Dick's Took a Stand on Guns. It Cost $150M

After the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., a year ago, it emerged that the alleged shooter had legally purchased a gun from Dick's Sporting Goods; a day after his arrest, a Vermont teen was arrested over alleged plans for a shooting spree at his school. He, too, had legally purchased a gun from Dick's. Weeks later, Dick's CEO Ed Stack pulled assault rifles and high-capacity magazines from his stores, and banned the sale of firearms to anyone under 21. Now, Bloomberg reports on the cost of that move: About $150 million in lost sales, or 1.7 % of the company's annual revenue.

Stack isn't backing away. "The system does not work," says Stack, himself a gun owner. "It’s important that when you know there’s something that’s not working, and it’s to the detriment of the public, you have to stand up." Gun sales drove sales of associated items like camouflage, but Bloomberg notes that they were already on the wane before Stack's move. (More Dick's Sporting Goods stories.)