Background: I frequent two LGS. I feel like 'Norm' from cheers when I walk in. They are friendly and already know what to show me based upon past purchases. I guess I am a loyal customer, but I feel that they deserve it. If they have what I want, I buy it or put it on layaway. I rarely handle anything that i don't seriously consider purchasing. I don't haggle, they present fair prices. My online purchases are rare, only because of items they usually don't carry...mainly gun leather, and stuff like that...

A few months ago, I was in LGS #1 and bought a couple of revolvers. I wrote a check to pay...while writing the check, a bizarre fellow came in to the shop so I kept an eye on him and positioned myself in a more tactical advantage. Well the guy left, and I completed my transaction. A few days later, I called the store and asked them about an item I wanted to order...they were like, I'm glad that you called, you wrote your check wrong...so they never even tried to deposit it. I asked them why didn't they call me or something and they said oh we knew that you would be back soon and could just make it right then...I thought that was very cool of them. I returned to the store that day and filled out a correct check, they said I could've waited until the weekend.

Recently, I was in LGS #1, and I just stopped in quickly to see if they had something to shoot out of my 44 magnum, because I have quite a few boxes of factory and reloads but planned on preplacing these before the weekend. They were out. So I was getting ready to leave and the owner told her son to show me the newest single owner gun they just got in...a model 27-2 with a little holster wear and some speed loaders. I instantly bought it...she knows that I'm addicted to N frames and have been looking for a non hillaried model 27 for a while.

LGS #2 admitted to the staff having a conversation about me...in a good way...as to who is going to buy these 44 mag revolvers, they keep getting...that led to my BFR 44 mag thread on the handgun forums. They are genuinely nice and are fun to talk to as well.

Anyways, if you have read through my Deflavian wall of text...thanks, I was just wondering how much the LGS know you? Ours are a friendly bunch around here, very honest and likable.

-John

They hide the nice silverware when I come in.

Very well but they always ask me where my son is. They call him their best customer

I visit quite a few in travels but the local favorite has my cell # and calls me where else could a man buy a featherweight xtr for $400🤣🤷‍♂️

The guy I deal with in town and I are pretty tight, he let's me know when things come in that are up my alley, cuts me a discount on transfers when I purchase used stuff off the net, etc.

We have been to WY antelope hunting together and hunt locally together from time to time. We have a pretty friendly relationship I guess

Long ago, when I barely legal to purchase a handgun, I regularly visited a shop that took care of their regulars. I'm talking about things like,..place a pound of Blue Dot, a zip lock bag of 44 hollow points and some primers on the counter, and they'd knock a few percent off the sticker price of each item. Made a guy feel like a king and kept him coming back.

Even better was when the owner would bring out his latest prized possessions, like a sweet K or L frame with a glass-rod trigger, and ask you to handle it and try the trigger.

There’s a few shops that know me well but two that I go to the most. I buy a lot online but make it a point to usually pick up some powder, mags; whatever at the local store when I do the transfer. I buy a few locally through them when something grabs my eye. I don’t typically haggle over price unless I’m rarely buying multiple bigger dollar items at the same time two guns, or a gun and an optic type thing.

I usually make it a point to tell them that I’ll run up to the credit union and pay cash to save them the CC fees.

LOL, me and my gun shop share the same building, it sucks.

about 5 years ago my local shop had a Marlin bolt action 22 magnum that i was considering buying and the owner took it off the shelf and put it in the back for me. He said come back tomorrow and do the transaction. I thought it over and the next day i called him and told i was going to pass on it. About a week later I called him and asked if he still had it for sale. He told me it was still in the back, because he knew i was going to change my mind and buy it. I was in the shop an hour later doing the paperwork

I typically call to have them place an order.
Last week I was identified by my voice

My FFL guy is a on duty Sergeant with the county patrol

I mind my P's & Q's

I can’t remember the last time I was in a LGS that was worth a damn.

Holy fugg

We don't really have an LGS in my area.

When I had my shop we had almost as much stuff in back for our good customers as we did out front. I knew the guys and I knew what they were interested in. There were a lot of times that I might not have been interested in buying but I knew that a customer or 2 would be interested so I’d buy it with them in mind. Same goes for ammo. We’d get oddball stuff and set it aside for our oddball customers. The regulars that we had were great guys that we took good care of and in turn they took care of us too. They are what I miss from that time, good guys, good conversations and a lot of laughs.

yep... a friend owns an outdoor consignment store and gets most of my "fun fund".

They treat me very well so when in the neighborhood i drop off lunch or some french pastries.

Same friend helped me wire a couple stores that were night work and was great working together.

Several years ago I stopped by one of the local gun shops. There was a shady looking character in there and he was trying to get the owner to let him make payments on a gun. I was behind the counter b.s'ing with the owner and noticed several guns standing in the corner, he said he had just bought the lot from someone less than an hour before and didn't even have them on the books yet. I found a Ruger model 96 in 22 mag that I liked in the collection of guns. Perfect little gun for the Jeep. I didn't have the extra money, he told me to take it and pay him when I had it. The other character started throwing a fit because he wouldn't let him make payments but let me take a gun w/o paying for it. The shop owner assisted him to the door explaining to him that we had known each other since junior high and he knew I was good for it.

Ours is new. Been in there quite a bit and like what I see but trying to figure him out. Seems like a straight shooter but he just moved here from MA. We will see

I haven’t bought a brand new firearm in almost 10 years. I am very acquainted with my local FFL though, they know me well.

