eye95
Well-known member
It bothers me no end that Glock has a deep discount program for LEOs and military (active and retired) but that military Exchanges are not considered "authorized resellers," meaning that it will always be significantly cheaper for folks to buy Glocks off-base (or off-post) and pay the sales tax than to buy on-base, even during a sale.
The regular price for small caliber, non-competition, non-compensating, non-special edition Glocks on-base is about $540. They were on sale this week for $495. Gulf States Distributors, who only sells to LE and military, routinely sells them for a hundred dollars less than that.
The Exchange routinely price-matches local retailers. However, there are at least three problems with that: (1) The written policy, published on the Internet, does not exclude firearms. However, some Exchange personnel think it does. They claim that there is internal direction not to price-match firearms. (2) Maxwell, my nearest Exchange, does not sell firearms. Fort Rucker, the nearest one that does, is more than 50 miles from the "authorized reseller," meaning that they won't price match. (3) The "authorized reseller" is not generally open to the public. It sort of is, but it sort of isn't. However, the Exchange policy does call for price-matching "warehouse clubs." This one is kinda gray.
Anyway, Fort Rucker refused to price-match. I called HQ in Dallas and, after a run-around, finally spoke to someone who conceded that I had a point. It was quite ridiculous that military people absolutely had to NOT purchase a product (firearms) from the Exchange to get the best price--not sometimes, but every time.
Because of my raising this issue, they are looking into what it will take to get the same incentives from Glock that "authorized resellers" get when they sell to LE or military (active or retired). Otherwise, they lose money on every Glock that they price-match, which would motivate NOT price-matching.
In the interim, I was called by one of the managers at the Fort Rucker Exchange and told that, in appreciation for bringing this to their attention, they would do a one-time price-match for me, while they explore what they will need to do in order to be able to routinely sell Glocks at deep discounts, obviating the need to price-match (or at least making the price-match cost so few dollars that they still have a small profit margin on each sale).
So I just got my first Glock for $100 off the sale price. I hope that I have started the ball rolling on an Exchange program that will allow military to get the military price at military Exchanges, rather than having to go outside the military system to get the military rate!
Anyway, the associates who sell the firearms are required to give a briefing on local and State gun laws. Among other bits of common misinformation floating around out there, I was briefed that I could not carry in establishments that serve alcohol. I corrected the associate and directed him here if he wanted to research the law for himself.
I also (very reluctantly) gave him the URL of the State website. Even if I loathe the way the movement has been co-opted by a single person via that web site, the site still is the best single point of information on Alabama gun law. I also passed along the two URLs to another customer who overheard our conversation, along with my reservations about one person running what should be a grass-roots movement.
Anyway, it was a good day--except for NICS screwing up royally (that system is just so badly handled), but that is another story altogether.
The regular price for small caliber, non-competition, non-compensating, non-special edition Glocks on-base is about $540. They were on sale this week for $495. Gulf States Distributors, who only sells to LE and military, routinely sells them for a hundred dollars less than that.
The Exchange routinely price-matches local retailers. However, there are at least three problems with that: (1) The written policy, published on the Internet, does not exclude firearms. However, some Exchange personnel think it does. They claim that there is internal direction not to price-match firearms. (2) Maxwell, my nearest Exchange, does not sell firearms. Fort Rucker, the nearest one that does, is more than 50 miles from the "authorized reseller," meaning that they won't price match. (3) The "authorized reseller" is not generally open to the public. It sort of is, but it sort of isn't. However, the Exchange policy does call for price-matching "warehouse clubs." This one is kinda gray.
Anyway, Fort Rucker refused to price-match. I called HQ in Dallas and, after a run-around, finally spoke to someone who conceded that I had a point. It was quite ridiculous that military people absolutely had to NOT purchase a product (firearms) from the Exchange to get the best price--not sometimes, but every time.
Because of my raising this issue, they are looking into what it will take to get the same incentives from Glock that "authorized resellers" get when they sell to LE or military (active or retired). Otherwise, they lose money on every Glock that they price-match, which would motivate NOT price-matching.
In the interim, I was called by one of the managers at the Fort Rucker Exchange and told that, in appreciation for bringing this to their attention, they would do a one-time price-match for me, while they explore what they will need to do in order to be able to routinely sell Glocks at deep discounts, obviating the need to price-match (or at least making the price-match cost so few dollars that they still have a small profit margin on each sale).
So I just got my first Glock for $100 off the sale price. I hope that I have started the ball rolling on an Exchange program that will allow military to get the military price at military Exchanges, rather than having to go outside the military system to get the military rate!
Anyway, the associates who sell the firearms are required to give a briefing on local and State gun laws. Among other bits of common misinformation floating around out there, I was briefed that I could not carry in establishments that serve alcohol. I corrected the associate and directed him here if he wanted to research the law for himself.
I also (very reluctantly) gave him the URL of the State website. Even if I loathe the way the movement has been co-opted by a single person via that web site, the site still is the best single point of information on Alabama gun law. I also passed along the two URLs to another customer who overheard our conversation, along with my reservations about one person running what should be a grass-roots movement.
Anyway, it was a good day--except for NICS screwing up royally (that system is just so badly handled), but that is another story altogether.
