Do your big-box stores treat you like a baby?

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AlongCameJones

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If you buy a new gun at Academy in Oklahoma, a store employee has to carry the boxed gun in their hands out the door from the gun bar. If you bring the gun back for any reason, they have to escort you from the door to the gun bar. Walmart used to do the same thing back in the 1990's when I bought two new guns there then. I bought a new Ruger American ranch 5.56 NATO rifle not long ago and I had to bring it to Academy for factory warranty repair shipping and handling last two months and just got it back home yesterday. The bolt operation was very sticky. Rounds difficult to chamber and extract. I got the baby escort treatment at Academy.

Big retail corporations have screwy notions about guns and gun owners. They might be worried about somebody shoplifting a gun in a big store. Big stores and big businesses have government bureaucracy mindedness. I hate it at Walmarts when they ask to see my receipt at the door too. They don't do that in ordinary regional chain supermarkets. Some big-box electronic store chains really act like its airport security when the customer leaves the store with something. It makes the shopping experience seem less pleasant when store employees act like TSO agents. This probably makes online shopping seem like an attractive alternative these days.

No mom-and-pop gun store I know of escorts people in and out with guns like kids. I generally like dealing with a LGS for firearms transactions anyway. Mom-and-pops are generally more friendly.
 
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Aries

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It probably has more to do with the possibility of someone buying a gun, loading up with ammo somewhere between the gun counter and the door, and shooting up the store. Whether it effectively prevents that or not, it's hard to blame stores these days for being concerned about mass shootings. IF that's the reason (or one of), I'm speculating...

And shoplifting costs Walmart and other retailers shocking amounts of money. The bigger you are, the more you lose (not necessarily by percentage, but raw numbers). If the DON'T try to reduce or prevent that, the rest of us who shop there pay for it.

Stores don't really implement annoying policies just to be annoying. They're trying to accomplish something, but it gets on some people's toes. They know that going in, and have to weigh the risk/reward factors.
 

Snattlerake

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Was at Cabela's recently and was looking at holsters. I wanted to see the fitment of my gun in their holster and asked if I could go get my gun from the truck to see how it fit and rode on my belt. They met me at the front door and put a trigger lock on my gun which was in the case with no magazine and no ammo. We got to the gun bar and the same guy that was showing me the holster refused to take off the trigger lock.

I was carrying concealed
 

AlongCameJones

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It probably has more to do with the possibility of someone buying a gun, loading up with ammo somewhere between the gun counter and the door, and shooting up the store. Whether it effectively prevents that or not, it's hard to blame stores these days for being concerned about mass shootings. IF that's the reason (or one of), I'm speculating...

And shoplifting costs Walmart and other retailers shocking amounts of money. The bigger you are, the more you lose (not necessarily by percentage, but raw numbers). If the DON'T try to reduce or prevent that, the rest of us who shop there pay for it.

Stores don't really implement annoying policies just to be annoying. They're trying to accomplish something, but it gets on some people's toes. They know that going in, and have to weigh the risk/reward factors.

The Walmarts and Target in Lawton might only ask to see a receipt if something is not in a bag. I always have the receipt in hand going out if something is not in a bag. If the receipt is visible they don't ask to see it most of the time. Regular supermarkets and food/grocery stores don't have such tight security. They don't have an employee guarding the door. They would only stop a suspected shoplifter but most supermarkets don't have cameras like Walmarts. A supermarket is smaller than a Walmart Super-center and probably easier to watch. Big department stores like JC Penny, Sears and Macy's don't tend to have Walmart-like security either.

Yes, it's a different and not-so-innocent America these days. Society is now edgy.
Computers and tech crap and all the introversion that goes with it have made people seem less human too. I'm a boomer and have seen different times.
 

druryj

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If you buy a new gun at Academy in Oklahoma, a store employee has to carry the boxed gun in their hands out the door from the gun bar. If you bring the gun back for any reason, they have to escort you from the door to the gun bar. Walmart used to do the same thing back in the 1990's when I bought two new guns there then. I bought a new Ruger American ranch 5.56 NATO rifle not long ago and I had to bring it to Academy for factory warranty repair shipping and handling last two months and just got it back home yesterday. The bolt operation was very sticky. Rounds difficult to chamber and extract. I got the baby escort treatment at Academy.

Big retail corporations have screwy notions about guns and gun owners. They might be worried about somebody shoplifting a gun in a big store. Big stores and big businesses have government bureaucracy mindedness. I hate it at Walmarts when they ask to see my receipt at the door too. They don't do that in ordinary regional chain supermarkets. Some big-box electronic store chains really act like its airport security when the customer leaves the store with something. It makes the shopping experience seem less pleasant when store employees act like TSO agents. This probably makes online shopping seem like an attractive alternative these days.

No mom-and-pop gun store I know of escorts people in and out with guns like kids. I generally like dealing with a LGS for firearms transactions anyway. Mom-and-pops are generally more friendly.

I bought one of those HeritageRough Riders with the 16” barrel at Academy and felt ridiculous having the young kid carry my gun to the front door for me. But I’m sure that with Academy and other Big Box Stores, there are lawyers behind the scene pulling these kind of strings. Not so at Mom &Pops. No big deal, but it is a minor annoyance to be treated like an imbecile.
 

Glocktogo

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Was at Cabela's recently and was looking at holsters. I wanted to see the fitment of my gun in their holster and asked if I could go get my gun from the truck to see how it fit and rode on my belt. They met me at the front door and put a trigger lock on my gun which was in the case with no magazine and no ammo. We got to the gun bar and the same guy that was showing me the holster refused to take off the trigger lock.

I was carrying concealed

I'm afraid I'd have had to pointedly discuss with them what idiots they were being.
 

Rez Exelon

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If you want to have some fun, go to Academy, walk out with the new gun, take it out, put it in a holster and come back in. Watch their minds explode. Because they don't object to legal carry in the store, but they do object to you walking back in with a gun you just bought. Those two policies conflict --- ask me how I know.
 
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