My Walmart Random Time Ammo Sales

I find it hard to believe there are any scalpers at wall mart. Waiting for hours in line to get the possibility to buy 3 boxes total does not seem like a profitable venture to me. Probably just regular guys like yourself that want to go shooting.

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Yep, there isn't any profit in it especially after standing in line for hours.

shafter said:

Yep, there isn't any profit in it especially after standing in line for hours.

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I think you could make good use of your time standing in line.. like lining up flipping deals on your smartphone.

If you are out of work or retired you might have plenty of time to sit there gabbing with your friends and family waiting for the ammo.

Deaf

If you are out of work or retired you might have plenty of time to sit there gabbing with your friends and family waiting for the ammo.

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And that is what is happening.
The big retail stores are selling at market prices, the 100 dollar bricks are artificial spurred by those buying in excess that are not consumers but simply moving the product at venues that people can reach on their time like gun shows and FTF transaction. I ran into a guy this weekend who along with his wife did the WM shuffle and even double dipped until the shelves were bare by taking their 6 boxes out and returning and doing it again with another clerk.
Add a quota of powder and primers plus repacking 100 rd packs of pistol ammo into 50 rd boxes and it's probably not a bad haul if you can pull it off 3-4 times a week.

The silver lining to all this is the ones who do this are probably making decent extra cash off this ammo scheme to help along with the foodstamps they receive.
That or they're supplementing their monthly social security checks. I mean, who else has time to sit around and wait for ammo at the crack of dawn
besides the jobless or retired folks?

Hey, I'm retired and I spend way too much time in Walmart - it seems I go in at least every other day for groceries.

I always pass by the ammo case - it's been over two months since I've seen any handgun ammo (or 223) in the case. As often as I'm in there, I figure somebody must be intercepting the shipments before they make it to the case.

Tonight I asked the gal how long it had been since she'd seen any 22LR - she said three weeks (it's been two years? since I've seen it on the shelves).
I asked her if they had folks showing up for the trucks to unload (as some say in here), and she said they did.

I guess that's why I haven't seen anything on the shelves in over two months.

Just bought a couple of 22 ARs, so I would like to grab a few extra bricks of Federal 22LR - fortunately, I've got a decent inventory so it will be a while before things get desperate on the ammo front here.

Every time I hear of another miscreant on TV that had an "arsenal" of 1000 rounds, I just pull my head in like a turtle and shuffle away from the TV...

Im not going to lie. I had 10 boxes of winchester .22 555 rds. I sold them all for 50 dollars a peice... people thanked me because most folks are trying to pul 65-75 around here. Yes I got that ammo in a trade... No, I didnt pay much for it at all when it happened. But at the same time, You cant hate me for selling it. If i didnt get that price, i wouldnt have sold it in the first place. Also I'm adding more ammo that was already in existance then the newly made ammo thats flying off the shelves. So techincally im slowing the process down a bit I certainly dont have time to stand in line and wait for new stuff to come out. I'm a busy guy ya know

So wall mart is getting 22 every 3 weeks. ThT seriously cuts down the profit of the waiters.

danez71 said:

I'm normally on board with this but in todays ammo market, this very well could mean that the more economically stressed people wouldn't be able to afford any ammo at all.

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This is debatable at best. Sticker price is only part of the cost of purchasing something. There's the opportunity cost of multiple fruitless trips, or waiting in line to compete with the hoarders/speculators.

I'm normally on board with this but in todays ammo market, this very well could mean that the more economically stressed people wouldn't be able to afford any ammo at all.

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I think a great many of us would consider ourselves at least somewhat "economically stressed" these days. If the big tragedy we face is that we can't scrape up the spare cash to buy a brick of .22s right now?

Yeah that would be on of those "First World" problems folks talk about.

Is our sense of entitlement so great in the USA that we are OWED cheap plinking ammo as well as a cell phone and health care and an education?

http://wiego.org/informal-economy/occupational-groups/waste-pickers
http://www.africanwellfund.org/EducationalKit08.pdf
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/...nent-danger-of-starvation-in-west-africa?lite

Meh. I'll spend a little bit of my modest 1st world salary to buy ammo at the going rate and I don't think I'll complain about it too much.

As has been said many times before, as long as people pay the inflated prices to the scalpers, the scalpers will continue to clean out the shelves at WM. Once we start to see ammo on the shelves on a regualr basis, the scalpers will lose their market and things will return to normal. The scalpers aren't the ones causing these shortages, it's the people who pay 3x retail for their ammo. As long as there is the demand for over-priced ammo, there will be people trying to accomodate them.

So much excitement in a capitalistic system. Buy low sell high. Works well with stocks and bonds, why NOT with ammo?

I don't understand it either -- the people who are complaining would never blink an eye selling their homes (as someone else mentioned) at prices much higher than they paid for them. They would invest in the stock market with the expectation of selling at a higher price than they bought in.

j1 said:

So much excitement in a capitalistic system. Buy low sell high. Works well with stocks and bonds, why NOT with ammo?

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The not part is what this thread is about.. the random times etc.

People need to stop feeding the flippers. Who is buying from these jokers?

Great point. I brought that up in a debate on gas prices -- "If you think the oil companies are gouging, stop buying from them."

Vern Humphrey said:

Great point. I brought that up in a debate on gas prices -- "If you think the oil companies are gouging, stop buying from them."

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That's pretty lame. Gas gougers do what the ammo flippers are doing.. re-sell from a common/main source.

