Aplause!

[Cohibra45]

Looks to me that this is turning into a 'stocking up' vs 'buy as you go' thread. Also, it is a 'free market' (buy as much as you want, sell as high as the market will bear) vs 'set market' (someone sets limits on how, where, when, how much, etc. a person can purchase) thread.

In the 'stocking up' vs 'buy as you go', I'm in the 'stocking up' group. I purchase more than one roll of TP when I go to the store. Before I go to the store, I check how much TP I have at the house and if I am running low, I purchase a 12/24 pack (or two if I feel like it and it's on sale). My ex is in the 'buy as you go' group. It was always infuriating to me when I went to the closet and found no TP, none under the counter in the 'Library', and I asked (screamed!!!) where the h@## is the TP? Her answer was always, 'the store hasn't got a sale yet' or 'I didn't realize that we were low' or the best was 'I didn't think to look and see how much we had'!!!

If you want ammo (by the case), pick it up or buy it online. If the store doesn't want to sell you a case, go to another store. It is their right to sell you something at the price and quantity they set. I personally won't buy at places that restrict price/quantity. It's a free market here in the USA and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's my money and if a store wants to limit purchases/prices, it's their store...........however, it's my money and I will shop elsewhere!!!!!! The store can go to h@## and dry up for all I care. There will always be other stores out there that will be willing to sell by the case and if that is what I'm looking for, there is where I will do my shopping.

I purchase cases online because I find the best prices, it gets shipped to my front door (saves on my gas/truck wear/insurance), and I don't have to deal with those stores that want to limit my purchases/prices. Like I said, it's my money and if the local stores don't want it, I'm not going to go out of my way to push it on them!!!!!!!

I've got a couple of T-shirts that have quotes that I really like:

"Free Minds, Free Markets, Free Society...." and "Politically Incorrect"

God Bless America and the freedoms that come from living in a free country!!!

 

[Rockwell1]

This particular retailer saw it to be financially advantageous to cater to the "ignorant masses" as you would probably refer to them, those who failed to "prepare",

I would actually be more likely to call them the “willfuly stupid” masses. I also find that these are the people whining in the web because they have no ammo.

Saw what coming??? That some of us were gonna overreact and start buying and stuffing ammunition into every crevice they could find?

My, my aren't we just a little pissy?

That it was pretty likely that we were going to get one of two gun grabbers for President and ammunition was going to be come very scarce, and lest we forget I was right.

And while we’re here let’s remember that ammunition stores well and is likely not to go down in price so ten years from now when every one else is paying 35.00$ a box for Blazer I’ll still be shooting my 12.47$ boxes, because I was an idiot for stocking up

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Lest we forget this shortage was created out of fear of what might happen. So in "preparing" for the shortage the panic buying created it. (Or)When someone/anyone buys up all of the available stock so they can sell it at blackmarket prices (market manipulation) that borders on racketeering.

 

[Rockwell1]

Lest we forget this shortage was created out of fear of what might happen

When you're out of toilet paper what's more important the reason you're out or the fact that you're out?

 

[jimmyraythomason]

That is a valid point but so is mine. Don't accuse me of not being unprepared when that very preparation created the whole mess. Somehow not participating in the creation of the situation makes it my fault? Again let me say I have enough ammo on hand to last until after the "crisis" is over.

 

[Rockwell1]

Somehow not participating in the creation of the situation makes it my fault?

Somehow being prepared makes it mine?

 

[Norinco982lover]

Derby (Wichita, KS) Walmarts are limiting to 4 boxes of ammo as well. They are still sold out everytime I go in anyways.

~Norinco

 

[catspa]

Hey, fellas.

I'm pretty "pro-choice" when it comes to guns, ammo, and money. I think when somebody owns something, it is theirs to do with as they please. Sell, trade, give away, shoot it up in one big range session, whatever. It is also the right of any customer to make a deal or not with a particular seller, because the customer owns the money.

I buy guns and ammo for myself and my family to use, and not to resell. I have enough for now, and since I reload, I can make more. So I'm not so desperate as to pay a buck a round for pistol ammo or 500 bucks for an SKS.

