–KS—-rs talk out of both sides of there mouths!!
That is one company that was named correctly!
May they rot in Hell.
Anybody got odds for they will start stocking ARs again?
I’d rather see them burn out.
They, their board, and their stockholders deserve NOTHING LESS.
I will not do business with any company that advocates for the destruction of our constitutional rights! Dicks also owns field and stream stores. I drive 20 miles farther to shop elsewhere. In the past I actually shopped there regularly but no more!!
It seems as though half the country has lost their damn minds and believe in all things communist!! God given rights can not be diminished or dismantled, and to say healthcare is a constitutional right is further lunacy!! I owe you NOTHING, and to demand service, backed by men with guns and the threat of imprisonment is communism by definition!!
Vote out every incumbent and KEEP AMERICA GREAT!
I do not own any black rifles, not because I don’t like them but I have no use since I hunt mostly or target shoot with hunting guns. I should not be denied one or a full auto and a can on a gun.
Noise is a problem and a can can protect my ears and ease the sound in my neighborhood.
Dicks sells tree stands and gear for hunting and even if a stand is $10 I will pay much more somewhere else. Why does Dicks sell hunting gear if they are against guns? They never sold powder or primers, bullets to load ammo either. Useless place.
I bet every salesman had a gun but in the old days we were trusted in a gun store. We were friends with respect. Carry a gun in to be fixed or traded was common. I went into Old Dominion Arms in VA once to buy a bore brush and was stared at by men with guns behind the counter. I had my United Airlines uniform on. i kept passengers safe but felt like a POS in there. I never went back. Dicks can sink into mud.
You bring a gun here, my door is open so you walk in, no need to ring.