I have not yet gotten to the point of buying high priced ammo, but who knows. My days of hi cap mags for my 10 22 seem to be a thing of the past. Shame as I used to enjoy it.

Keb said:

I had suggested this twice to dept managers and then assistant manager. But Wed. I went to the top guy here.

I said stop selling the ammo to the same 6:30 AM speculators each day. They aren't your real customers.

The real customers come in any time of day. Give them a shot.

I said "make a weekly random time list. Lock it up. If ammo comes Tuesday, check the list for the time, call sporting goods, have them put it out."

THAT IS THE PROCEDURE HERE NOW!

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I disagree with you completely. Let those for whom the ammo is dearest get the most of it. It might also help you to wake up early. Look at all the really nice cars on the road at 6:00 or 6:30 compared to the cars you see on the road at 7:00 or 8:00 (or God forbid later).

Rationing limits are also nonsense. Someone just stocking up might be deterred by the market price but someone attending a shooting competition the next day or going on a hunt may not. The seller gets value from the sale and the buyer for whom it is worth most gets the most value from the purchase. The total benefit to society is maximized that way.

Put down the Marx and read some Bastiat. It'll do you some good and sooth your nerves while waiting for the ammo bubble to burst. That's when you should BUY!

Mike

So wall mart is getting 22 every 3 weeks.

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If that's in reference to my earlier post (counter gal said it had been 3 weeks since she'd seen any), you can't assume they come in every 3 weeks.

That's just how long it had been since she had seen any - that may have been the first shipment in X months, or she may not have been there when some came in, etc.
I have no idea how often our local store gets ammo.

I checked the empty shelf today - Federal 22LR 550 bricks (what I'm looking for) is marked $21.97, and that breaks my heart!
I think I paid around $15 for the last identical brick from 'em.

"People need to stop feeding the flippers. Who is buying from these jokers?"


People are buying from them of their own free will. They agree to pay whatever the price is again, of their own free will. It's their money, they can spend it as they please.

Where do any of us get off saying they shouldn't ?

quote" People are buying from them of their own free will. They agree to pay whatever the price is again, of their own free will. It's their money, they can spend it as they please.

Where do any of us get off saying they shouldn't ?"


I think we have plenty of right to state our opinions and try to persuade them not to. They are being persuaded by fear so why not us persuade them into common sense so this madness comes to end sooner.

I have seen fear promoted by some in the gun industry from the flippers on gunbroker, to the dealer at a gunshow to cheaper than dirt who all exclaim "their comin' for your guns, get it now while you can" for the nice markup of double or triple.

And the statement about oil companies (just don't buy gas from them then) , that isn't a good analogy. Fuel is hardly a free market item when fuel companies or OPEC or government limit producing to control prices and fuel is a necessity for survival so you have no choice but to bend over and take it if you want to heat your home or get to work and the economy depends on fuel, while ammo so you can go plinking or target shooting IS NOT.

So since having bulk amounts of ammo is not a necessity to life , I have to ask why people feel compelled to buy it at a inflated price when if they only stopped for a while the price would go down to former prices.

I think a great many of us would consider ourselves at least somewhat "economically stressed" these days. If the big tragedy we face is that we can't scrape up the spare cash to buy a brick of .22s right now?

Yeah that would be on of those "First World" problems folks talk about.

Is our sense of entitlement so great in the USA that we are OWED cheap plinking ammo as well as a cell phone and health care and an education?

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In all fairness... lets not give a reply that twists what I said.

I was referring to staggering the times of stocking shelves to possibly hinder people buying up all of the consumer retail supply so that they can 're-retail' at much higher prices and the effects that could have on less $$ fortunate people.

I made no insinuations that I believe that 'cheap ammo is owed to me'.

That's pretty lame. Gas gougers do what the ammo flippers are doing.. re-sell from a common/main source.

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Nope.. you're totally wrong about that.

Gas gougers...besides the fact they havent been reported on a national level as ammo gougers have been.... buy whole-sale and sell retail.

Ammo gougers buy at consumer retail sources and then resell again to consumer.

In all fairness... lets not give a reply that twists what I said.

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Didn't intend to. Just quoted you.

I was referring to staggering the times of stocking shelves to possibly hinder people buying up all of the consumer retail supply so that they can 're-retail' at much higher prices and the effects that could have on less $$ fortunate people.

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Ok, but what about the wonderful effect it has on the truly less fortunate and the fixed-income (retired) folks who now have a small extra revenue stream because they can spend their unemployed time to buy low priced ammo to re-sell it? That's pretty nice for them! I mean, if they've got the gumption to get up in the morning, and the patience to wait for a few boxes of ammo each day, and the smarts to find an outlet to sell it at the upper end of the market, WOW, that's pretty entrepreneurial of them! And they can thank WalMart for the opportunity to put a little needed cash into their budget.

I made no insinuations that I believe that 'cheap ammo is owed to me'.

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Ok.

Ammo gougers buy at consumer retail sources and then resell again to consumer.

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And the only reason they can do that is that WalMart (for their own entirely SELFISH reasons ) refuses to sell at or near the current market price.

If WalMart would charge a "reasonable" price, they could balance that price against the demand until those forces equalize. Then we wouldn't have to worry about "gougers" and "flippers."

But those poor folks who are un- or under employed wouldn't be able to make a dime, which would be sad for them.

I saw a promising thing the other day. A man in line to buy some .22 ammo, who could have bought the last two boxes, offered one to the man behind him who graciously accepted.

This is the kind of thoughtful behavior that will help things calm down.