Funny story from my childhood. Candy was a nickel back then, and the kids I ran around with had a real thing for Lemonheads, lemon drops about the size of a pea, soft on the outside and a hard center. When the drugstore manager saw us coming in the door, he knew he'd end up with a bunch of sticky nickels and sold out of Lemonheads.

Anyway, one time this kid named Billy got some birthday money or something and decided to buy up all the Lemonheads and sell them to the rest of us for a dime. Billy played by himself after that, and we all switched to eating Reeses peanut butter cups instead.

But the real point I want to make is, say I had decided to hoard Lemonheads because I believed in an impending lemon shortage. I would take a certain risk, and tie up a certain amount of money. If I kept them until now, when Lemonheads sell for 50 cents a box, and sold them to the other kids at retail, you might say I made a 900 % profit, and be all mad at me. Problem is, gas was 19 cents a gallon then, now it's over two bucks. A house that sold for 20 grand back then would bring ten times that now.

I think we're seeing the prices of everything go up, if you compare apples to apples. This administration may or may not ban guns, but it has already devalued the currency that's riding around in your wallet by a substantial amount, and more (less) to come. Since the US dollar is backed by - what? (Nothing but the faith and credit of the government) By the time a person sells that 500 dollar SKS for 1000, that 1000 will only be worth 500 of today's money. No profit there.

So it's worth thinking about how a prudent person could protect themself from not only a gun ban, but also an assault on the buying power of the money we have worked hard for as well.

Parker

 

[Duke of Doubt]

This whole strange little affair is nothing I've experienced directly (the gun and pawn shops here have plenty of ammo in all but the obscurest calibers). However, its cause seems obvious -- the big box stores, where I do not choose to shop, continue to offer bulk discounts at a time of spot shortages in their distribution chain. Their shoppers, obviously, will buy larger quantities if they can, in order to obtain the bulk rate savings as well as to stock up and avoid shortage. Instead of limiting purchases, as a retail executive I would have eliminated bulk purchase discounts and instituted bulk handling surcharges. Want to buy a case? You'll pay more per bullet than if you bought a few boxes. No need to limit purchases, then. If the **** who wants all the White Box (whatever that is) he can get at Walmart wants to pay increasing prices for greater quantity, it's his funeral. Meantime ordinary people will be able to buy by the box.

 

[mljdeckard]

I would absolutely leave it up to the discretion of the store owner to decide if they think they will buy more loyalty by selling everything to one customer or by selling a little bit to every customer. The profit margin is the same for him either way.

 

[CoRoMo]

There's a huge difference between...

• A business telling me that they can not violate a new store policy limiting the quantities of ammo purchases. It's their business.

and...

• Joe Stranger, and fellow American, telling me that I should not want something in the quantity I choose. It is none of your business.

 

[Brian Dale]

I guess that the customer that moooose described in the OP had never been to a grocery store. They've had quantity limits on sale items and popular items for, ummm, let's see...for decades.

Has anyone here ever seen someone ranting and raving because the cashier wouldn't sell them all of the raspberries in a shipment, and cut them a special deal besides? I doubt it; people realize that grocery stores want all of their customers to keep coming back.

 

[fatelk]

I really couldn't care less how much ammo you buy, and if you want to set up camp on the sidewalk outside WalMart with a wallet full of cash- if they'll sell it to you I sure won't be the one to say you can't.

I just think that if a business makes the business decision to limit quantities when there's a supply/demand issue, I will aplaude that policy. I don't want any laws to that effect, but it seems like a fair, reasonable business decision that hopefully leave a little ammo for the next guy so he doesn't have to go buy it at twice the price from the guy who beat him to it and bought the whole works.

I believe in capitalism and the free market, but there's no denying that capitalism has an ugly side to it. You can't fix capitalism with socialism; that's not my point. The reality is that any human system is only as good as the humans running it. You may have the right to clean off the shelves before anyone else gets to it, then sell it for triple to the sucker who wasn't quick or shrewd enough to buy any, but I also have the right to think that it's greedy business.

