Dick’s Sporting Goods braces for financial impact of new gun policies

By Christen Smith

Leadership at Dick’s Sporting Goods isn’t entirely sure how new firearm policies will impact sales, but the outlook isn’t bright. (Photo: Dick’s Sporting Goods/Facebook)
Dick’s Sporting Goods predicts 2018 could see a single digit decrease in store sales as a result of the company’s new firearm policies announced last month.
Chief Executive Officer Edward Stack said although he’s received a “surprising outpouring of support” for the new rules, the company expects flat same store sales, at best, throughout 2018.
“The announcement we made two weeks ago regarding our firearms policy is not going to be positive from a traffic standpoint and a sales standpoint,” he told investors Tuesday. “There’s going to be the people who just don’t shop us anymore for anything.”
Stack’s Feb. 28 announcement indicated the company would ban gun sales to customers under 21 and permanently discontinue its inventory of “assault-style” rifles. Dick’s operates more than 700 locations nationwide, including 26 Field & Stream stores. The company removed AR rifles from its Dicks locations in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, but will pull all remaining stock from its Field & Stream locations, too, Stack said.
The policy changes come as a response to the Valentine’s Day shooting at

Source: Guns.com