Fred Meyer to stop selling firearms

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Super S
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Fred Meyer to stop selling firearms

Post by Super S »

http://www.columbian.com/news/2018/mar/ ... mmunition/

I am not going to discuss any political aspects of this. But I find this a little surprising because it seems like, in recent years, (despite what the article says) Fred Meyer was gradually adding this back into the sporting goods departments at many of their stores. Longview was one store where the department was added. Makes me wonder if this decision was made by Fred Meyer or if Kroger corporate made the call on this.
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Re: Fred Meyer to stop selling firearms

Post by architect »

Super S wrote: March 18th, 2018, 10:07 am http://www.columbian.com/news/2018/mar/ ... mmunition/

I am not going to discuss any political aspects of this. But I find this a little surprising because it seems like, in recent years, (despite what the article says) Fred Meyer was gradually adding this back into the sporting goods departments at many of their stores. Longview was one store where the department was added. Makes me wonder if this decision was made by Fred Meyer or if Kroger corporate made the call on this.
Kroger was actually just hit with a lawsuit from a 20 year old customer who was denied an ammunition purchase after Fred Meyer raised their minimum purchase age to 21. This could be a move just to avoid the potential for more lawsuits down the road, while also avoiding controversy surrounding this product category as a whole.
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Re: Fred Meyer to stop selling firearms

Post by storewanderer »

Based on some research I have done, including reading various web forums about guns, there seems to be a consensus that the Fred Meyer gun and ammo program was not very good in mix or in price among various people posting on some gun web forums. So there is that.

I expect their sales volume of guns and ammo was probably pretty low. It was likely unprofitable. Some article says annual sales were $7 million on this category. I would expect a key few stores made up the majority of that volume.

With that said, I do not particularly like how they have gone about this. And I was thinking about the whole thing last night as I drove straight past Smiths and started my grocery shopping at Sprouts and then completed it at WinCo last night instead of Smiths.

1. First they announce they are increasing the gun purchase age beyond the federal guidelines.
2. Then they announce they will stop selling any gun related print magazines
3. Then they announce they will stop selling guns and ammo completely but they can't seem to specify exactly "when" they plan to exit the gun and ammo category. Seems a little wishy washy to me. Are they really going to exit the category, or will some fringe stores in areas nobody cares about, like Klamath Falls and the Alaska Stores, continue to offer guns long-term? How do they plan to liquidate the inventory? Will they discount the guns and put a bunch more guns out on the street that would have previously not sold due to the high prices?

I am getting the feeling here they are just looking for PR to put out to make certain special interest groups "happy" and have been getting a lot of mileage out of having press releases about various "gun restriction" moves over the past couple weeks. I hope this is the end of it, but I suspect there is more mileage they could get out of this topic on the PR front in the coming weeks if they so choose. They are getting lots of PR out of this. I get the feeling the company may find the value of the PR they have gotten out of this the past couple weeks as more valuable than whatever revenue they were getting from gun sales. The PR is being spun as overwhelmingly positive in the media.

I would have preferred they just quietly exit the gun category if they wanted to exit it. There is no need for PR. Many people didn't even know they sold guns.

I think Fred Meyer had its gun and ammo program right. It was only in certain stores and it seems like it was carefully placed. They were clearly not going for high sales volume, but the product was there. They weren't selling guns in Portland or Seattle where it just wouldn't have made sense and would have not really fit with the demographics. But selling guns in places like Alaska, Yakima, Klamath Falls, Brookings, this made some sense in locations with limited retail choices, different demographics, more hunting, etc.

This also just further marginalizes the general merchandise departments and mix at Fred Meyer. Some articles on these topics discuss "space optimization" and "focus on food" and similar things that continue to marginalize the whole general merchandise program. I am wondering if the Kroger PR people who are being quoted in some of these articles making these comments even understand what a Fred Meyer Store is or sells, or if they are just thinking there was a little glass case with guns up at the customer service counter in a grocery store.
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Re: Fred Meyer to stop selling firearms

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: March 18th, 2018, 11:15 am Based on some research I have done, including reading various web forums about guns, there seems to be a consensus that the Fred Meyer gun and ammo program was not very good in mix or in price among various people posting on some gun web forums. So there is that.

I expect their sales volume of guns and ammo was probably pretty low. It was likely unprofitable. Some article says annual sales were $7 million on this category. I would expect a key few stores made up the majority of that volume.

