Just returned from a 45 mile drive (each way) to BassPro Shop in Manteca, CA. This is in northern CA, out in the valley. Never been to a BassPro store and this place is huge! Like the Home Depot of sporting good stores.
I went to the firearm department, and they had TEN people behind the counter. It was so busy, you had to take a number. They were on 00 and I was 05, but it took at least 25+ minutes to get to me, mostly because people were actually buying and/or taking delivery of guns, a time-consuming process in CA. Rifles and handguns were walking out. Plenty of shotguns and quite a few rifles, including Remington, Savage, Browning, and even Howa.
Ammo, brass, bullets, powder, primers, were all out on the floor and not behind the counter. But, the shelves looked like that of a grocery store after panic buying for an impeding hurricane. A single bottle of Blue Dot was all that graced the powder shelves. No 22 rimfire ammo at all. An employee would periodically put out a couple of boxes of ammo, in what to me appeared to be an obvious attempt to meter it out, even with a one box limit per customer. I was shocked to see how cheap a 250 round box of Remington UMC 45ACP pistol ammo was. $50.
Cool place, but the busiest department, by far, was the firearms area. And that with all the shortages. And plenty of other things I did not expect, like RCBS dies, other reloading tools, Tipton gun vise, safes, etc. Most of the stuff is mid range level, but appropriate I think for the customer base I observed. I just wish they had more reloading components, but no surprise either.
Phil
I went to the firearm department, and they had TEN people behind the counter. It was so busy, you had to take a number. They were on 00 and I was 05, but it took at least 25+ minutes to get to me, mostly because people were actually buying and/or taking delivery of guns, a time-consuming process in CA. Rifles and handguns were walking out. Plenty of shotguns and quite a few rifles, including Remington, Savage, Browning, and even Howa.
Ammo, brass, bullets, powder, primers, were all out on the floor and not behind the counter. But, the shelves looked like that of a grocery store after panic buying for an impeding hurricane. A single bottle of Blue Dot was all that graced the powder shelves. No 22 rimfire ammo at all. An employee would periodically put out a couple of boxes of ammo, in what to me appeared to be an obvious attempt to meter it out, even with a one box limit per customer. I was shocked to see how cheap a 250 round box of Remington UMC 45ACP pistol ammo was. $50.
Cool place, but the busiest department, by far, was the firearms area. And that with all the shortages. And plenty of other things I did not expect, like RCBS dies, other reloading tools, Tipton gun vise, safes, etc. Most of the stuff is mid range level, but appropriate I think for the customer base I observed. I just wish they had more reloading components, but no surprise either.
Phil
