I've noticed a slow decline in local store inventory for at least 10 years, but in the last 3 years it just slid off a cliff. There are times that I would like to buy an item right now. But, there's about a 70% chance I won't find anything I'm looking for sitting on a stores shelf.

In my recent shopping experience the supply chain issues have affected EVERYTHING. That said...

I sense there is another dimension to "not in stock". 40 years ago, stores I sold to could carry almost everything from a brand or 3 of popular consumer goods. Marketing geniuses try something new all the time, even when it ain't broke they claim to fix it. Consumer choice is spoken as if it has no downside, until confusing or splintered. Niche products are quite interesting till it crowds out staple and lifelong products. This very same industry now has about 20X the SKUs to offer, and that is impossible to carry in brick and mortar. These days it apparently results in the improbable timing to manufacture, transport, and arrive at the very time when the internet tells you which one to buy.

The convenience of online shopping is the bane of every brick and mortar retailer. Certainly it impacts how much stuff we're willing to carry and backstock. I can only imagine how it is for a big retail outlet. Supply chain problems continue as well; the omnipresent reality of relying on a "global" economy to actually operate smoothly, what with pandemics and economic slowdowns and the rest of the BS that's hampering what anyone is able to stock and sell.

Our store sells more than just gun stuff, and Christmas is counted upon to reduce our inventory load, especially when it comes to our inventory tax burden for the year. Shoppers who peruse and then choose to buy those same items online to save a few dollars likely killed our overall sales this past Christmas, even though our guns and ammo sales did very well for this past holiday season. We do get it that money is tight and people need to do what they need to do, but it just goes to perpetuate the practice of being unwilling to carry much in the way of inventory out of the fear of not being able to sell it in a timely (and profitable) manner.

Them there's the reality...

I live in Tennessee, we moved my elderly mother to Texas where my sister is. My mother is old school and wants to go to stores and shop for things. My sister tells her no one stocks anything anymore and wants to order everything online. When I asked my sister why no one stocks anything she uses the one word many people use for anything that has changed or is wrong, “Covid”. I said covid is over. She claims covid isn’t over, but since covid, stores have changed how they do business, and only stock the fast-selling items.

I hear a lot of retailers trying to explain why this is a good idea. I suspect they will be out of business before long. You don’t combat Amazon by not having inventory, you combat them by having product someone can walk in and buy. If an item has to be ordered and the customer has to wait, Amazon has won.

Several years ago when I was buying mostly used guns, I found that I could order online and get new for near the price of used. I’d like to buy my guns at local dealers. I’d be willing to pay $50 or $75 more on a $1200 rifle locally than what I can order it for. But not $300, that’s ridiculous. I can afford that, but I can’t justify it. Also, I’m old and have a large gun collection, so the guns I’m buying may be specialty stuff or the latest new thing that the local dealers can’t get. I also suspect the cost of distributors is causing local gun stores to not be able to compete, but I don’t know that. Many people don’t understand ordering guns online or simply don’t want the hassle. So there are plenty of gun stores around me.

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Originally posted by preten2b:
supply chain issues have affected EVERYTHING.

This is simply the bullshit excuse everyone keeps using to explain away their lack of stock and I refuse to accept it. It's lazy and quite simply insulting to tell me you can't get something, yet an online retailer has no problems getting it. If there's a break in the supply chain, I'll suspect the business telling me is the weak link because they don't know how to order shit when they need to. Add in brick and mortar stores starting to use drop shipping from warehouses, there's really no need for me to waste half a day and go burn $30 worth of gas trying to find something locally (within 45 miles of me). When I do venture out to find anything, all I find is 3 or 4 racks/shelves full of overpriced, touristy bullshit that's made in China and other useless crap instead of what I'm actually after.

I've got a couple of decent gun store options near enough to me, but even they have gone insane with their pricing. I understand keeping the lights on, but I refuse to pay $2-300 more for the exact same item even after CC fees, taxes, transfer fee, and shipping. An example would be a pump shotgun for $450 shipped but the local yokel wants $600? I'll pay my $25 transfer fee and put the rest towards ammo, thanks. With 1 exception, the gun shops don't even carry the accessories for guns they have a good inventory of (which used to be how they beat out the internet). Same goes for ammo pricing (and gouging during hard times). I've written off a few places simply because they charge 2-3x more for a box of ammo vs online retailers on a good day, and I'll be damned if you're gonna try and sell me a 20 round box of PMC Bronze 223 for $100 just because you have it when shit goes sideways.