Hey, how’s Dick’s Sporting Goods doing?
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. On 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.
So how’s that been working out?
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.
$150 million? The virtue signalling bullshit has cost Dick’s $150 million?
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.
I wonder what the shareholders have to say about that? This is nothing but financial mismanagement. If I was a shareholder I would be pissed. Of course, if I was a shareholder, I would have dumped my stock as soon as Dick’s announced that they hated gun owners. I hope Dick’s continues to lose money and closes stores.
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 will never buy anything from Dick’s. Ever!
2% off their gross revenue isn’t that big of a deal.
Now if golfers who also shoot stop spending there……
Yes, $150 million sounds like a lot, but 2% is more like a paper cut than a mortal wound. And this is what we’re up against, corporate juggernauts that feel secure enough in their positions to not have to worry about stepping on the little people. And of course some classes of corporate juggernauts manage to take government money off the table directly or indirectly, so we’re all “customers” as long as we pay taxes.
Yes but when you tell investors 2% loss, that doesn’t go over very well. A publicly traded company has a lot more folks to answer to then just themselves and their employees.
Saw an TV ad on the HGTV channel this afternoon with some skirt espousing how they have restructured their store experience for more softball bats / gloves and athletic shoes…
Ed Stack hasn’t got the balls to put HIS face to their decline – has to hide behind a skirt mouthpiece.
They were too expensive!! And Hoity-Toity
I boycott them already. Thanks for the affirmation.
Never will buy from them. Never did to begin with. I will find other stores that will not stab you in the back or the front.
Same here, defshepard. Closest one is about 50 miles and since I’m almost never in that town for anything else, I sure ain’t drivin’ all that way to support a bunch of dicks who would rather virtue signal than make money for their stockholders. A friend was showin’ me a .380 he got from them at a pretty good price, just a couple of years ago, but since buyin’ from them means there’s paper involved, that’s just another strike against them. Hose ’em.
Exactly Inbred, no love for them and Gillette either.
I usually bought golf items at Dick’s. Stopped going there when their anti-gun virtue signaling started.
Another observation: When you walk into Dicks now you immediately see more and more pinks, purples, yellows, lime green, etc. in their inventory. Over the years they have increasingly devoted more of their floorspace to overpriced women’s apparel and accessories at the expense of actual sports gear, which is shunted off to the sides and back of the store.
Some of the stores in the Pacific NW used to be GI Joe’s, then just Joe’s. Once shuttered, several of the stores (including Eugene’s) were purchased/renovated/reopened by Dick’s. Our family used to shop at GI Joe’s quite a bit … been in the Dick’s store once. Joe’s was quite the hunting/camping/hiking/etc store while Dick’s seems to cater more to the soccer Mom/T-ball/$2K bicycle riding crowd. No big surprise in their position and/or virtue signaling, alliance with Alyssa Milano … or their now reported losses.
I buy from my local gun store right here in Gun Barrel City, Texas.
Where I live there are plenty of local guns stores to chose from. No problem there. Forget Dicks, I have other options.
Your generation is dying off. It is wise for any business to look to younger generations for long-term, sustainable growth.
Indeed! That’s why a forward-looking holster manufacturer has introduced THIS!
And now we have Alyssa Milano, Sean Spicolli, and Alex Baldwin threatening to boycott us if we stop killing so many babies.
Went to my local Dick’s twice – neither time did they have anyone working in the gun section.
Dudley1 here …..I do not shop at Dicks Sporting Goods ….Why ? They do not make sure their employees know anything about traditional hunting products.for sale in the store.
Several years ago I received a gift certificate for Dicks & went there with apprehension. I went to the area where the ammo, guns & assorted products were displayed & waited while the clerks there explained to some yahoo they did not sell bicycling clothing in the hunting area & pointed to the section where he would find what he was looking for. So good so far but…..
When this clerk who looked about 14 asked what I was looking for ,,,,,,I explained I had a gift certificate & wanted to look at Leupold Rifle scopes. He responded sorry they only handled the major brands!
I tried to explain that Leupold was probably the number one or two most popular Rifle Scopes. No Luck with him or the Department Manager, he was just as dumb.
I ended up going to the credit department & signed over my gift card to the Christmas charity they had for needy children ……I hope they had more luck then me.
Dicks Sporting Goods ..BWAHAHAHAHA! I shop on line now, no problems & a better price.
Jeeeze, dud, that’s a sad story. How does a chain like that stay in business?
Dick’s?
Why in the hell would any self-respecting outdoorsman shop there? Back when they sold guns they were overpriced and uninformed worse than even the idiots at Bass Pro Shop.