Should I be Annoyed?

[hornswaggle]

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a good consumer in that most of the time I'll walk away due to bad customer service rather than confront them about it. I've gone in to gun shops with cash in pocket with full intent to spend it but left empty handed because they were obviously not interested in my business. Unfortunately the actions/attitude of one employee can cast an unfair shadow on the entire business. The right thing to do in the OP's situration probably would have been to ask why the other customer could purchase the ammo and let them give an explanation, but right or wrong I probably would have done just what he did and walk out p'd off.

The more important issue here that the OP did not address was what gun was he looking at and if he bought it why he didn't post a pic???

[JohnGageMN]

That's freedom of association. Pretty much all businesses have regular customers and those regulars will tend to get at least some level of special treatment as a reward for spending more money with a business and/or being a personal friend of the owner. If I were a shop owner in these times I would probably hold back a small amount of my inventory for friends and regulars too in these times of madness. Especially with the way certain folks have been snatching up everything they see to re-sell it on Armslist, etc.

I think it's difficult to make a judgment without knowing both sides of the story. Had I been in your shoes I would have probably politely pressed the issue by saying "Huh, I just saw the previous customer get some brass cased from your other employee".

[OldmanFCSA]

I would be annoyed if that was all the info I had, BUT I would have yelled "WHY" if the same type of ammo was being sold at same moment to another customer.

I was in another highly respected store in the NE Metro are that has a 300 primer limit sign posted on shelves reserved for primers. Was asked if I needed anything and as a joke said "about 10,000 small pistol primers" which set off one of the owners as my being a "hoarder" when they know I know they have no primers. They know I teach reloading and am always looking for primers to continue my classes. So I dropped the subject, and walked to back of store to look.

Was approached to be asked if I wanted to sell some of my IMI 50BMG primers for $15 per 100 (they sell CCI#35 for $35 per 100), NO - I will keep them, called a hoarder again.

Used their bathroom. While peeing, look around to see cases of 9mm ammo, many, many boxes of Nosler 40 grain 0.224 bullets at $15 per 100, lots of other ammo, primers, powder, etc. When done I asked if that stuff was for sale as it was priced, was told "No, we're saving that for our Grand Opening in June." I wanted to call them HOARDERS but kept my mouth shut.

Another customer found a bag of 308WIN cases, was told it was not for sale although bagged and price-marked.

We all walked out together. Will not be stopping there again for awhile, and definitely not sending my students there looking for reloading supplies.

[aaron878]

So what would your expectation, as a customer be if you were a long time customer, and were coming in for some ammo for that newest $2k rifle-one of many you bought from this shop?

Although I addressed this in my original post, if ammo was being reserved for "special" customers I'd appreciate an honest answer when I asked for it. "We're reserving this shipment for people who recently bought a rifle." - I wouldn't have been upset at all.

[Snowgun]

Networking people, It's who you know.

[xd ED]

So what would your expectation, as a customer be if you were a long time customer, and were coming in for some ammo for that newest $2k rifle-one of many you bought from this shop?

Although I addressed this in my original post, if ammo was being reserved for "special" customers I'd appreciate an honest answer when I asked for it. "We're reserving this shipment for people who recently bought a rifle." - I wouldn't have been upset at all.

I wasn't directing this at you, per se, just throwing it out there as possible context.

[darnzen]

While I'm not certain this happened in my shop, it easily could have given the way things have been recently.

There is such a drought in ammo-land that any delivery containing ammunition is an "exciting" event. We had not seen any 9mm come in for over 6 wks and then we got a shipment of five 50 rd boxes. What's the fairest way to distribute this? Employees want it, regulars want it, new customers want it, and complete strangers call every 5-10 min asking if we have any 9mm in stock.

We decided to only sell one box at a time, and only to people buying a 9mm handgun so they would have something to shoot.

This Monday we got in some 223. We got 10 boxes of brass cased, and several thousand rounds of steel cased. Besides the ammo we got dozens of guns and transfers, and 7 large boxes full of hundreds of small items ranging from brushes to optics. It takes us a while to get things into the computer and priced, especially when we get large shipments. I tell everyone to not "sell" items that aren't out on the floor yet, but not everyone knows the status, people get excited, and even in a small shop you will get different answers. When things get hectic on a day that several big shipments arrive, one salesperson may know that new stuff is entered by poking their head in the back, and another may not even be aware of what has arrived.

The correct response to your query should have been "We just got some ammo in today. We got in a bunch of steel cased and a couple of boxes of brass. I don't know the status of the inventory, let me go check. Would you like me to see if I could set some aside for you if it's not ready to be sold?" Of course, getting asked 1000 times a day if you have 223 can make someone a bit terse when answering. Especially if they have been working non-stop with customers and aren't keeping up with what's going on in the back room.

Part of what makes a small shop different from a big box store is that we build relationships with our customers. We might give our regulars a heads up call, but we try to keep luck as much of a factor as friendship. Our job is to please as many customers as possible. Serving only a few customers really well will not grow the business much, so we try to spread the wealth as much as we can.

[Northfield 556]

Expressing your displeasure with your feet/wallet will have more impact on a smaller shop than on a major retailer. Cabelas, Gander Mountain and others could care less if you walk out empty handed. One dissatisfied customer means nothing to them.

For the most part, I agree...but I was at the Cabellas south location last Tuesday looking for some 9mm ammo and the shelves were empty. I happened to come across an employee RE-stocking ammo and I asked him if he had some of the ammo that I was looking for. Not only did he show me some left over PD 9mm, he then offered me the two boxes of range quality ammo that he was about to put on the shelf.
This crunch on ammo has made me realize that you can find some true friends in the " big box" shops, just as easily as you can find some true, self serving pricks at your local shops.
I actually work with some local shops, and I am a huge supporter of their businesses, but what I'm saying is that you can find A-holes working at either.