GROVE GUN SHOP gold & pawn — Local services in Locust Grove

After having visited 3 other gun shop dealers in my area I found Grove Gun Shop online and went to their website to see if they had a gun in stock that I was interested in purchasing. The website showed they had one so I called and confirmed it was in stock before driving there. The store is located about 40 minutes from my home.

Once at the location I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in how clean, well stocked and orderly the store was compared to others I had been in recently. I was introduced to the Sales Representative, Joe, who showed me the hand gun I was looking for and we discussed it and others at length.

Joe was great about patiently answering all my questions and staying in tune with what I found important for the weapon I planned to purchase. I have not handled a weapon in many years so he gladly went through the features of each weapon he brought out for me to see. We discussed their attributes of each and how they did or did not meet my preferences.

After a long conversation on a number of weapons he showed me a Beretta 92FS. I had handled a .45 as an Army officer and it felt familiar to me in weight, design and functions. Even though it wouldn't support a laser sight without having a rail added to it I decided to purchase it along with a gun safe we talked about too.

I paid a bit more than what I felt I should've for the used Beretta, but what I got in exchange for the extra funds was years of expertise with hand guns and in particular, personal ownership experience with a similar Beretta which Joe owned himself.

It's hard to put a value on knowing you have a knowledgable sales representative that is giving you the straight info instead of trying to steer you to something you may not really want to buy or making you feel uncomfortable because of your lack of recent experience with weapons.

Also, knowing I can call or drop in at the store and get my questions answered about my new weapon or others by competent, experienced and knowledgable people is hard to put a dollar figure on in this industry where I have found some gun dealers to be fairly shady and more concerned about making a buck than taking care of the customer.

I've spent many years in sales positions and know that if you take care of the customer, your sales targets and quotas will take care of themselves. Grove Gun Shop seems to understand this principle. I consider the purchase an investment not only in a weapon, but in building a relationship with a business that values my support.

Weapons are not cheap and my money represents time I spent making it and can't ever get back. Time is our most valuable asset and one that can never be replaced. So it was nice to have a business respect my time and effort to come see them.

Joe is a credit to himself, his supervisors and Grove Gun Shop. His work with me is a great example of how to treat a customer and should be used as a training model in my opinion. I highly recommend him and the...

Walked in today, and it was busy. Still room to move, but busy. Walking through, I saw my favorite gun on the wall. A Spas-12! They are becoming harder to find, so I always check them out. Unfortunately, not only did they have it at $1000 over the last few sells on GB, but there's was also broken in several places. The gun would not switch from pump to auto or auto to pump! The grip was broken, the stock was damaged, and the receiver was well used and looked to be missing the buffer, which could mean the frame was cracked or at least weakened. They admitted to not having done anything to this gun, and it was clear that no knowledgeable person had actually inspected it because it was broken. I pointed out how it was nonfunctional ( I didn't even point out the other broken parts), and the man behind the counter started to get impatient and said he has a store full of people spending money. When I offered cash, he was clearly offended and started trying to insult me. He then goes to another employee, and both gang up on me. After a short back and forth, I just gave up and walked out. Judging by the other reviews, this gun store only cares about money, not their customers, and I'm thankful I did my due diligence and inspected the firearm before even making an offer. Otherwise, I would have spent thousands of dollars on a nonfunctional Spas-12 they don't make parts for.

Update after owner response:

As you can tell by the response from the owner, they keep hurling insults and not actually addressing the issues of them selling broken guns. They know their Spas-12 is above retail priced. They know their Spas-12 is broken. Why else would they take a rubber mallet to it, trying to get a part to move that is supposed to move freely by hand or a push of the button, under my advice?

They are upset that I'm calling them out on their shady business practices. Look at the reviews, I'm not the only one they sell...

THE GOOD:

Their selection of available weapons on their website is generally very good. Their prices are reasonable and frequently less than what other dealers or individuals want for identical items.

THE BAD:

This dealer has posted on their website that in certain situations they expect you to contact your chosen FFA to get their FFA number and then provide Grove Gun Shop with that dealer license number via email. This is very unprofessional. If you charge a processing fee, do your own legwork. I have never had to provide more than a name and phone number of my FFA for another dealer or individual to ship my purchase.

THE UGLY:

Grove Gun Shop has posted on their website that they will take 7 full days to ship your purchase. True to their word, the two times I have made a purchase they have taken a full 7 days to box and ship. They blame Covid and under staffing as the reason. This is unacceptable. Covid is a cop out excuse and if you are under staffed, hire more help. Kind of reminds me of when you call any company anymore and always get the " We are experiencing higher then normal call volume" If that's the case, it's time to reevaluate your "normal" and make adjustments to your operation.

4.14.23

Found something I wanted and made my third purchase at The Grove. I gotta tell ya ... these folks have stepped up their game. I made my purchase after hours on Friday April 8th and by the following Monday morning I had a tracking number. Mind you this is Easter weekend. Today just I picked up my order from my FFA. Would have been here a day earlier if USPS hadn't miss sorted my purchase and sent in two counties to the south before realizing that my town and the town where it was sent is not the same. That's not on Grove. That's on USPS.

Given the stellar communication and fast turnaround on shipping, I'm modifying my review to 5 stars. Keep it...