The answers boil down to a simple, time-tested concept: The customer always comes first.
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Bill Jaqua returned to his Ohio hometown after serving in World War II as a bombardier in a B-17. He went to work for his uncle for about a year before eventually buying the business. “My earliest memories of my dad are of him being in the sporting-goods and marine business,” says Cam Ranzau, Bill’s daughter. “It was a typical small-town Midwest sporting-goods store that sold fishing tackle and boats and had a rack of guns for sale in the back.” That initial business lasted until the early 1980s, when Jaqua sold the sporting-goods part of it to his son, Pat, and took the growing gun end of things, incorporated, and moved to a new location—an existing gun club just outside of town. “By then, Dad had made quite a name for himself in the high-grade shotgun world, dealing in European and fine English firearms,” says Cam. “That part of the business really became his passion, even though he continued selling a little bit of everything.” Jaqua was fortunate in that at the same time he was growing his high-end firearms line, the gun business in general was booming. “The economy was good in the 1980s, and people were shooting for recreation as well as hunting,” she says. “It was excellent timing for my dad to expand his business.” Cam began working for her father when she was 16, but really didn’t start paying serious attention to the business until she was in her early 20s. “In 1985, I met my future husband, George Ranzau, at a trapshooting competition, and we were married a year later,” she says. “We eventually purchased the business from Dad, and shortly thereafter expanded the showroom to the size it is today, basically tripling the space and inventory.” Once again, the timing was perfect. “As a result of our expansion, business boomed,” says Cam, “especially from trap and skeet shooters. Sporting clays was just beginning in this country at about that time, and the hunting-guns part of the business was fabulous, too.” Cam says that Jaqua’s also sold some handguns during that period, “but it was not a large part of our business then. Today, we are doing a huge handgun business, both new and used.”
firearms, mainly shotguns and rifles. The Ranzaus admit that that part of the business has slowed a bit over the past couple of years, due to the economy, but it’s beginning to pick up again. The silver lining in the recent economic dark cloud was that the bad times were good for consignment gun sales. “When the economy slowed the last few years, we found ourselves doing a lot of consignment business,” says Cam. “People needed money, so we took guns in on consignment. We also bought guns outright if we knew we had a ready market to resell them.” “We buy and sell all over North America,” says George. “There are really no limits. Our business has been national in scope for quite a number of years.” What’s the most expensive gun Jaqua’s has ever sold? “Probably a .700 Holland & Holland double-rifle about 20 years ago,” says George. “The gun had dinosaurs engraved on the receiver and sold for somewhere around a quarter of a million dollars.”
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The family is dedicated to providing exceptional—and personal—customer service. “Our regular customers know they are not only buying a product from us, they are also purchasing our reputation,” says Cam. “They can rest assured we will take care of them should there ever be an issue after the sale.” The Ranzaus know that shooters can go almost anywhere to buy a gun, sometimes for a better price. “But they won’t get service after the sale like we provide,” says Cam. It may sound simplistic, but a key element to exceptional customer service is respect for the individual. That said, the Ranzaus have learned over the years to treat everyone who walks through their door the same way. “We learned a long time ago that you can’t judge someone by the vehicle they drive up in or what they’re wearing,” says Cam. “That kind of thinking will fool you every time, and it’s bad for business. Whether a customer purchases a gun from us that costs $200, $2,000 or $20,000 or more, we try to treat everyone the same. When they leave, we want them to be satisfied that they paid a fair price and will be happy with what they purchased for years to come.” Surprisingly, one service Jaqua’s Fine Guns does not offer is in-house gunsmithing. Instead, they choose to outsource firearms that may need work to several qualified Ohio gunsmiths. However, Jaqua’s does offer customers in-store financing arrangements when making firearms purchases.
George and Cam Ranzau believe that one of the things that has made Jaqua’s successful over the long haul is that they don’t pigeon-hole themselves into catering to just one kind of shooter, be it the clay-target shooter, the hunter or the handgunner. “We consider ourselves a gun store for all seasons and all shooters,” George says. “We continue to do a huge sporting-clays and trap and skeet business during spring and summer, and hunting guns sell well during fall and winter. Handguns sell year-round.” Jaqua’s is also known for is its high-end collectible
A strong measure of any business is how long its employees have worked there. Jaqua’s has five full-time employees, one who’s been with the store for 48 years. The newest employee has worked there for seven years, and the other three anywhere from 20 to 30 years. “We’ve always had a small crew,” says George, “but they are all very knowledgeable and all have a certain product specialty. For instance, a customer may be wait-
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