Does anyone actually buy from a Bricks-and-Mortar Store?

guncollector

guncollector

Joined
Sep 6, 2001
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I'm curious how many of you knife lovers actually buy your knives from a real-life, Brick-and-Mortar Store? Do they still exist in any quantity anymore?

I mean, if I could, I would love nothing better than to go down to the local knife or gunshop to see, handle, and buy knives. Alas, since the San Francisco Gun Exchange closed here a year or two back, there is no knife shop worth visiting. So, I buy almost ALL my knives from online vendors, and other Bladeforumites.

Happy Holidays!
 
So far I've also purchased most of my knives on-line. However, I'm going to be in Solvang (Central California coast) this weekend and plan on checking out Nordic Knives which (although they do have a web site) appears to be mostly a bricks-and-mortar store.
 
I don't know why but I cannot make myself buy online.
I have to actually handle the knife before I make the purchase.
luckily for me there are a few decent knife places around where I live.
I am willing to buy online a replacement of a known model that I may have damaged or lost.

Good luck,
Allen.
 
I do about 10% of my knife buying from B&M stores. Sometimes you want to handle a few knives and just can't wait till the next show. I have a relationship with a few stores that started before www became part of the vocabulary. I still stop in. Don't always know the people working, but the owner remembers me when he is there. Bought my first Randall Model1 and later a Chris Reeve one piece there decades ago (OK a decade and a half or so for the Reeve's and two for the Randall).
 
Solvang is really very nice and Nordic Knives is one of the best knife shops around (great show every year).
If you happen to be in Orange County, Ca.; Plaza Cutlery (Dan Delavan), in Costa Mesa, is outstanding.
Both have a good selection of custom knives on hand.
Regards, Greg
 
The only B&M store I will buy a knife from is Midwest Gun Exchange. They have a nice selection, and good prices that can be haggled with.

My only beef with this store is that the employees only talk guns. They don't seem to know diddly about they own knife wares. This really bothered me until last month when I finally found all of you guys here at the forums!
 
I have bought a few knives from www.beckscutlery.com. I'm sure I could have "saved" a few dollars from online places, but Patsy has always been kind and fair to me. Even when I just play with the new toys and buy nothing. :)


Blades
 
I am one of those poor shmucks who own a "brick & mortar" store. I put out what I think is a great array of cutlery along with the guns and kayaks and archery and fishing stuff. I make knives in a well equipped shop in the back. What is going to happen when people don't support us enough to stay in business. The internet is a great source of information but nothing compared to holding it in your hand and speaking face to face with someone who is knowledgable about the product. I hope I can survive. When some of my customers come in and show me a knife they bought off the web for a couple dollars over my cost they might as well stick it in my chest for how it makes me feel. Thanks for letting me vent. Oh yeah, by the way, the next time you need an expert to regrind the tip you broke off, send it back to your internet buddy.
 
Before I got into customs I bought all my factory knives at B+M stores or at shows (helps to live not too far down the road from Smokey Mountain Knife Works).

While the quality of factory knives has really improved I have found enough "variability" in the quality of even the high end brands that I like to inspect the merchandise prior to purchase. Hard to do that via mail order/internet. Don't get me wrong, there are many fine online merchants, I just feel that ensuring the blade passes muster is worth the extra cost.
 
These guys from N.C. make me want to move back to my home state. Seems there are some good knife stores there. Probably Beck's Cutlery is run by one of my distant relatives, since most N.C. Becks decend from one Devault Beck who immigrated from Koblenz, Germany in the 1760's.

Ironically, when I moved from North Carolina to Georgia I was more into gun collecting, and I was delighted with the near total absence of gun control laws here. In N.C. you had to get a permit from the sheriff to buy a handgun. In Georgia you just needed to bring your checkbook to the gun shop.

I live in metro Atlanta now and have not found any really good knife stores here. The best I have found is Brigade Quartermaster's in Kennesaw, which also does internet sales. I have bought several knives there.

Also, there is Atlanta Cutlery / Museum Replicas in Conyers on the east side of Atlanta, but most of their blades are junk.
 
These guys from N.C. make me want to move back to my home state. Seems there are some good knife stores there. Probably Beck's Cutlery is run by one of my distant relatives, since most N.C. Becks decend from one Devault Beck who immigrated from Koblenz, Germany in the 1760's.

Ironically, when I moved from North Carolina to Georgia I was more into gun collecting, and I was delighted with the near total absence of gun control laws here. In N.C. you had to get a permit from the sheriff to buy a handgun. In Georgia you just needed to bring your checkbook to the gun shop.

I live in metro Atlanta now and have not found any really good knife stores here. The best I have found is Brigade Quartermaster's in Kennesaw, which also does internet sales. I have bought several knives there.

