Wal-Mart adopts new ammo policy

RetiredUSNChief said:

FOLLOW-UP ON DICKS:

Went to a local Dicks...they're still selling guns and ammo with no plans not to.

However, every other place, their ammo shelves are barren because they sell their stock as fast as they get it in. I just missed being able to buy 9mm and .45 acp by a few hours.

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Any AR's, or just lever/bolt actions?

I remember that back in the 1990's when there was the big "primer panic" local stores limiting the amount of primers that us reloaders could purchase.
Funny thing, I recently used some that I had bought "way back then" and the price stickers were still on them.
Wish they were that cheap now...

I dont see any problems with vendors trying help everyone have a chance at at least some of their small stocks. Limits can help more people get a little ammo rather than one person get lots of ammo.

But i do see an issue with the process already though.

First off, Im good on ammo for most all my firearms. But i still like to pick up little bits from time to time for target shooting, like 12 gauge. I go through lots of shotshells.

I noticed they had a limit of 3 boxes period.(I normally dont shop and wal mart due to their strange policies and other reason, but well options are few) While this seems to make sense there a flaw. See while I was there they had just sold the last 3 bulk packs of target loads to a guy in front of me. Each bulk pack has 4 boxes of 25 shells in them. So he got away with 12 boxes of 25 round target ammo. So im up next and im stuck only being able to get 3 single boxes of 25 shell target 12 ga loads.

If they are going to carry bulk packs and single boxes it should be a limit to one bulk pack or something of that nature as well. Their own system that is intended to be fair is flawed.

My Wally World interprets this as 3 boxes of any given caliber, not 3 total. people have figured out when the truck shows up and if you aren't there within 20 min of the unboxing you won't get any. It never hits the shelf.

I suppose WalMart's 3 box limit may be working as I stopped by the WM in Magnolia last night on the way home from Dallas and they had 30-40 boxes of PPU 5.56. Got my 3 boxes, and the new windshield wipers I'd stopped in to get, and drove home. Still no .22 other than shorts and shotshells.

I stopped at the Academy store in Mesquite over the weekend and they probably 300+ boxes of Tula 7.62x39 with no limit. However, on any other caliber they have a one box limit? All the popular pistol calibers like 45acp, 9mm, 40S&W, 380 etc. were being kept at the service desk. Sooo, I picked up several boxes of 7.62 and ONE 50 rd box of Winchester .22. The guy at the gun counter said the reason for the one box limit was that some of the local Dallas area gun shops like B&S were coming in and buying up all their ammo and reselling it in their stores, leaving Academy with nothing to sell to their customers. The fact there was no limit on the 7.62 leads me to believe that it's becoming available to distributors again and Academy doesn't think they'll have problems restocking it.

Also found 38spcl and 357 mag available at the Cabella's in McKinney for pretty reasonable prices. Maybe we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

This 3 box limit is the only reason I've been able to get my hands on any useful ammo in the last few weeks. I was able to get my 3 boxes of .380 today.

I stopped into my local Wally World last Thursday evening, about 10:00 P.M. There were almost no customers, just lots of "associates" stocking shelves; obviously they'd gotten a truck in not long before. So I wandered back to the Sporting Goods Dept. and looked at the empty ammo shelves. A young man asked, "Can I help you?" When I said I was just looking to see if they had any .22LR ammo he said "You just missed it. We got 100 boxes of CCW Minimags in this evening and they were all gone within 1/2 hour at $7.97 per box." And that was with the 3 box per customer limit.

It makes no difference here in south Florida. No walmart has much of anything.

Just got back from my local Walmart, I was there late last Monday and they had a couple cases of 9mm that I relieved them of (they did not have the limit last week). This week they had just gotten Federal 100-round boxes of .223 in in (to my utter shock), already sold 3 of the 8 and they weren't yet on the shelf. I had my wife with me, but the associate was saying he's not supposed to sell more than 3 to us if we are "together". In the end we got the 5 boxes, but just a heads up that management at some locations are getting a little crazy and trying to limit it to 3 boxes per couple/group/party/whatever. Also, it was 3 boxes of anything combined, not 3 each of different types, according to the associate.

Here's what my local Wal-Mart looks like. They need a new show called "Ammo hoarders"

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That Walmart display looks really stocked compared to the ones in OKC. Like others referenced in another post, I now know when the trucks come in and are unloaded. It's funny because in North OKC it's 6 a.m. & in South OKC it's 5 p.m. I make it a daily routine now with my desk job to get a little exercise before work & walk into the north OKC store before 8:00 a.m. to look at the empty shelves. Today they had 3 of the 100 round boxes of Federal 115 gr 9mm & I felt like I won the lottery.

CLP said:

Any AR's, or just lever/bolt actions?

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No, Dicks only has bolt action, lever action, and shotguns, which is consistent with what I've found online that they said they were doing. I didn't look close, but there may have been some semi-auto .22's.

