Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Dick's

Only time I wander up into the firearms section is during their Thanksgiving night Black Friday sale, when they usually have their 700's marked down cheap and Remington usually runs a rebate. Make great donors at those prices...

We call them "Tallywhacker's" in Alabama. And their firearms dept. pretty much sucks. But they do have very good pre- and post-season sales.

not at all

Once it started to expand it became just another box store, after moving to Pittsburgh from Binghamton they stopped selling handguns and have been down hill since then.

Old Dick Stack had a great store he started at only 18 with $300 from his Grandmother back in 1948. As with many businesses when it is passed down to the next generation their ideal of making it better sucks.

It's just not in your DNA to have an adult discussion without name calling, is it?

I had a Dick ... or, at least, had one when I was younger.

kd

My son marched in there & told a staff member, "I just typed your store into Google, and it sure didn't have anything to do with sporting goods!"

Anymore, I just refer to it as, "Richard's" when in polite company.

FC

I always thought you were a dickhead since way back in the Huntamerica.com days. Nothing's changed.

A buddy of mine got a great deal on a Beretta 686 at a Dick's here in N.C. Heck of a shotgun!

Socks'n'jocks, like Gander or Academy, nothing much to get the excitement flowing. I don't bother going in them any more.

30+ guys all make consistent comments about Dicks. Then you your first comment is Except that it's all wrong. Dicks is great.

Yep, nothing has changed.

When Dick's opened a store near me back in the mid 90's, it was not a bad store. I usually spent money in there around deer and turkey season. However, in fairly short order, it caused the closing of two of my favorite independent stores. One of these had the best gun counter in the county.

When the BassPro opened up 5 miles away, it sucked business off Dick's, and they began de-emphasizing their hunting and fishing departments.

I stopped shopping at Dick's about a decade ago. I was in another part of town and had an hour to kill before an appointment. I went into the Dick's they had at the local mall just to waste time. After a couple of minutes of searching, I could not find the hunting and fishing sections, so I asked a clerk. The clerk got huffy with me and told me they had no such departments in the store.

Since then, Field and Stream has opened a couple stores near me. This is Dick's trying to play to the hunting and fishing crowd, and they come off as sort of BassPro-lite. The prices are outrageous.

Those F&S stores do have an enormous selection... of things I have no use for, no interest in, or both. The gun counter is sizeable. The number of associates and their competence is not.

The last gun store I entered that was truly, "in business" was Whittaker's.

FC

Was not too impressed by Dick's

The one in Lake Charles, Louisiana had a petty good selection of high end baseball gloves. I helped a friend's son buy one.

Try the one in Bangor Maine and get back to Me. In fairness, I haven't stepped foot in there since the Black Rifle fiasco. Maybe it's changed, but I have My doubts. Must admit though, if you are looking for anything Under Armor, that's the place to go.

I suppose I'll have to check out the Vestal & Binghamton stores to see them at their best.

The more-than-a-dozen of their stores I've been to across the midwest have been exactly as described by all the other posters.

FC

Dick's is usually the last place I will go to.

But I do look at their sales flyers when they send them out. Once and a while they will have a killer sale on ammo and gear.
Last fall they had Winchester AA shells for $58.00 a case. I grabbed three cases of 12's and three 20's at that price.
I got some good deals on .22 LR shells too.

I agree with most of the sentiments here. I think Academy is a better box store, generally, than Dick's.

The exception though is if the store they are building has a "Field and Stream" appendage. They recently opened up a Dick's and Field & Stream a few miles from my house. Really two big stores with an opened wall between them.

Field & Stream focuses entirely on the outdoor sports we love. I was honestly impressed when I went in it the first time. I expected the same tired selection of Savage and low end Remingtons and Marlins. I did not expect to see two long walls of guns, two tiers high, with all action types made under the sun. Bolts, levers, semis...Sig, Benelli, Berretta, they even had a few Weatherby rifles on hand. And not just the Vanguards, honest Mark Vs with the price tag to boot. Even had a case full of handguns too; and not just the plastic stuff. 1911s and even several revolvers.

Their reloading section wasn't robust at all but their ammo selection was impressive. Multiple brands and several oddball cartridges. First time I have ever seen .264WM, .220 Swift, and .35 Whelen in stock at the same place.

Typical knife selection on the shelves, but they had Zero Tolerance, KOA and an assortment of Benchmades in the case, among others.

Lots of good clothing too, including Sitka Gear. And their fishing selection is better than the local Academy too.

I spend a fair amount of money in that store...the Dick's store adjacent to it? Not so much. In fact, it is likely that I will never step foot in that store for the foreseeable future.

Thanks, guys. this has been a very enlightening thread. As a matter of fact there is a Field & Stream going in next door, so perhaps that is worthy of a little cautious optimism.