Monday, June 23, 2014

Why I hate shopping for guns

I don’t mean to tar all you gun salesmen with the same brush, but why I can I not walk into a gun shop/gun show without someone trying to sell me a pink gun? About the only time it hasn’t happened was while in the company of about a dozen other gun bloggers. My local store even tried to sell me a pink rifle that was sized down for women. Let that sink in for a moment. He tried to sell an undersized rifle to someone who stands six feet tall and has a 74” wing span. The last gun show I went to, I purposely dressed in brown tweed so as to not trip either the “cute” or the “camouflage” stereotype and I still got flagged down with promises of Mattel colors.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was last Friday. I was in Large Sporting Goods store where I was assisted by a very helpful employee in confirming the black power supplies I needed didn’t exist in his store. I told him I was just going to look at the pistols under glass on my way out, but that I wasn’t in the market for anything any time soon and thanked him for his help. As I worked my way down the counter, I ran into his associate who was chatting up a couple. He asked what I was looking for, and I told him what caliber, but that I wasn’t in the market yet. His response?

“I got a hot pink one in the back!”

I spun on my heel and started to exit, but stopped after two steps and turned back.

“Really?” I said. “The first thing that comes out of your mouth is the color? Not the manufacturer, or the model, but the COLOR? SERIOUSLY?”

The female half of the couple standing there assured me that it was real “purdy”. She’d seen it!

I sighed and resumed my exit.

I don’t have a pink hammer, or a pink trim saw, pink kitchen knives, a pink mixer, a pink lawnmower or a pink car. Other than one pair of scissors, I can not think of a single tool I own that is pink. When I walk into a wine store, the salesweasels don’t assume I drink white zinfandel, or show me where the wine coolers. My used car guy doesn’t try to sell me a minivan. Why do guns stores think I want a pink gun?

 

 

 

 

 

13 comments:

  1. So what is worse, being offered something in pink, or being totally ignored?

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    1. I don't really have a preferred flavor of crappy customer service, actually.

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  2. I love the "You have three heads" look I get when I ask to see the purple colored handguns.

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  3. Liston - I get ignored, too. I went into my local gun store and told the guy who recognized me that I was there for their FB special for the "Out of the box Mosin Nagant". He immediately interrupted to tell me they were missing some info from the seller on the transfer then did for me 3 months earlier. (Read: They didn't copy it down). I tracked it down for him at which point he filled out the book, and then excused himself to go attend to customers. I said "What am I? Chopped liver?" The phone rang, he answered it, and then walked off with me still standing there.

    I am most certainly a novice. But if you want to sell me a gun based on color rather than asking what I plan on using it for I'm not so sure I'm going to have a lot of faith in anything you tell me. Help educate me and earn my trust, and you'll have a customer for life.

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  4. i love how the first response gives off the air of "well you ASKED for it!"

    no. we ask for respect. we don't ask to be treated like children. assuming we'll buy anything based on color is assuming we have the maturity of children.

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  5. Blatant stupidity in this day and age... Sigh...

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  6. Basic black & a string of pearls!

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  7. And yet the other woman in the store confirmed the stereotype, didn't she?

    Sadly, folks like you and Tam are few and far between.

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    Replies
    1. 90% of customers in gun stores confirm another sort of stereotype, Mr. B, and yet I will address you as though you are an intelligent person who knows what you want and understands which end the bullet comes out, even though, sadly, people like you are few and far between.

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  8. I hate the color pink. But, I have learned that a band of pink glow in the dark duck tape on all my tools & equipment, keeps them from walking away, and can be spotted at distance.

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  9. Hey, consider it a compliment! the guy immediately recognised that you were a girl! Regrettably, a painfully inordinate percentage of [ostensibly] female customers at a friends small firearms store locally take several hard [and painful] looks to determine their gender...

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  10. I detest pink and just hate the way everything geared for selling to women is pink. Thanks, but even though I am average height and 120# female, that doesn't mean I need a pink and dainty hammer or a pink gun.

    My power tools are yellow and black, or red and black. My hand tools are in "mens" colors. And my guns are black. Don't even try to give me a pink anything!

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