Gun Sales Could End At NoVA Sporting Goods Chain

Dick’s Sporting Goods, which banned assault-style weapons from all of its stores after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting last year, said this week it will remove firearms from 125 of its lowest-performing stores later this year. That represents about 17 percent Dick’s stores, but it’s not yet known if stores in the District and Virginia will be affected.

The chain operates several stores in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. They include:

• Crossroads Center, 5716 Columbia Pike, Bailey's Crossroads
• Springfield Town Center, 6601 Springfield Mall, Springfield
• The Shops At Dakota Crossing, 2470 Market Street NE, Washington, DC
• Smoke Town Station, 13080 Worth Avenue, Dale City
• East Market, 12501 Fairlakes Circle, Fairfax
• Bull Run Plaza, 10800 Sudley Manor Drive, Manassas
• Dulles Town Center, 21070 Dulles Town Circle, Dulles
• Dulles Landing, 24670 Dulles Landing Drive, Unit 100, Sterling
• Battlefield Shopping Center, 1079 Edwards Ferry Road, Leesburg
• Shops At Stonewall, 8009 Stonewall Shops Square, Gainesville
• Spotsylvania Mall, 137 Spotsylvania Mall, Unit 290, Fredericksburg

Ed Stack, chief executive officer of the Coraopolis, Pennsylvania-based chain, said on a quarterly earnings call that if the decision works out well in the 125 stores, it will remove hunting gear — which includes rifles, ammunition and accessories associated with hunting — from even more stores, Bloomberg reported.

Last year, Dick’s gave the policy a trial run in 10 stores, resulting in a rise in fourth-quarter sales at those locations, Stack said on the call. The company replaced the hunting items with kayaks and other outdoor gear.

After it was revealed that accused Parkland shooter Nikolaus Cruz purchased a weapon from a Dick’s store, the chain removed not only assault-style weapons from its inventory, but also high-capacity magazines. The gun Cruz purchased was not used in the attack, which killed 17 people, but Stack said at the time that it could have been, The New York Times reported.

At the time, Dick’s also raised the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21.

That decision by Dick’s, once a major seller of firearms, angered many, including the powerful National Rifle Association, which called it a “strange business model.” The National Sports Foundation booted Dick’s from its membership rolls last year, citing “conduct detrimental” to the organization’s goals, and gun owners called for a mass boycott of the chain.

Stack was among four CEOs who signed a letter supporting the universal gun control bill passed last month by the U.S. House of Representatives. He also joined Everytown For Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that advocates for gun control.

Stack made clear on the call that the backlash from pro-Second Amendment groups was a “meaningful driver” in sales declines. For the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2018, net income fell to $102.6 million. This year, the company expects its sales to remain flat or increase by 2 percent.

The chain operates 729 stores under the Dick’s Sporting Goods logo, 94 Golf Galaxy stores and 35 Field & Stream Stores.

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