Can you purchase a Colt 6920 at Walmart

[dudg]

I hear many people on other forums buying Colt 6920s at Walmart, my question is, can you buy a 6920 in Walmarts in Minnesota? I live down by Mankato and thy do not sell firearms here.

[cs tunes]

Some do and some don't. The Walmart in lakeville sells long guns however here in the cities I've not run across one. I picked up my 870 at Walmart in Hudson because it was cheaper than anywhere else even used. That being said if its a store that sells long guns you may in fact find one with the colt you search for.

[bensdad]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Colt-LE6920-C ... O/21677322

Really? Didn't you just get a mosin about 5 minutes ago?

[loose]

How dare them 2 people give colt a bad review!

When did walmart in kato stop selling guns? I slightly remember them having guns when I was a youngster, late 80s early 90s when the gun stuff was in the back corner.

[dudg]

How dare them 2 people give colt a bad review!

When did walmart in kato stop selling guns? I slightly remember them having guns when I was a youngster, late 80s early 90s when the gun stuff was in the back corner.

I've lived in the area for 15 years and no guns during that time that I remember but that isn't my first choice for a place to shop.

[Slayer_MN1]

Walmart's in mn do not sell assault style firearms. Other states do, I see AR's in Wyoming when I go antelope hunting.

[smurfman]

Walmart can order just about any gun you wish, or at least any which Hick's has in their book. I've ordered a couple of guns through Walmart and it wasn't much of a problem unless buying handguns where I have found two stores in MN not willing to do so while knowing of others in other states buying handguns through their local Walmart.

The drawback is time, it can take weeks or even months to get your order in. I waited 9 weeks to get in a Win 94 in 45 Colt and have heard as long as that many months for others. The problem was the frequency of shipping from the distributor as Walmart tends to deal direct with the manufacturer on more popular items and with the distributor on those less so. The plus, if you don't mind waiting, has been no shipping, insurance, or transfer fees.

I also suspect you will have to deal directly with the department manager rather than a clerk. I ordered during meek days and dealt with a guy wearing a dress shirt and tie which seems to be management's "uniform".

Walmart stopped selling guns briefly several years ago. They resumed a year or so later in some of their stores. I think it is around 50% nationwide. Since the resumption of selling guns I have seem AR type rifles on the shelf at Pine City, Cloquet, and Cambridge Walmarts. I don't recall seeing more than one except for 22s where I remember seeing a handful.

[photogpat]

Major retailers like Walmart get a Walmart-specific model of major products like these rifles.

In order to meet the price point that Walmart demands, the manufacturer usually undergoes some cost cutting during production. Swap out a stainless part with blued, metal with MIM or plastic, etc...

Bottom line, evaluate the product carefully for quality. The old adage, if the deal seems too good to be true certainly applies here.

[Hmac]

Major retailers like Walmart get a Walmart-specific model of major products like these rifles.

In order to meet the price point that Walmart demands, the manufacturer usually undergoes some cost cutting during production. Swap out a stainless part with blued, metal with MIM or plastic, etc...

Bottom line, evaluate the product carefully for quality. The old adage, if the deal seems too good to be true certainly applies here.

That's been a rumor since the first days of big box retailers no doubt started by Mom and Pop to try to offset their volume-buying disadvantage. It's illegal to have various versions of the same model number and has been denied over and over as well as investigated. I think a 6920 is a 6920 no matter where it's sold and that price point is achieved by volume buying. Can you document otherwise? Other than anecdotes, can you come up with some Forbes or Wall Street a Journal article that proves your assertion?

[xd ED]

I've known a couple of business owners whose biggest customer (by orders of magnitude) were big box retailers -Homers Depot, WallyWorld, FleetFarm. There are many, seemingly extreme demands from these customers re price points, delivery times/ quantities, warranty service etc, etc. Never heard any of them suggest there was a 'b' line of product sold to any of them.

But I wonder, who sells more ARs; a Bud's , or Wally World?
How much would Colt be willing to dance for WallyWorld, given the universal demand for ARs?

[photogpat]

Major retailers like Walmart get a Walmart-specific model of major products like these rifles.

In order to meet the price point that Walmart demands, the manufacturer usually undergoes some cost cutting during production. Swap out a stainless part with blued, metal with MIM or plastic, etc...

Bottom line, evaluate the product carefully for quality. The old adage, if the deal seems too good to be true certainly applies here.

That's been a rumor since the first days of big box retailers no doubt started by Mom and Pop to try to offset their volume-buying disadvantage. It's illegal to have various versions of the same model number and has been denied over and over as well as investigated. I think a 6920 is a 6920 no matter where it's sold and that price point is achieved by volume buying. Can you document otherwise? Other than anecdotes, can you come up with some Forbes or Wall Street a Journal article that proves your assertion?

No need to become confrontational. Its not just anecdotal, Google can show you numerous other products (ammo included) that have an ever so slightly different part number for one major retailer over another. Feel free to Google for yourself as I'm heading out for the day.

As for the Colt at Walmart, after looking into this one this morning. It appears Colt stripped down the included accessories (1 mag, no sling, no cleaning kit) in order to hit this price point - but the online reviews seem to confirm its the real deal Colt same as the other retailers. So your assessment of this particular product is correct.

All I said above was to let the buyer beware. Just saying'.

[smurfman]

As already mentioned, there are no "B-list" for products by the major stores. It would be too cost prohibitive to change a line or part(s) for each of the various items a manufacturer makes. Leaving out some accessories is a way some companies save on costs and is employed by many.