Also, there is Atlanta Cutlery / Museum Replicas in Conyers on the east side of Atlanta, but most of their blades are junk.
 
I buy most on-line or at the Blade Show. Living in Metro Atlanta is a mixed blessing. I get some knives at The Bargin Barn in Jasper about 20 miles up 575 from here. His prices are not bad and The "knife guy" is friendly.
 
That's good to know, pyrguy. However Jasper is a long haul from where I live, on the southwest side of Atlanta. (For those who are not familiar with Atlanta, the metro area is very spread out and it can be 50 - 60 miles from one side to the other.)
 
As soon as I bought my Buck Duke 500 in an actual shop nearby, I found out I could have got it for a tad over half the price on the web.

Generally, knifes in the NL's -especially American knifes- are up to 70-80% more expensive than when bought on the web. I'm sincerely sorry for shopowners but these are HUGE savings.
 
I also miss the old SF Gun Exchange, they were right down the street from my Union Hall and was a great family run business. We Be Knives on the pier has given me the cold shoulder enough times that I don't bother with them anymore, and the Edge of the World moved from Jack London Square out to Brentwood in eastern Contra Costa County. So to handle anthing decent I have to head out past Mt. Diablo or haul myself down to the good shops in San Jose.
 
Originally posted by BFH Knives
I am one of those poor shmucks who own a "brick & mortar" store. What is going to happen when people don't support us enough to stay in business. The internet is a great source of information but nothing compared to holding it in your hand and speaking face to face with someone who is knowledgable about the product. I hope I can survive. When some of my customers come in and show me a knife they bought off the web for a couple dollars over my cost they might as well stick it in my chest for how it makes me feel. Oh yeah, by the way, the next time you need an expert to regrind the tip you broke off, send it back to your internet buddy.
Click to expand...

BFH-

Geez- Didn't Santa bring you anything this year? ;)

Seriously, though- I can empathize with you. I'm blessed to live right near two decent cutlery specific shops with a nice selection, and I will buy the occasional Benchmade and Spyderco from them. However, I mostly just go in to talk shop with people of similar interests.

If they sold the factory stuff for a "couple dollars" over net prices, I'd give them all my factory knife buying business. However, even the owner, who I've become friends with, doesn't blame me for saving what I do by buying online. That $179 Benchmade he's got can be had online for $115 or so, and I don't think he would say I'm stabbing him in the chest for saving that kind of dough. However, as a brick and mortar shop, he does get the new Benchmade stuff often times before anyone else does, and I'll gladly buy the first run models from him at close to full retail. The owner knows that I can get the stuff for way less, and I know that he has overhead to contend with. So we compromise- he offers me a repeat business discount, and I show up in his shop ready to spend some money more often. If he took the attitude that I was somehow taking advantage of him and treated me poorly, I'd laugh at his meager selection (compared to the 'net) and full-blown retail prices and never go in again. If you are truly showing your internet savvy customers value added service, and it sounds like you are, then I agree they should help support your business. Yet at the same time, I don't think you can blame them for educating themselves with the wealth of information online and saving significant amounts by buying from e-tailers.

Perhaps you should look into selling online as well. There are more than a few B&M shops that do a decent bit of business by selling right here on the forums. I don't think you have to necessarily view the internet as your enemy. With a bit of thought, I bet you could find a way to make it work for you too.

Oh, and I don't break tips off of knives, so I wouldn't be sending any back in the first place... ;)

Firebat
 
I have bought a couple of knives from brick and mortar stores. I also use them to get a lot of accessories and books.

I tend to buy most of my knives from custom makers now and none of the B&M stores around these parts carry custom knives.
 
In most places I've lived, brick and mortar stores are never close to me, and the one that is usually turns out to be a generic chain mall store that makes its bread and butter on non-knife-enthusiast walk ins. Not that there's anything wrong with United Cuttlery's Gill Hibben line. :) It doesn't help that the workers in those generic chain mall stores often lack even the fundamental knowledge or even interest in knives, and the markups are never less than double the post-shipping cost of internet knives on the meager selection of interesting knives they carry.

I would welcome a mom & pop type of knife store, but I'm sure my town is just too small to support such a specialized niche.
 
My opinion about this pretty closely follows Firebat.

In addition, I have a B&M store in my town that sell most items at very competitive prices, so that once I factor in shipping, it is usually just as economic for me to buy locally.

With that said, in practice this does not mean much, since I make almost all of my purchases out of the secondary market, which is very alive and well, thanks to the internet.

But, every now and again, I just have to have something today, and I buy locally.

BFH Knives, do you have a website for your custom knives?
 
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