LeakyWaders: I have been friends with my local gunshop owner for more than 24 years now.
He often holds guns and sometimes scopes for my first refusal.
I have bought way over 100 (one hundred!) pistols and Rifles from him and sold him just a couple.
In fact I have sold 25 or so of his firearms to fellow CampFirers including a Remington 700 Classic in 257 Weatherby Magnum just last week (I maybe should have bought that one myself?).
I try to always pass along "good deals" I see in his shop to friends and to fellow CampFirers.
My local gunshop owner is a PRINCE of a human being - he is very traditional valued (conservative), he is very devout, he is a family man with four young daughters, he is as honest as the day is long and bends over backwards to satisfy his customers and people that pawn guns with him.
Long live local gun shops.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Anybody ever got a NICS delay and the shop sends you home with the gun anyway to keep you from having to drive back later “we know you’ll clear, but if we call, get your butt back here with it pronto”?

Yeah, me neither.

I'm on a first name basis with about 20 different shops. Some love me, some don't. They know I'm there to get a good deal, not listen to bullschidt.

3 LGS,s I do business in comfort.
And 3 pawn shops
They now I steer business their way from customers coming in.
Well known person.
Horse trade, sell, buy and leave meat on the bone as appropriate.
And get good deals in return.
And eyes out for certain items and calls over the years.
We got this in or this is coming out of pawn on x date type of things.

OTOH...
3 shops around here I wouldn't pizz on if they paid me too...

A couple of lgs’s up home that treated me real well…knew them for years, bailed them out by fixing projects they were over their heads on. Gave me special order stuff at invoice. Always knew when I’d want something they just took in. Good guys, friends, did well in a tough racket…both recently departed….RIP Don and Joe.

My LGS has my signature on the FFL. They treat me well, but the owner is a grouchy SOB.

Well,

I live in a small town & know 1 gun shop owner well. Have shot & hunted with him. Have done a bit of smithing for him some years ago. Now just a customer that can go behind the counter if he likes. They say howdy when I walk in & see ya when I leave. But that's just the ways of a small town & the region I live in.

On a larger scale, a place like Buds took decades to grow to what it is & I'm old, so have known Bud for a while. He's retired now but I shoot with the current manager. That doesn't give me special privileges in a store that size & the clerks that come & go don't know me. But if I need or want something above or beyond, I know which door to knock on.

Not bragging here. Like I said, I've been in the gun game a long time, no big bucks to get a stores attention, just familiarity & getting to know folks throughout the years.

Our local guy is a Jem. Works hard to find something you need and very fair prices. My word is gold there and I keep it that way.

Like a couple of others............................


we don't know what a LGS is around these parts.

Not even sure if there's an FFL within an hours drive.

Nearest shop is over that hour drive. Couple of more in OR but that does me not one bit of good for purchasing a firearm.

Local Ace hardware carries a little bit of ammo, no reloading supplies, some El Cheapo type cleaning stuff, the target stickers and such. Might find a couple of hunting related items too.

The LGS is a 2 hour drive away from here so I don't get in there a lot for FTF buying. Most business is done on-line and over the phone. A friend lives there and travels back and forth so I get free shipping and saves me 4 hr round trip drive.

I hunt there and have been going in there for once or twice a yr for about 30yrs. The owners know me well enough to greet me.

This happened to my dad for years (pawn shop). He came home with lots of good stuff.

Too well.

My buddy, Big Bob, was a rabid Ruger collector. In the last years of his life, he was having trouble getting around, so I'd pick him up and take him around to stores. He was infamous as either "Ruger Bob" or "Santa Claus." Bob looked like a cross between Santa and Chester the Molester. I became known as his sidekick.

There is one store that Bob treated like it was adult day care. I'm still well known in there.

I’ve been doing business with the same LGS for 50 years now. Bought my first pistol from them when I was 13. Of course, Mom had to fill out the paperwork and pick it up.
To say they know me well would be an understatement. 😬

Our best gun store is a pawn shop that sells mostly guns, they treat me fine but I don't buy that many guns. Just two last year. There are some really good gun shops less than an hours drive.

The one I've done the most business with the past 25 years was owned by two brothers that took over from their father. The oldest brother graduated HS with my father. One of the part time guys worked at the same mine as my father. Between me and a couple buddies that made numerous purchases, they got to know me pretty well. However, one brother is now retired and the other is about to. Don't know the next generation as well.

WAY back when I was in the Army, I'd frequent all the gunshops all over Fayetteville, NC (there were a LOT of them), and one in particular always had something I was interested in. AND the owner was a shooter, too, he'd haul out his Class 3 stuff now and then to the sand/gravel pit everyone shot at. He'd always let me shoot his full-auto stuff (Browning marked FN-FAL serial numbered 007) and his H&K G-3s and MP-5s. He knew that was good advertising, and I bought a lot of first class stuff from him (Colts, Brownings, S&Ws, Rugers, H&Ks). He usually gave me a pretty good deal on them, too. I was familiar with his wife and twin daughters, and even THEY knew my name. I don't know if he's still alive, but his shop has expanded exponentially now, (Jim's Pawn Shop). I hear about it even now. I suppose his kids have taken over and are running the place now. If I still lived in NC, I'd be there right now, most likely.

They know me far to well. Most of the time I'm only coming in to pick up a transfer but often enough I walk out with another one. Owner called me and came by my place a while back to learn about meat goats and raising them. His main guy that runs the shop is great to talk to but if there's other folks in there I don't take up his time. They're good folks and if I wasn't always busy I'd stop in more often.