 

[BHP FAN]

''Some of us saw this coming and started stocking up well before the panic hit. Lack of preperation on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine...''
CLASSIC! And so true...some of us are actually into this sport,and reload.

 

[Merkelman]

Ain't Capitalism great! Bought a ton of ammo two years ago, 223, 308, 45 and 9mm at very reasonable prices.Now selling at obscene prices to the frenzied hoarders.
Once, this mania ends and manufacturers catch up with demand (and it will and they will) I will buy in bulk and wait for the next opportunity.
Where else can you make 40-50% on your investment.

 

[SaMx]

I wonder how many of you would be this supportive if the Government were imposing the limit.

how is that related at all? Imaginary government actions have no bearing on the free choices sellers make. How would you feel if the government were forcing sellers to remove the limit?


I'm getting pretty sick and tired of rushing to "defend capitalism" every time people complain about high prices. A free market goes both ways. If people feel a seller has too high prices, they'll complain, and that seller will get a bad reputation and might loose some money. If people feel that a retailer has implemented a good policy, they'll applaud it, and that seller will get a good reputation, and might make some money. A free market means retailers are allowed to make these decisions, and that they have to face the consequences.

 

[Rockwell1]

A free market means retailers are allowed to make these decisions, and that they have to face the consequences.

And the problem with this would be.......?

 

[bessemerbob]

What I like about this is that its up to the retailer and not being enforced by anybody, and I think its smart for him to do. He is going after a part of the market other stores can go after the 1000rnd guys as well.... I think there are pleanty of people looking for ammo from 1box-100boxes so nobody should worry LOL...

 

[Mr. Bojangles]

I think the retailer can and should do what he wants. I'm more concerned that there is someone in a gun shop who is mad enough for his face to turn red.

I do, however, need to get my boss to give me a pay raise so I can start buying the 1000 round bulk boxes of ammo.

 

[Southern Rebel]

My, my aren't we just a little pissy?

That it was pretty likely that we were going to get one of two gun grabbers for President and ammunition was going to be come very scarce, and lest we forget I was right.

And while we’re here let’s remember that ammunition stores well and is likely not to go down in price so ten years from now when every one else is paying 35.00$ a box for Blazer I’ll still be shooting my 12.47$ boxes, because I was an idiot for stocking up

(sigh..............................)

You are missing my point. The strength of gun owners lies not in the number of cartidges they have gathered, but rather in the number of gun owners we have gathered. That strength is expressed at the ballot box and that is what all politicians respect, as is evidenced by the NRA political clout in the last few years.

The fact tht most of do not realize is that "gun owners" refers to many diverse classifications and level of committment. The members of this forum site are quite diverse, ranging from dedicated survivalists, strong 2nd amendment advocates, self-defense nuts (of which I am one!), weekend range shooters, casual shooters, collectors, etc. However, I believe that the general public gun owners who do not participate in on-line forums have a large percentage that is really not that committed to gun ownership. It would not take a lot of the right persuasion to nudge them to total apathy.

The forum participants need to be as cohesive as possible. Conversion of others to our group represents our ultimate survival, lest we go the way of the quakers - a dedicated group that died out for lack of new members. Maybe a more timely example would be a comparison of the hunters in my high school graduating class to that of my son's. My class of 35 had more hunters than his class 0f 350 - and we still live in the same rural area.

I don't resent people who have more ammunition stored than I do. I don't deny their right to do so. It doesn't frustrate me - I have employees that find what I need on-line and have it delivered to my home. Price is really not a concern - it is what it is. I do, however, believe it does cause resentment and frustration and maybe some financial strain amoung fellow gun owners.
We might indeed remember that all too well when the next round of national elections comes around in a couple of years. A lot of Republicans voted for our friend B.O, - a lot of apathetic gun owners could do the same in the next elections.

I have no dog in this hunt as far as the future of gun ownership. I have enough political friends that I am assured of a gun permit for the remaining few years that will effect me. I won't be priced out of the ammunition market due to scarcity and resultant high prices. There is just something within me that says I would like my grandchildren to live out their lives in a free country.

"Hang together or assuredly we will hang separately"