[Troy Michalik]

My question is about pricing. What is a fair mark up for products (ammunition, firearms, accessories)? Do you mark up items on a base percentage or a particular amount in general? For instance is ammunition marked up $3-5 a box and firearms marked up $50 each, or is everything cost +10% across the board?

I realize I’ll never be able to beat the big box stores on price, but I do want to stay competitive with the independent retailers without raping anyone or cutting my own throat.

[mrm14]

Wow, been a long time since we owned retail. Generally how I did it was to meet my overhead, including taxes, and add about 10% for profit. However back in the day you were still good with 8%. When you track your inventory and find part numbers that really move (sell alot of) you can search for longer deals for volume purchases and pass some of that on to your customers to keep your sales volume up. When you find inventory that collects real estate (gets dusty on the shelf from sitting too long) you reduce your stocking quanity or eliminate it and special order only. The "turn rate" of your inventory is critical to your survival in small retail. The last I knew a good turn rate was about 12 to 14 a year. However, it is probably higher than that now.