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FORTUNE.COM // NOVEMBER 2019
RETAIL
What Is Dick’s
Without Guns?
The sporting goods retailer ditched AR-15s
after Parkland. Its CEO says he’d do it again.
By Phil Wahba
“THE ONES THAT are mad at us, we’ve lost
them,” Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed
Stack says of the gun enthusiast reaction to his 2018
decision to stop selling assault-style rifles.
In a new autobiography, It’s How We Play the
Game: Build a Business. Take a Stand. Make a
Difference, Stack says Dick’s being one of the four
biggest U.S. sellers of firearms “made us part of
the problem.” And given Washington’s gridlock, he
wanted Dick’s to be part of the solution.
Despite the lingering backlash, Dick’s has begun
to rebound. After an initial slump that cost the com-
pany $300 million, comparable sales were up 1.7%
in the first six months of 2019, and gathering speed.
Stack tells Fortune he’s not looking back. Dick’s
has removed guns altogether from 125 of its 727
namesake stores, and the company’s entire hunting
business, including guns, is up for “strategic review.”
To offset that business, Dick’s wants to aggressive-
ly pursue more serious athletes, not just the casual
player, and the outdoor crowd that usually shops
at REI or L.L. Bean.
It’s also adding more
experiential elements
to its stores, including
HitTrax baseball bat-
ting cages and indoor
golf driving ranges to
help shoppers find the
right clubs.
It seems that just
as CVS rejiggered its
retail business after
giving up tobacco
products in 2014,
Dick’s is building a
post-gun future. “We
sold that kid in Park-
land a shotgun,” says
Stack emotionally. (It
wasn’t the weapon
used in the 2018
Florida massacre.)
“He should never
have been able to buy
a shotgun from us.”
Given where Dick’s
seems to be head-
ing, a future shooter
might not even have
that option.
SECURING THE
VOTE FOR 2020
CYBERSECURITY
WITH JUST a year to go
before the next presiden-
tial election, states are
scrambling to replace
outdated and insecure
technology after hack-
ers targeted paperless
voting systems in 2016.
“The transition is still
happening, but I’m hope-
ful every battleground
state will have a paper
backup of every vote,”
said Lawrence Norden,
director of the Election
Reform Program at the
NYU Brennan Center for
Justice. Norden predicts
90% of votes will have
paper backups in 2020.
But Daniel Wagner, CEO
of Country Risk Solu-
tions, still thinks it’s not
enough: “There are mas-
sive gaps and inconsis-
tencies ... and the local,
state, and federal gov-
ernments are doing too
little, too late, to make a
meaningful difference.”
Indeed, the U.S. Congress
has yet to allocate extra
funds toward securing
the election. A year out,
states are increasing
threat assessments and
plans for postelection
audits. But the great-
est change since 2016?
Citizens and officials alike
are viscerally aware of
their vulnerability.
—HADLEY HITSON
The original
Dick’s store in
Binghamton, N.Y.
DICK’S: COURTESY OF THE STACK FAMILY AND DICK’S SPORTING GOODS; SIGN: BILL CL ARK
—CQ ROLL CALL/GET T Y IMAGES
