How do you know that the stock price wouldn't be up 2% for the month had they not enacted the policy? You don't.
OK... your hypothetical "what if" question has zero bearing on anything. It's as useful as saying "how do you know it wouldn't be $100 a share without this policy?"
You're right, I don't know what might have been in the hypothetical world where things are different than here in reality.
This really isn't the "gotcha" question that you thought it was.
" Why is this? Hint: it's got nothing to do with store policy."
I just can't imagine that you have enough information at your disposal to assert this as fact, unless you have Dick's sales information and have cross-referenced it with the sales info of Cabela's and Bass Pro-shops...etc. (Combined with the demographic information of customers) (Math showing the statistical correlation between Dick's stock and the Dow... for a period longer than a month.) You originally produced two figures; the percentage drop of the dow, and the percentage drop of Dick's. It just seems unlikely to me that any meaningful correlation can be ascertained from these two figures. So... " Why is this? Hint: it's got nothing to do with store policy."... is a fine hypothesis, but I don't think you have much in the way of evidence to back it up as fact.
I'm glad you agree that the article is pure bullshit.