Once upon a time I was attending a really large, all-conference trap meet with my son. Got there good and early and pulled into a parking spot. About an hour later I saw from afar that a guy was double-parking behind me but he proceeded to start to work the event. “No problem,” I thought to myself, “he’s a volunteer here so I can track him down later in the day if I need him to move.”
Eventually, Later In The Day rolled around and I went to the clubhouse to see if I could find the fella. I spoke to a lady there and told her I was looking for the guy. She asked me to describe him. I told her everything I knew, giving lots of detail as a joke... Older white guy, maybe 60-65 years old. Driving a late 90s Chevy pickup with rust over the rear wheel wells. Portly. Slouchy posture. Gray hair. Grizzled beard. Tattered old cap. Plaid shirt. Jeans kinda falling down with his gut and butt cascading over his belt. Not particularly friendly looking.
She just looked at me for about ten seconds then said, completely seriously and mostly to herself rather than to me, as if she’d just been struck by some horrific revelation, “You know what? That describes all of them.”
I could say similar things about a lot of the gun shops / ranges that have popped up around the country in recent years, but the fashion and demographics would be different. If shotgunners are a bunch of old curmudgeons, the guys with the black tee shirts and cargo pants wanting to open up their range called Elite Tactical Zombie Shooter Readiness Solutions suffer from stereotypes (and insider-only jargon) of their own.
I’m not saying the market is / isn’t 150% saturated. Maybe it is. But My point is I don’t see a lot of creativity or diversity being exhibited to lure new shooters into the sport.
This isn’t true just of the gun biz. It happens with everything all the way down to the lowly cupcake. Places like Magnolia in New York or Georgetown Cupcake in DC start a huge trend and get national attention, with lines of customers around the block. Next thing you know, everyone is copying them. A decade later here in Podunk, Nebraska, people are still saying, “oooohhhh I’ve heard cupcakes are a big thing, maybe I’ll open up a cupcake shop.” Twelve months later it folds.
Nearly all gun shops / ranges are “good” just like nearly all cupcakes are tasty. Ho hum. I can make my own cupcake at home, and I can find the cheapest prices for a gun by doing a gundeals dot com search. A paper target 15 yards down range looks the same no matter where I’m shooting it. So as far as getting into an already saturated market, what ideas do you have that are unique and revolutionary? What generational or social niche will you cater to that others currently don’t? Those ideas probably need to be your own or you’ll just be a clone of your competitors.
