President's Message: Just Do It (With a Smile)

“The most effective way to do it is to do it.” – Amelia Earhart

I bet when you read the title, some of you thought I was going to talk about a certain shoe and apparel company. Nope. I’m going to talk about Amelia Earhart, and great customer service. I’ll get back to Ms. Earhart in just a bit.

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to take my wife flying. We’ve both been pretty busy so most of my flying adventures these past few months have been by myself or with some of my flying buddies. But the weather Sunday was spectacular and Stacey and I had a chance to do some Kansas sightseeing.

It began in Lucas, KS at the K-18 Café. Where we had some of the best restaurant customer service I can ever remember. Lucas is not big. The café is not big. The airport is also, you guessed it, not big.

What was supposed to be a small group of five to seven Kansas airplanes turned into 15 airplanes in the span of 30 minutes. I met a lot of new folks that day so that was cool. But what was even more cool, was to see the staff at K-18 kick things into high gear when we all descended upon the café.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Continued Adjustments in 2023

For many industries, 2023 has been a year of adjustments. The shooting sports industry seems to be following that description as well. Here are a few observations from our data team to provide a little context to these SCOPE reports. 

• NICS checks are down 20% June 2023 vs. June 2022.  NICS have been basically flat YoY.
• Retailers (FFLs) are not buying back inventory at the same rate.  They are rebuilding their assortments and "right sizing" inventory levels.  The end customers want broader options to choose from.
• Market uncertainty is causing an abundance of caution.
• Uvalde drove a sales spike last year, non-recurring. Uvalde happened late May with impact felt in June.

Firearms Shipments

Ammunition Shipments

Optics Shipments

Data isn’t the only thing that matters in business. Relationships between co-workers and customers are key, as are the often-overlooked ties between retailers and distributors. Distributors have insights and connections individual retailers don’t. Asking can make all the difference.

Michele Salerno, Director of Marketing Asst. VP at Celerant, says that “Dealers tend to have limited visibility into what is selling (or not) at other gun shops across the country. Having access to this data helps them make better buying decisions, which can also be based on their region, as that can be a factor as well. Using industry-wide data to guide buying decisions can only help dealers be more competitive.” This data is available through NASGW’s SCOPE. While SCOPE has long focused on distributor data, SCOPE CLX now offers retailer data. Celerant collects retailer sales data from participating dealers through their software and anonymously passes it on to SCOPE. This information is then aggregated.

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

• Report Shows Drop in Initial Unemployment Claims
• UPS Strike Could Be Historically Costly
• CSF: Wildlife Management Reform Webinar
• Producer Price Index Slows to 0.1% Annualized Inflation
• NhRP Can't Take a Hint

August 1-3, 2023

NSSF Annual Import/Export Conference

Washington D.C.

October 24-27, 2023

NASGW Expo

Columbus, OH

January 23-26, 2024

SHOT Show

Las Vegas, NV

January 30 - February 1, 2024

NAW Executive Summit

Washington D.C.

May 17-19, 2024

NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits

Dallas, TX

UPCOMING EVENTS