A Partial Farewell… Rangemaster was founded in September 1996 and has operated continuously at our current address since then. Going back to the year 2000, our cash register is actually a PC and it assigns a unique number to each new customer. As that customer returns for future visits his transactions are recorded under his unique number. We just entered customer number 79,641 so that is how many separate individuals have been in here to do business with us just since the year 2000. Almost 45,000 of those customers have taken at least the handgun carry permit course here and about 40% of those have gone on to take additional training. To all of you who have been here over the years we sincerely thank you. All good things must come to an end. We will be closing the Memphis location on August 4, 2014. After that date all of our training will be conducted off-site at various ranges around the country. This only affects the Memphis indoor range location. We will still be quite active on the training circuit, doing more writing, and continuing to serve as an expert witness in court cases. The annual Tactical Conference will continue, at the most excellent Memphis Police Academy facilities. The building itself is now over 50 years old and is costing too much to keep in operation. Over the past couple of years roofing, plumbing, electrical issues, and heating/air conditioning issues have cost us a fortune and that will only get worse as time goes on. Also, our business is based almost entirely on training, particularly handgun carry permit training, and the local market has reached a saturation level at this point. Nationwide between about 2.5% to 3% of the population has a handgun carry permit. Here in Shelby County about 7% of the population has a carry permit, and we trained the majority of them. In Collierville 10% of the population has a carry permit. Internet retail sales are also killing off small businesses all over the US, and that has hurt us as well. Today, customers tend to buy their ammunition, holsters, and even targets online, which has killed our retail business. I really cant complain about that as I almost never buy anything in a store. I buy online and have UPS bring it to my door. Unfortunately our customer base does the same thing. We will continue to update our website, put out our newsletters, and post information on Facebook. As I said, Lynn and I will be traveling all over the US conducting courses and we will conduct a few each year here locally on other peoples ranges. To those of you who have supported us over the years I want to thank you sincerely and wish you all the best in the future.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 15:21:25 +0000
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