With that said, I do not particularly like how they have gone about this. And I was thinking about the whole thing last night as I drove straight past Smiths and started my grocery shopping at Sprouts and then completed it at WinCo last night instead of Smiths.

1. First they announce they are increasing the gun purchase age beyond the federal guidelines.
2. Then they announce they will stop selling any gun related print magazines
3. Then they announce they will stop selling guns and ammo completely but they can't seem to specify exactly "when" they plan to exit the gun and ammo category. Seems a little wishy washy to me. Are they really going to exit the category, or will some fringe stores in areas nobody cares about, like Klamath Falls and the Alaska Stores, continue to offer guns long-term? How do they plan to liquidate the inventory? Will they discount the guns and put a bunch more guns out on the street that would have previously not sold due to the high prices?

I am getting the feeling here they are just looking for PR to put out to make certain special interest groups "happy" and have been getting a lot of mileage out of having press releases about various "gun restriction" moves over the past couple weeks. I hope this is the end of it, but I suspect there is more mileage they could get out of this topic on the PR front in the coming weeks if they so choose. They are getting lots of PR out of this. I get the feeling the company may find the value of the PR they have gotten out of this the past couple weeks as more valuable than whatever revenue they were getting from gun sales. The PR is being spun as overwhelmingly positive in the media.

I would have preferred they just quietly exit the gun category if they wanted to exit it. There is no need for PR. Many people didn't even know they sold guns.

I think Fred Meyer had its gun and ammo program right. It was only in certain stores and it seems like it was carefully placed. They were clearly not going for high sales volume, but the product was there. They weren't selling guns in Portland or Seattle where it just wouldn't have made sense and would have not really fit with the demographics. But selling guns in places like Alaska, Yakima, Klamath Falls, Brookings, this made some sense in locations with limited retail choices, different demographics, more hunting, etc.

This also just further marginalizes the general merchandise departments and mix at Fred Meyer. Some articles on these topics discuss "space optimization" and "focus on food" and similar things that continue to marginalize the whole general merchandise program. I am wondering if the Kroger PR people who are being quoted in some of these articles making these comments even understand what a Fred Meyer Store is or sells, or if they are just thinking there was a little glass case with guns up at the customer service counter in a grocery store.
Retailers should never abandon their target audience for special interest groups. Kmart caught a lot of flak (pun not intended) when it stopped selling guns in 2001, and that further eroded their customer base by sending them to Wal-Mart. Target's shenanigans in the last few years haven't worked terribly well for their business, either.
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Re: Fred Meyer to stop selling firearms

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: March 18th, 2018, 11:15 am

I think Fred Meyer had its gun and ammo program right. It was only in certain stores and it seems like it was carefully placed. They were clearly not going for high sales volume, but the product was there. They weren't selling guns in Portland or Seattle where it just wouldn't have made sense and would have not really fit with the demographics. But selling guns in places like Alaska, Yakima, Klamath Falls, Brookings, this made some sense in locations with limited retail choices, different demographics, more hunting, etc.
The smaller town locations is where I have seen the gun displays. And they aren't always prominent. The one in Longview is toward the back of the store in a corner. You could walk through the store and not notice it.

One thing that could have also had an impact is limited access to hunting areas in recent years. Weyerhaeuser, who once had their lands open to the public, has placed most of their land off limits unless you want to pay for a permit which is a few hundred dollars. Many state/federal lands now require individual permits as well, and this is all in addition to the cost of hunting licenses. I personally know many people who have given up hunting entirely as they feel it is now too expensive.
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Re: Fred Meyer to stop selling firearms

Post by storewanderer »

Some article says they did $7 million in annual revenue on guns and ammo.

Break that out:
That is less than $500 per day in average revenue per store from gun and ammo sales. And I would venture a key few stores produced most of the gun revenue. Clearly this category was failing.

However, their choice of how to exit the category, I believe, will cost them much more...

They should have exited it quietly and been done with it. Even the pro-gun groups have noted this program had high prices and a poor product mix. Clearly, it was a failing category few people were buying in their stores. From a business standpoint, it was time to eliminate it in at least all but a few stores. Instead they chose to make a political statement. I do not believe the political statement was in their best interests. It is best to just stay neutral on these sorts of things. However, discontinuing guns and ammo in most locations probably was in their best interests.
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