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After shooting Parkland in February 2018, Dick's Sporting Goods announced that it was making significant changes with respect to the sale of firearms. The company imposed a 21-year-old age requirement for the purchase of a firearm, banned the sale of "assault rifles" in its Field & Stream stores (it had already banned them from previous years of Dick) and banned "magazines of big capacity" at all its stores. Within a few weeks, the company began to see a drop in sales and the situation was bad enough for CEO Ed Stack to openly blame some of his company's financial hardships for his dominant position in the business. gun control.
In a context of ongoing financial struggles, including an 11% drop in shares on Tuesday, Dick's announced he would stop selling firearms in 125 of its 729 stores, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Stack announced the decision during a conference call Tuesday. The "unarmed" decision came after a successful test in ten stores that had been underperforming in terms of hunter sales, explained Stack. The company replaced the additional guns and hunting gear with "high-margin, fast-selling categories, such as authorized sports equipment and outdoor recreation equipment," the Journal reports, and recorded an increase in sales. This increase occurred while quarterly sales fell overall by 2.2%. The additional stores that will no longer sell firearms are also underperforming in the hunting category.
Dick's public announcement that he was acting to promote gun control began shortly after the massive mass shootout that took place at Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018. Stating that "Thoughts and prayers were not enough," Dick announced that he was changing his policy to reduce guns sales and began to openly demand gun control policies.
"DICK's sporting goods are deeply troubled and saddened by the tragic events in Parkland, and our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their loved ones," the company said in a tweet on February 28, 2018. "But the thoughts and prayers are not enough, we have tremendous respect and admiration for the students who are organizing and making their voices heard on the issue of gun violence in schools and elsewhere in our country. heard."
Although the company emphasized that it "supported[s] and respect[s] the second amendment, "he called for more measures to combat gun violence.He later announced his intention to raise the age limit to 21 years, prohibit the sale of large-capacity magazines in all stores and prohibit the sale of "rifles" in Field & Stream stores.
"It is clear that we have a problem with the gun laws in this country," Stack wrote in a statement. op-ed for the Washington Post next month. "They are not directly concerned with ensuring our safety for all – and especially our children – massive shootings continue to occur – in our schools, churches and entertainment venues – after each of these senseless tragic events. there is a lot of fruitless and fruitless discussion in the corridors of Congress, and then the conversation ends quickly. "
Dick had a quarter "more brutal than expected", its sales having dropped by 4%, reported The Daily Wire in August. Among the main reasons: its decline in hunting sales.
"As expected, sales were impacted by strategic decisions we made on slow growth, low-margin product research, and e-business, which accounted for nearly half of the decline in our business." Stack said in a statement released in August. "In addition, we recorded a significant decline in Under Armor's sales as a result of its decision to expand its distribution."
As the Journal notes, Stack says his company is struggling among the main reasons why pro-gun buyers decide to flee its stores.
Related: More bad news for Dick's Sporting Goods after hiring gun control lobbyists
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