April marks 20 years in business for Tombstone Trading Company, Inc. of Brookfield, Massachusetts.
Tombstone Trading Company became a retail firearm sales business in April of 2002, previously having run as a firearms training business. The shop has changed quite a bit over the past 20 years, evolving from the small room above the former Richard’s Furniture business Bourdeau ran for 34 years in Brookfield, Massachusetts to occupying more than 3500 square feet and stocking a large variety of new and used firearms as well as ammunition and accessories. Their roots as a training company is also still a big part of the business, having put thousands of students through their firearm safety classes, over the years.
“When the ATF came to interview me for my original Federal Firearms License, they asked how many guns I expected to sell in a year. At the time, I thought it would be nice to sell a gun a week so I told them ‘about 50 guns’.” Bourdeau said with a smile. The business has since grown, over the last 20 years, to one of the largest independently owned gun shops in Massachusetts.
Bourdeau has a long history of running successful businesses, having purchased Richard’s Furniture from his father in 1980 and growing that from a single location to 4, which included the Brookfield store, stores in the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, the Eastfield Mall in Springfield, the former Fairfield Mall in Chicopee. In 2006 Bourdeau decided that it was time to retire from the furniture business and put his energy behind the new venture of Tombstone Trading Company.
In July of 2016, Jason Turcotte left the website design company he owned for 12 years and joined the team in the newly created Vice President of Operations position. In his role, Turcotte manages the day-to-day operations of the business and brought his knowledge of training, sales and marketing to the business. “I had been helping out at the shop in one manner or another since 2012 and approached David with the idea of coming on full-time as the shop manager. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed doing is to help empower others. Running Tombstone Trading Company allows me to help such a wide range of people feel safer. It’s really the best job on the planet.” said Turcotte.
After 20 years, the business shows no sign of slowing down and neither do Bourdeau or Turcotte. “We’ve got some big ideas in the works. While we can’t go into the details at this time, it will be a huge thing for the business. People will just have to ‘stay tuned’ as they like to say.” said Bourdeau, again with a smile.
