What you have are gun shops that have set up ammunition web sites to sell their stock at the super high prices we see today. They are hiding behind these fronts to keep their regular customers in the dark. because if they knew their customers would walk. That's the little dirty secret no one is talking about.
I strongly suspect you're right. I have no proof but I have a pretty decent understanding of human nature via my life experiences.
My own research shows this and while out of town speaking with a shop owner he allude to this and the large number of startups starting in January as the reason for the reduction in supply to his shop and others.
Rationing has never led to a stable supply in history. All it accomplishes is the diversion of a portion of the market to favored sectors that wouldn't normally have the means or desire to partake (whether it's diverting rubber for military tires, gasoline to emergency responders, or ammo to 'serial buyers'). Emergencies can make it a necessary evil, but it is never efficient for the market. We are the market; when it is inefficient, it inevitably hurts all of us by definition. And only we individuals can correctly determine our personal level of need for goods in the market.
What if he finds ammo available, but it's just expensive? He'll probably grudgingly buy it, rationalizing that the extra ten bucks isn't so bad since he only shoots a box every three months. Not compared to missing out on an afternoon with his son. The heavy shooter will either fall back on his reserves, shoot less, go bankrupt, or some combination. Without heavy shooters all clamoring for product at the same time along with all the new/panic buyers, prices quickly stabilize and fall. If the latter two groups sustain their demand, production/supply will eventually rise. Market cured.
Congratulations! You've nailed the reason why Walmart chooses to ration underpriced goods rather than respond to market forces (and let's not pretend that Walmart doesn't respond to market forces on every other item they sell by procuring it as cheaply as possible, and then selling it for a profit). This scam is an easy way to convert demand into multiplied customers instead of merely elevated individual purchases. And all the while the customers are convinced it's for their own benefit
You are missing a very important point. There was nothing to buy. Nothing on the shelf. No ammo came off the delivery trucks. WalMart and other large retailers were not getting ammo and when they did it was not in case lots it would be a few boxes of this and that. You can't buy if they don't have any ammo to sell and they didn't have anything to sell.Rationing has never led to a stable supply in history. All it accomplishes is the diversion of a portion of the market to favored sectors that wouldn't normally have the means or desire to partake (whether it's diverting rubber for military tires, gasoline to emergency responders, or ammo to 'serial buyers'). Emergencies can make it a necessary evil, but it is never efficient for the market. We are the market; when it is inefficient, it inevitably hurts all of us by definition. And only we individuals can correctly determine our personal level of need for goods in the market.
What if he finds ammo available, but it's just expensive? He'll probably grudgingly buy it, rationalizing that the extra ten bucks isn't so bad since he only shoots a box every three months. Not compared to missing out on an afternoon with his son. The heavy shooter will either fall back on his reserves, shoot less, go bankrupt, or some combination. Without heavy shooters all clamoring for product at the same time along with all the new/panic buyers, prices quickly stabilize and fall. If the latter two groups sustain their demand, production/supply will eventually rise. Market cured.
When rationing is present, people are forced to meet their needs in small piecemeal bits. The insufficient quantity and unpredictable availability of these bits means a person has to have extra bits on hand to ensure they make it through the lean times. A massive incentive to find ways to accumulate bits faster than others arises, since such a situation means instant guaranteed profit. All the while, scarcity is still felt by all, fueling the hoarding compulsion. Eventually, it becomes a habit, and ingrained in the market. After getting up each Tuesday, every week, for a year, to buy a brick of 22LR at Walmart, who's to say that bored retiree worried about his ammo supply won't keep buying another brick each week for another month? Two months? Another year? Especially considering he probably doesn't have a business plan for managing his ammo holdings rationally. I don't anticipate a great "dumping of hoarded ammo at a loss" when peoples' taxes come due; but I do expect we'll begin see some enormous estate sales in a few years.
I would love to see a way to add up all the 22LR actually sold on Gunbroker each week. I have a theory; that the scalpers so many are blaming are but a teensy-tiny part of the market, and the overwhelming majority of 22LR is simply being stored, while at the same time more than ever is being shot up faster than ever.
Congratulations! You've nailed the reason why Walmart chooses to ration underpriced goods rather than respond to market forces (and let's not pretend that Walmart doesn't respond to market forces on every other item they sell by procuring it as cheaply as possible, and then selling it for a profit). This scam is an easy way to convert demand into multiplied customers instead of merely elevated individual purchases. And all the while the customers are convinced it's for their own benefit
The panic would have long since passed if both shooters with stockpiles and opportunists had been priced-out of the market for a month or two after the AWB/UBC failed. Instead, we try to "spread the demand shock around" and end up with a self-sustaining chain reaction of survival instincts driving infinite demand.
TCB
Which means it isn't likely to have been bought at a WalMart, Cabelas, Academy or other large retailer in recent history.............they haven't used price stickers in years. If you see a box of ammo with a WalMart sticker.....it came out of someone stash, not direct from the store shelf.
If these "capitalists" were real capitalists and had jobs instead of collecting unemployment or bogus disability they would not be standing outside waiting for stores to open to hoard ammoI went to four WalMarts during my lunch break today:
Lucas- had sixteen boxes of CCI MiniMags 100's
Allen- had eight boxes of Winchester Powerpoint 100's
Plano Spring Creek/Coit- had eighteen boxes of CCI MiniMags 100's
Plano Spring Creek/75- didn't have jack squat for rimfire.
And yes, I bought the limit at each.
I wonder more about the personality type of those who whine, bitch and moan about someone else finding ammunition. Whether they choose to shoot it, hoard it or resell it for a profit is none of YOUR business. Don't like someone else buying the three box limit at Walmart and reselling it? Then get there before they do and stop the incessant internet whining!
Those "flippers" are engaging in the most American of all opportunities.....it's called capitalism. How on God's green earth you could attempt to correlate an opportunistic capitalist as a system abuser in the same ilk as those who apply for unemployment is beyond all logic.
You see those who get to WalMart, buy their three boxes and resell for market price as no different than those who choose not to find a job or file undeserving insurance claims.........sorry but that doesn't make any sense.
This is where we differ.....
I see the flippers as opportunists....taking advantage of the law of supply and demand. Bravo to them. If you want rationing or price controls you would love Cuba or Venezuela.
I see whiners the same as entitled freeloaders......in your words those who file undeserved insurance claims or are too lazy to seek work......ie those who demand others provide for them.
It's always someone else's fault.....whiners blame our government, foreign governments, the UN, Obama, WalMart, flippers, hoarders, gougers, resellers, ammunition companies, Hillary Clinton and thousands of others.
Want to drive the flippers out of business?
Plan ahead, be prepared.
It is your style of cut throat gluttonous money grubbing goldman and sachs way of doing business that has driven big industry bankrupt or to other countries.They would in states that require it.
In Texas they would pay as much as 8.25% sales tax on the purchase.
Seriously? What makes you thinl ammo purhase at WalMart are tax exempt?
If reading the weekly "OMG peoples are gouging, hoarding and reselling ammunition and I'm so jealous" thread on THR makes me an insider.....then yes.
I AM a licensed gun dealer if you couldn't figure that out from my sigline......I'm in the business of flipping anything I can get my hands on.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know a BS story when you read one.
I hate BS stories as much as whiners.
