{"id":66270,"date":"2018-03-15T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=66270"},"modified":"2018-03-13T13:36:10","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T18:36:10","slug":"virtue-signal-received-acknowledged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=66270","title":{"rendered":"Virtue Signal Received, Acknowledged"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtue, signaled<\/a> (two weeks ago):<\/p>\n

Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods will no longer sell assault-style firearms, will ban high-capacity magazines and will not sell any guns to people younger than 21, the company announced Wednesday, a significant move for the retail giant in the midst of renewed calls for national gun reform.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Edward W. Stack made the announcement during an appearance on \u201cGood Morning America\u201d, as well as through a company statement that said \u201cthoughts and prayers are not enough\u201d in the wake of America\u2019s latest mass shooting. Two weeks ago, a gunman killed 17 people, most of them teenagers, in Parkland, Fla., with an AR-15 that was legally purchased. The alleged shooter, Nikolas Cruz, bought a shotgun from a Dick\u2019s store in November, Stack said during the television interview.<\/p>\n

Although the weapon purchased at the Dick\u2019s outlet was not the one used in the massacre, Stack said his company was moved to act.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Virtue signal, responded to<\/a><\/p>\n

Dick\u2019s, which reported fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday, said same store sales fell 2%, double the decline analysts expected…In a call with analysts, Chief Executive Ed Stack acknowledged that the new policy is \u201cnot going to be positive from a traffic and sales standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is difficult to say just how extensive the impact will be. Assault rifles were previously sold at three dozen of the company\u2019s Field & Stream stores. Mr. Stack says the company has already seen pushback. \u201cSome of those customers that buy firearms [from Dick\u2019s] buy other things also.\u201d They may not shop at Dick\u2019s at all anymore, he said.<\/p>\n

That loss is reflected in the company\u2019s outlook. It expects same-store sales will range from flat to a single-digit decline this year. It also said that it will no longer provide analysts and investors with a quarterly outlook, underscoring the sense that the company is troubled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not all about guns.\u00a0 Dick’s, like a lot of national chains, is having a hard time adjusting to a market where Amazon, as well as a raft of e-commerce retailers like CheaperThanDirt, are eating up immense market share.<\/p>\n

But the gun thing?\u00a0 That’s gonna leave a mark.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virtue, signaled (two weeks ago): Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods will no longer sell assault-style firearms, will ban high-capacity magazines and will not sell any guns to people younger than 21, the company announced Wednesday, a significant move for the retail giant in the midst of renewed calls for national gun reform. Chief executive Edward W. Stack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-victim-disarmament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66271,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66270\/revisions\/66271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}