Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Edward Stack is holding firm on his company’s decision to crack down on firearm sales in its own stores despite admitting that the policy has been bad for business.
In a statement made to the Goldman Sachs Retailing Conference first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, Stack fully admitted that the company’s 3.9 percent drop in third quarter sales was in part due to the company’s new policies. Dick’s Sporting Goods removed assault-style weapons from its shelves in the wake of the widely-known mass shooting at a high school in Parkland Florida. The company also barred individuals under 21-years-old from purchasing certain types of firearms.
While the relationship between policy and result seems pretty obvious, Stack tried to play it off as if a loss in profits was part of some master plan.
“Well I think it’s definitely a factor, and it’s nothing that we didn’t anticipate,” the CEO said. “As we put out kind of our guidance for the year and our earnings guidance for the year, we knew this would happen when — we’ve made some decisions on firearms in the past and we’ve had a pretty good idea of what these consequences were going to be.”
Despite basically admitting that the company made a bad call, Stack doubled down.
“We felt that was absolutely the right thing to do,” he added. “We would do the same thing again if we had a mulligan, so to speak, to do it again.”
Of course, these new in-store policies were not the only slight to gun owners made by the sports apparel retailer. In an extra display of overt virtue signaling, the company hired Washington lobbyists to advocate for gun control.
Adding fuel to the fire, several gun manufacturers have severed all ties with the business.
“We’ve had some vendors who’ve decided based on our decision to not sell the assault-style rifle that was used in the Parkland shooting that they wouldn’t sell us any longer,” Stack explained. “So, as you know, there’s been some people who said we’re not going to sell you any firearms anymore. We’re not going to sell you our product. We’ve had some other people who’ve indicated that they wouldn’t shop with us any longer.”
This is a very bizarre statement. Essentially, Stack is telling us that the company’s arbitrary decision to insult every single would-be gun owner and customer for PR reasons ended up backfiring, but it’s all fine because they did the right thing.
In response to the profit free-fall, Dick’s Sporting Goods is rumored to be considering closing its Field & Stream outlets.
~ Firearm Daily
