More fun with Smith & Wesson

M

Mikul

New member
When at my local range/gun shop today, I asked them what they were planning to do about the S&W deal with the government, and I was told that their distributor, who is responsible for 25% of all S&W sales has decided to no longer offer S&W guns for sale. The store's policy is simply that they already sell "assault rifles" and even full auto, and aren't going to give that up.

He let me read the fax sent to him by the distributer, and it was worded very well; stating that due to S&W's decision to implement policy that did nothing to curb crime, they would like to (I love the way they put this) encourage Smith & Wesson to change it's mind by no longer carrying their guns, but that they would again if S&W were to decide to pull out of this deal.

The store is planning on sending several high-end S&Ws that they just received back to the distributer as well.

I really have to hand it to the distributer for being willing to give up a big portion of it's sales like that.

It just warmed my heart.
 
It'll be interesting to see if this becomes a general trend among firearms wholesalers and retailers. Personally, I hope it does. I think that S&W, like any manufacturer of a consumer product, needs to pay attention to the wishes of its consumers. As it is, the Feds messed with S&W and now S&W wants to pass it along by messing with us.
 
WHOA! 25% of gun sales gone at one fell swoop--NOBODY in the gun industry makes high enough profits to lose 25% of their sales at once, do they? And that's just one distributor.
Hope HUD needs a lot of guns, or S&W is well and truly screwed.
 
It is RSR Distribution. I saw the letter this afternoon, it had been sent to all dealer around the country this morning.

It is a very polite open letter to Smith & Wesson, stating that they will not enter under any agreement with them. And, until they (S&W) renegotiates a better settlement with the government AND include all other parties (everyone in the industry, current dealers included), they will no longer purchase firearms from S & W.

RSR is sitting on $30 million in S&W inventory. After its gone, so is Smith & Wesson.

Robert
 
Corporate Office:
RSR Management Corporation
4405 Metric Drive
Winter park, FL 32792

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Beatriz Atorresagasti, (407) 677-1333, x. 251

FOR RELEASE TO: Shooting Industry Members and Publications

March 22, 2000

Smith & Wesson Should Rethink Agreement - A Message To Our Customers

On Friday, March 17, 2000, Smith & Wesson announced that it had reached a settlement agreement with federal, state, and local governments which, according to S&W's press release, would help insure the "viability of Smith & Wesson as an ongoing business entity in the face of the crippling cost of
litigation." Although this agreement is being hailed by some as a positive new development, it is our opinion as a wholesale distributor in the shooting sports industry that its terms are one-sided and fall short ofoffering any realistic solutions to the problems concerning the criminal
misuse of firearms.

Many of you may have already seen the version of the agreement that is on HUD's website. The actual agreement is far more onerous. We believe that input from the retail and wholesale sales channels should have been sought during the negotiations. Although RSR has been a leading distributor of
Smith & Wesson products for more than 20 years, we have come to the difficult conclusion that we cannot continue to do business with Smith & Wesson under the problematic terms of their current agreement.

Instead of turning our backs on a company that has meant so much to all of us, we must be steadfast in our resolve to encourage Smith & Wesson to reopen the negotiations and involve representatives from the entire industry
and the government as well, so we can work together to find workable solutions.

In the meantime, we want to assure our customers that we remain committed to providing them with the best service and product selection from leading manufacturers and suppliers of the shooting sports industry.

RSR Group, Inc., is a distributor of shooting sports equipment and accessories, with sales and distribution facilities in Rochester, NY.; Winter Park, FL.; Reno, NV.; Grand Prairie, TX.; and Milwaukee, WI.



------------------
http://www.dd-b.net/RKBA/ http://www.tcsn.net/doncicci/freedom.htm http://home.earthlink.net/~spwenger/spwenger.html
 
I wonder if there is any way for the distributor to return the inventory...

30 million is a lot. I'ld consider dumping it fast in an overseas market just to get rid of it.
 
obviously the S&W poroduct is defective and for the good of the children, S&W should accept its return so that it can be outfitted with all the new required features.

After all if only one childs life could be saved from the distributers returning these guns to S&W it is worth it.

which key combo makes the retch smile?
;)

dZ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top