So, I'm opening up a gun store...

[Aaron]

In case any noticed I dropped off the face of the Earth for awhile, I moved back up to Whidbey Island and am in the process of opening a gun store/firearms and defensive training facility. Training part is mostly ready to open and the ATF should be giving us our FFL sometime next month, barring any hiccups. Now, here's the problem, we're trying to supply duty gear such as holsters, cuffs & keys, etc to the local police since they have to drive off island to get anything at all...and we can't get hooked up with a distributor or manufacturers. We called one, Red Rock, and have since been calling them back to no avail, so we moved on to Tactical gear Distributors, who setup a retail account for us nice and quick, but they want more than it would cost to buy their stuff full retail from our closest competitor. The only decent prices they have are on actual weapons, which will be nice once we get our FFL, but for now we want to get our non-firearm inventory setup. Eyes, ears, targets, cuffs, everything is just way more than we could charge our customers, let alone pay ourselves. I know some of you have experience in the industry, any advice? Right now I'm looking at trying to buy everything except guns and ammo direct from manufacturer.

[Netpackrat]

Nice, and welcome back. My sister now lives on Whidbey, so if and when I ever go there to visit her (we have relatives on the mainland, so that's usually where I see her) I will try to make time to look you up.

[JustinR]

I would imagine GT Distributers might be interested in your business, but I don't see a link for corporate accounts on their site. https://www.gtdist.com

[Denis]

Welcome back, and best wishes for the new venture!

Give Brownells a call. Setting up a trade account with them is simple, and you'll eventually need to deal with them anyway when you're carrying firearms stuff. Ditto Midway USA. Between them, they'll supply most of what you need to source.

My favourite gunshop carries http://www.511tactical.com/ gear. They would be worth talking to as well.

http://www.lapolicegear.com/ has a good reputation. Perhaps the'd be interested in supplying you wholesale, or drop-shipping on your behalf.

[Aesop]

1) The easiest way to make a small fortune in the gun business, is to start out with a large one.
2) Your customers will be the cheapest, most penny-pinching skinflints on the face of the earth.
3) New guns, overall, will be a break-even proposition.
4) Used guns, if you know your business, will make you money.
5) The bulk of your profit is in the mark-up on all the assorted accessories and miscellany, not guns or ammo.
6) If you focus on honesty, good service, and square dealing, you will build a loyal clientele by word of mouth.
7) If you fail on any of those points, you will be destroyed the same way, and ten times as fast.
8) There are no forgivable mistakes on BATFE and state firearms documentation and inventory paperwork.
9) 1% of your customers will waste 80% of your time.
10) 10% of your customers will give you 70% of your business.
11) You don't know which of those categories every new customer will fall into until it's too late.
12) If you take the time to explain things to newbies - especially women - without making them feel stupid, the dividends it will pay will pay your mortgage - eventually.
13) No one knows everything, including you and any counter help; the likelihood of someone being right and you wrong is inversely proportional to the amount of time and energy you spend arguing with them about it.
13a) The exception to this is the laws on legal and prohibited weapons and other items in your state: you'd better know those laws better than the local constabulary and prosecutor, or you'll get the chance to clarify those points with them in open court.
13b) If anyone EVER offers to make, buy, sell, consign, trade, ship, pick-up or deliver illegal or stolen items, weapons, or other items, give them a handwritten number to call on a slip of paper: whether you make it the local FBI number, the local BATFE number, or the number of the local detectives is your choice. If they come back a second time, call that number yourself, in front of them, and arrange a face-to-face meeting.
14) The telephone is an inferior sales device to the counter; people in the store first, people shopping by AT&T second.
14a) If you post phone book, newspaper, internet, and flyer ads with your business hours, tattoo them on your forehead, print them on your business cards, hire skywriters and blimp flyovers, and stamp them in indelible ink on your customers' hands, 30% of all telephone calls will be to ask you how late you're open.
15) Learning how to tactfully and diplomatically (and sometimes just abruptly and rudely) say "No" to ridiculous, asinine, unreasonable, and impossible requests, without any quavering or guilt, will save you hours of time and nights of sleep.

Oh, and dittos on Brownell's and Midway. Getting to know the people at Dillon is a good idea too.
And anyone who wants you to spend >$10K on an initial order is there to help build his business, not yours.
Buy their stuff from someone else, or do without.

Best wishes on your endeavor.

[HTRN]

1) The easiest way to make a small fortune in the gun business, is to start out with a large one.

This. There is next to zero profit margin on new guns, and to really make money on used guns involves giving pennies on the dollar to widows, and inheritors or who don't know the true value.

[arctictom]

I have run a successful business a long time , couple golden rules ,
- Treat your customers like long lost friends or at least be kind.
- Keep your word , ( even when it means you lose money ) .
- On the rare occasion when your vendors crap out on you ( don't keep their word, shit customer service ) drop them.
- Treat your staff well and pay them appropriately , and fire those that don't treat customers well.
- Price competitively try not to be the cheapest guy on the block
- Customer service is every thing (otherwise they could just buy it online)
Good luck .

[blackeagle603]

Gedunk and impulse buys at the register...

[toad]

New a guy who bought some reconditioned vending machines and stocked them himself from Sam's. Said he didn't waste near the counter time after he did that.

[Aaron]

Thanks for all the replies, as you may have surmised, still pretty busy. Tom, Aesop, Upon looking at your lists, my partners and I decided to print those out and put them somewhere behind the desk. I looked up those distributors, got accounts with some, others not only -refuse to give price breaks to a business, but refuse resale of their products. Our supply chain is shaping up a bit, but still a bit of a work in progress.

I shall try to keep everyone up to date as things progress. Currently putting procurement on the back burner as I try to square away our 'hold harmless' agreement for training, nail down our syllabus, and integrate our security/fire sensors and alarms with the local emergency services. Amusingly, the Island County Sheriffs have a satellite station just a hair's breadth beyond spitting distance from our storefront that I never even knew was there. It's pretty well concealed, but now I know it's there I can shout jokes and insults at the staff if we're smoking at the same time. Fire response is going to be from the federal fire district, located on base, so that should be fun to get setup.

Thanks for all the help thus far, I plan on picking everyone's brains clean as this progresses.