Much easier and far, far cheaper is to change the parts number on the packaging. This is a very common happening as was mentioned a couple posts earlier. This is great for those companies which claim to have the lowest price on an item and will match or beat any price on the same item. A pair of big electronics stores (one now out of business) did this a lot. When asked to price match what appeared to be an identical product somewhere else, they would point out the difference in part numbers. Opening the package would reveal both product numbers (and often others) on the owner's manual. No different than Winchester, Sears, Wards, et al with their lines of firearms (or other goods) made by the likes of Winchester, Marlin, Mossberg, et al. No one knowledgeable claimed those products were "inferior" to those carrying the actual manufacturer's name.

Quality wise you aren't going to find differences, in the accessories provided there may be differences.

[Hmac]

Major retailers like Walmart get a Walmart-specific model of major products like these rifles.

In order to meet the price point that Walmart demands, the manufacturer usually undergoes some cost cutting during production. Swap out a stainless part with blued, metal with MIM or plastic, etc...

Bottom line, evaluate the product carefully for quality. The old adage, if the deal seems too good to be true certainly applies here.

That's been a rumor since the first days of big box retailers no doubt started by Mom and Pop to try to offset their volume-buying disadvantage. It's illegal to have various versions of the same model number and has been denied over and over as well as investigated. I think a 6920 is a 6920 no matter where it's sold and that price point is achieved by volume buying. Can you document otherwise? Other than anecdotes, can you come up with some Forbes or Wall Street a Journal article that proves your assertion?

No need to become confrontational. Its not just anecdotal, Google can show you numerous other products (ammo included) that have an ever so slightly different part number for one major retailer over another. Feel free to Google for yourself as I'm heading out for the day.

As for the Colt at Walmart, after looking into this one this morning. It appears Colt stripped down the included accessories (1 mag, no sling, no cleaning kit) in order to hit this price point - but the online reviews seem to confirm its the real deal Colt same as the other retailers. So your assessment of this particular product is correct.

All I said above was to let the buyer beware. Just saying'.

Not trying to be confrontational, just trying to dispel what is, in my opinion, an often-propagated false rumor.

It's true that different SKU numbers for the same item show up on the boxes at different retailers....true of big box stores and mom/pop stores, but that's done to confuse comparison shopping, not to identify varying quality levels, and was done at the request of the smaller stores to limit comparison shopping, or so that they could always say, "well, that Samsung refrigerator from Best Buy has a different SKU because it's the poorly made model". False rumor. Also done to inhibit price-matching demands. Identical appliance or electronic device cheaper at WalMart, but Best Buy doesn't have to price match because they have different SKU's.

It's not true of major model numbers like "Colt 6920". A 6920 from WalMart is the same gun down to the smallest rivet as a 6920 from your LGS.

As to what's in the box, Colt has changed the configuration of the LE6920 to every retailer as of about a year ago. Nothing special about WalMart. They did away with the carry handle (added an MBUS), no sling, no cleaning kit, one M3 PMAG instead of two USGI mags. I believe they also dropped the Rogers Super Stock in favor of the old SOCOM stock. Not a WalMart special, just Colt feeling the financial pinch. There are probably some older packaging versions still out there.

http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php ... %282013%29

It would be illegal to market an item with the same model designation (not SKU number) and for it to have a lesser build quality so the assertion that a WalMart 6920 might have some different construction parts (MIM, blued, steel, plastic, etc)....would be unfortunate, and incorrect.

[LarryFlew]

Used to work for an appliance mfg that made refrigerators, freezers, washers and dryers with 55 different brand names that where just a stick on name tag that where identical in every way including model etc. They also made 19 that where customer specific and they all had different numbers. Ever since loss leaders became illegal they became pretty specific. B4 that time we mfg a vertical freezer with black interior, no light and no shelf brackets. One for each Montgomery Wards store in the country. They advertised it way below cost. They sold one of 600+ and upgraded other customers.

[UnaStamus]

Colt won't intentionally drop their quality to meet wholesale cost demands. All 6920s are made to the exact same specifications for components (save the NFA features) as the military M4(R0920)/M4A1(R0921). My agency uses the LE6921, which is the semi-auto only variant of the R092X series. With the exception of a Semi-Auto receiver and Semi-auto FCG, the gun is part-for-part identical to the R0920/1. We've compared it next to two separate 6920 commercial rifles from different build dates, and you can't tell the difference in quality or components (save the 16" barrel).

Having said that, gun buying panics have a way of causing manufacturing demands to go up. Sometimes sub-standard components squeak their way through the QC/QA process. It happens. It just depends on how often it happens, and how bad it is. It's easily conceivable for Colt to put out a couple rifles that are not up to par, but it's going to be an exception to the rule. They have good QC/QA normally, and they will make things right if there is a problem. There are lesser companies who have far more problems that slip by the quality controls, and there are lesser companies (including one in MN) who intentionally drops their quality standards to meet production demands. Colt doesn't. Because of this, I would put very little creedence in a negative review on Walmart's website for a Colt. One review was even written by someone who couldn't even use proper terminology, let alone properly formulate a coherent sentence. Or use of grammar. When I read moronic reviews that look like they were done by an illiterate moron drunk on Wild Turkey, I tend to believe the exact opposite.

Besides all that, Colt also has no need to pander to Walmart. Despite how big of a retailer Walmart is, Colt still doesn't care and won't change things just to appease them. If Colt won't do it for anyone else, they're not going to do it for Walmart. Walmart also likely isn't even close to being the biggest single Colt retailer. I'm fairly certain that companies like Buds Gun Shop, Davidsons Gallery of Guns and Bass Pro Shops has them beat.

When gun manufacturers make a retailer-specific model, it's advertised as such. POF does it with Cabelas. It's not an inferior model, or a cheaper costing one. It's simply a unique configuration that can only be sold by Cabelas.