Nothing resembling an AR-15 at all.

DICK'S sells firearms?? One by me doesn't. Same deal with local Walmart. Clerk told me they aren't licensed to sell guns or ammo.

I don't mind the 3-box rule for 22lr but the problem is right now that there is NO 22lr here for anyone.

Be glad WalMart allows 3 boxes- I stopped at an Academy about 5 minutes after opening and was puzzled why all these old guys like me were hanging around the service counter.
Turned out they were placing all the just arrived ammo there and with a ONE box limit of each caliber with 3 total allowed.
I almost bought ONE box of 50 .22 ammo for $3.xx but decided I didn't want to wait in line that long....they had plenty.
If I had been able to get 3 boxes I might have waited, but as it is I made at least ONE other person happy

The Walmart nearest me also has the 3 box rule. You just have to FIND 3 BOXES FIRST.
.

My closest Walmart (20 miles) never had much any ammo before the President started into shotgun sports, so this may or may not help. Every time I went in that nasty place, there would be 4 or 5 guys poking around the ammo section, but no ammo to speak of. I am really, really glad I stocked up.

brolin_1911a1 said:

When I said I was just looking to see if they had any .22LR ammo he said "You just missed it. We got 100 boxes of CCW Minimags in this evening and they were all gone within 1/2 hour at $7.97 per box." And that was with the 3 box per customer limit.

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Thats my point. 33 customers left "happy" and the store sold $800 worth of ammo.

If a "free marketeer" bought $800 dollars worth only he would be happy and the other 32 would be SOL. Unless of course they went to the "Free maketeers" LGS and paid $15 a box. Where again... only one guy makes out.

Free market does not mean "I should be able to do what I want to" it means learning how to work withing the FREE MARKET by changing your tactics and techniques to meet the market, not just the demand.

IMHO limiting ammo sales is fair. At least we all get some. As an aside, I wonder how long this shortage will last? It would be interesting to get a glimpse of what is going on in the ammunition factories. Maybe ,in fact the ammo manufacturers might be taking a little wait & see position. Any opinions, comments?

I agree, Chasgrips45. During the last shortage after O'b was elected the first time, a FLGS owner used to station one of his employees to keep an eye out for the arrival of Walmart's supply trucks on the evenings they were expected to arrive. As soon as the truck arrived, the employee called FLGS owner who came down and parked himself at the Sporting Goods counter. The moment the Walmart employees pulled the pallet jack with ammo to the counter, he'd buy the entire pallet. He'd then offer it for sale at his shop for about 300% markup.

That went on for about two months with no one else in town getting a chance to buy any ammo unless they were willing to pay his hyperinflated prices. Finally Walmart instituted a six box per customer per day limit and the rest of us in town got a chance to also buy ammo. The odds of getting some still weren't the greatest; demand far outstripped what the store was receiving. But at least we had a chance.

Besides giving the rest of us a chance to buy ammo, the rationing policy benefited the store. When everyone knew there was no chance of finding ammo no one bothered to even go back there. Once there was at least a chance of finding ammo, people would wander back to the department and often realize that they could also use some gun lube, cleaning rods and jags, solvent, targets, and all the other gun-related goodies that keep a firearms store or department in the black.

I think that the manufacturers are probably operating at their regular level of production or maybe even slower... Not because of the fact that holding back supply helps inflate prices.... but because if they ramped up production, in response to the supply shortages, and the media caught wind of it... they would be seen as capitalizing on a bad situation and would receive a lot of negative attention.

Like they're receiving any positive attention from the media now?

I reallly don't think that's a consideration because the ammo and gun makers know that no matter what they do the media will spin things in a negative manner.

CZ: Nice pic. Did you buy the two bricks of 22 LR on the top shelf?

My local walmart looks about the same as the pic you posted, less the 22 LR. But I have found that the local hardware store hasn't been impacted by the increased demand. My local True Value is fully stocked with everything they carried before... including .22 and .223

Brolin

I haven't seen any news reports about ammo shortages... it is actually oddly quiet on the ammo front, occasionally a news report will mention a boom in background checks for gun purchases, but I haven't seen anything else.

Ct actually has a pretty significant gun and ammo manufacturing industry and the average citizen doesn't even realize it... many of the major manufacturer's are here including Colt, Marlin, Ruger, Mossberg and CVA. The last thing they want is some news outlet broadcasting that they are operating at mass production and have protesters at their doors... They are keeping a low profile.

When I purchased 6 cases of 22rf several years back my wife thought I was nuts. Same with powder, primers and bullets. There were no shortages of any of this at that time. The original Obama scare had run it course. I did not think he would be a two termer but know weird things can happen in politics and that if he did per chance make it in for a second term that this would happen so I hedged my ammo and reloading supplles early on. Glad I did. Should last thru the current panic.