Is Dick’s Sporting Goods Strategy To Eliminate Guns From Its Stores Paying Off?

Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) has announced that it will pull guns from another 440 stores in 2020 amid the announcement of its fiscal 2019 earnings report.

The sporting goods retailer made the decision to test the elimination of high-capacity guns magazines at its stores in response to the deadly Parkland, Florida, school shooting in 2018. Dick’s also prohibited anyone under the age of 21 from buying firearms at any of its stores at the same time.

Eight months later, the company pulled guns from 10 stores as part of a test. Later that same year, Dick’s removed firearms from 125 more stores and started a strategic review of its hunting products.

Dick’s has come under fire for the move, seeing its sales drip in the quarters that followed the decision. Instead of returning the firearms to manufacturers, the company destroyed about $5 million worth of inventory to prevent the guns from hitting the streets.

The company has since replaced firearms and hunting gear products with team sports items, which is designed to bring parents and their children into its stores, CNBC reported. Dick’s has also been investing in private label apparel for women at its stores, according to the news outlet.

The company has seen its sales bounce back, reporting a consolidated same-store sales increase of 3.7% in fiscal 2019, with expectations of consolidated same-store sales to be approximately flat or increase up to 2% in 2020.

Shares of Dick's stock were up 2.26% as of 11:12 a.m. EDT on Tuesday.