The local Gander Mtn. recently spent some time and money remodeling the whole back of their store into something that's supposed to be some kind of a big deal. A few weeks ago, I happened to talk to one of their employees and he told me that it was going to be great. Once the construction was finished they'd move the smokeless powder cabinet back to the main floor where people can actually look for powder, they'd have a real reloading section again and the huge counter meant that they'd be able to serve customers much more quickly than ever before.
Well, they had the "Grand Opening" of their new Firearms Super Center or whatever they call it this past weekend. The smokeless powder is still in the stock room. You still have to wait 20+ minutes for your turn to ask for help and they still tell you that they don't have anything but black powder substitutes when you ask. The one exception is that they have exactly one employee who will go back and look in the cabinet and come back and tell you what they actually do have in smokeless powders. The trouble is that he doesn't work every day and you have a one in three chance of getting him after your 20+ minute wait if he does happen to be working when you are there. According to that employee, they do get smokeless powder in their orders and they have it in the cabinet by 9:00 AM on Monday.
Their reloading section is unchanged. The same seven or eight boxes of bullets (270 and 22 caliber), the same pile of Claybuster wads (12 gauge only) and the same leftovers from when they got rid of their real reloading department a couple of years ago.
The guns are all well behind the counter and its just about impossible to read the tags to see the price, caliber or gauge even if they do have the tags turned so you can read them. You have to wait your 20+ minutes for someone to help you with that. For their "Grand Opening" I counted four employees working the gun counter.
Its the same store, the same service, (if you wish to call it that) and the same basic stock as before. I saw nothing new but the counter. I certainly saw no new reason to patronize the place.
Last evening, I was looking through the 24 Hour Campfire and saw a thread on Gander Mtn. It was a thread about the exact same thing in another location. This seems to be corporate policy.
Its really a shame.
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