Pretty sad you'd think in that area it would be booming.especially since they have archery shop but it's tough making money doing bow work.not much money there but guns and sporting goods should do well in Shelby county
If the owner is same as Nichols concrete I have a story that might serve him right but I'm not sure so won't open that can of worms

It's located in the same building as Nichols Concrete so...

Not being opened on Saturday had to hurt their business. Go to Mark's, Simmons, Van's on a Saturday and they're doing big business. When I lived in Birmingham I rarely had time to make it there M-F. Never bought a gun there. Living in Huntsville now I still make it to the stores I mentioned, almost always on Saturday. Occasionally I can make a stop during the week of my travel schedule allows it.

Wish you well in this difficult situation Beadlescomb.

I messaged the guy listing all the items on FB, he sent me a link to the website where all the guns and optics would be sold. I was inquiring about treestands and archery, he told me just to let him know what i was looking for and he would see what they had left

twobirdsoutdoors.com shows this is out of Vestavia, so im not sure if this is something Nichols owns or not.

Hell, an outdoors store in Chelsea closed about 6-7 years ago. I went and they had a $1,000 bow on sale for $425. I bought it and listed it on Ebay the next day. A fella in Maryland bought it for $950.

I wished that I had bought the other one too.

If Nichols is running a closing sale...I am there! The man who owns it is a diehard conservative and a huge patriot!

Yeah same here and good point.
I'm sure they expect the employees to turn in two week notice but they sure didn't.go figure
Good luck beadle I'm sure it will work out better in long run it normally does
I mostly went to Simmons after work when they were open till 6:00 but after COVID only open till 5:00 so they've lost alot of my business to internet for convenience unfortunately

"Wish you well in this difficult situation Beadlescomb."
Yeah same here and good point.
I'm sure they expect the employees to turn in two week notice but they sure didn't.go figure"

Any place that closes like that, should have to pay for two weeks severance...at least.

Hate it for Beadlescomb and any of the regular customers. I wasn't a regular due to distance, but have spent some coin in the store over the last few years.

Most companies employ workers on an at-will basis. This means that the employer technically has the right to terminate the working relationship at any time and for any reason. This works both ways which means the employee can leave at any time without giving notice.

As the details emerge, if they ever do, they may show that the owner was doing everything possible to keep the doors open and failed at the last minute and had to close immediately so no notice was able to be given. Maybe it was health related? Sad situation but I will hold off on blaming anyone until the details come out.

Just reading between the lines on this thread, it sort of sounds like a cash flow situation with the bank. I could see the last month or two being a low point in the year for sales. If you were in a borderline situation getting enough weekly sales, perhaps at some point the bank quit playing ball with short term loans or whatever to make payroll.

For those worried about their suppressors.

And they also closed Caliber in Homewood a few months ago. If you watched Ozark on Netflix you start looking at every business as if it was a money laundering scheme. I’m not saying they were doing some like that but it makes you wonder what they were doing with this side business in relation to their primary concrete business. Was it pure recreation?
To close both stores within months of each other gets the gears turning.

You will probably see quite a few more smaller independent hunting and fishing stores close in the coming months. That industry went absolutely nuts during Covid and nobody could get enough inventory to keep up with demand. A lot of these stores placed unrealistic PO's to try to lock down more inventory and that was fine for the 2-3 year period of Covid demand. Once folks went back to work and Covid money started drying up, that demand went away quick. When demand fell off and manufacturers caught up, a lot of these retailers started receiving those unrealistic PO's in full and are overloaded with inventory that there is no demand for. Once that happens manufacturers start dropping pricing and retailers end up upside down and overstocked with dead inventory and eventually can't fulfill their obligations.

I saw where whoever runs Nichols Facebook outed marks outdoors because the declined to take a FFL transfer from a purchase made at Nichols. I know a lot of people on here don’t like marks (not sure why they would pass on potentially gaining a customer), but don’t think it’s right for Nichols to post a copy of the email on FB after they are the ones leaving their customers hanging.

They are probably trying to help their customers and Mark's is being Mark's.

I don't know why people shop at Mark's... I really don't.

What that says about the Nichols folks isn't great but not near as bad as what that says about Mark's IMO. What a bunch of punks. Dude was just trying to get his gun. F-them.

One of them is on here I hope they read this. I will be sure to continue to let everyone know y'all are a pack of A-holes.

I went in Nichols and picked up a FFL transfer today. They were super nice about it. I was out in 20 minutes

You are full of shucks. The guy that is on here is as good a person as there is and will go out of his way to help folks, at Mark's or outside of work.

Hate it for Beadlescomb, sorry man. Walter Craig's when it was in Selma went through something similar. A guy bought it and led everyone to believe nothing was going to change as they had a good business with internet gun sales and a nice retail store. Maybe he knew that was going to get harder selling guns over the net but right at Christmas time he came in and told everyone it was their last day. A lot of them were friends too. Then he took the name an opened the store in Montgomery. After the way they did people, I've never bought anything from them since.

Enjoy shopping with those A-Holes. Make sure you hit Field and Stream as well.

I have to agree. The times I’ve been in Mark’s I was treated like a vagrant. Guess I should’ve worn a suit and tie. Last time it happened I vowed to never step foot in there again and I haven’t and I never will. I would drive out of state to buy something before I spent a dime at Mark’s.

I dont blame anyone for moving a business out of Selma. Selma puts the chit in chithole. Customers were probably getting robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot, and inventory loss was probably astronomical.