From: "Alex Hamilton", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
May I wade in on David Edwards's and Antony Harrison's
exchange and say that I have also bought stuff direct
from USA on several occasions in the past year and in
each instance I paid a lot less that prices quoted
here, even with VAT and duty added!
Mr. Edwards should note that I am paying US RETAIL
prices to start with, inclusive of the US dealer's margin
and my willingness to support "the local shop" extends to
the same margin as the US dealer gets.
Therefore, when I order something on Internet at US
retail price, pay carriage, VAT and Duty and find that I
paid about 30% less than the quoted price in UK, I know
that the time has come for our gun trade to learn the
same lesson that the motor trade is learning now!!!!!!
In a nutshell, guns and shooting accessories retail
business, without a substantial gunsmithing side, is
only a part-time occupation as most customers have to
work and, generally speaking, do not shop in the week.
I do not know your particular circumstances, Mr. Edwards,
but if you are offering us convenience of shopping
locally 6 days a week when we can shop only on 2 days,
you should open only at week-ends and get another
job as well! Don't just sit there waiting for one
customer per day and expect to make good living - I for
one am not prepared to finance that sort of semi-idleness.
Alternatively, do show more enterprise! Buy in larger
quantities, start an efficient mail order and do come to
the gun shows and Bisley meetings where you can drum up
more business by being competitive for a change!
You can probably quadruple your turnover by cutting
prices by 15%!
Bullets, powder and primers are "commodities". I do
not need to see what I am buying and there is no emotional
involvement - just like buying a tonne of coal. Only the
price matters! Just as an example, I was asked to pay L24
for 1,000 30 calibre gas checks and I can get them from
USA for L9 + carriage, VAT and Duty. Any reason why you
cannot sell them for L12 per 1,000?
Do take these comments in a positive fashion and do
something about your business if you want to stay in
"gun trade".
Alex
--
A large part of this problem has been the handgun ban.
There were all sorts of optional widgets for handguns,
a massive variety of calibres, and each handgun sport
needed a different handgun.
That's not the case with GR, you can shoot all of the
pseudo handgun events with two rifles, one centrefire
and one .22, and there are less accessories. You don't
need a holster, for example!
Even with the more traditional rifle events you don't
need as many guns or bits in my experience. I suppose
if you shoot TR, MR, PR, GR and ISSF you'll need a fair
few guns but still not as many as you needed for say,
service pistol, ISSF pistol, IPSC, 1500, LRP and so
on (I had four for IPSC alone). Also I notice that
there aren't as many multi-discipline rifle shooters
as there were multi-discipline pistol shooters. And
also I know I don't seem to get through as much rifle
ammo as I did pistol ammo.
The police are awkward about part-time RFDs which is
another problem, as it is simply not viable for most
RFDs to be full-time anymore.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
___________________________________________________________
T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
