I thought I was over the 22LR "ammo panic" but I guess not completely....

[RioKid]

I have a nice little batch of 22LR stashed away because i have two boys ages 7 and 9. Figured i would need it for training ammo. Then, my father passed away a couple months ago and my brother and i were cleaning up dads reloading room and found that dad had been buying 22LR like crazy. So now i have a big "little stash" of the stuff.
I tend to buy more ammo for my 6.5 or 5.56 when i see a decent deal. I tend not to keep too much of the larger caliber stuff on hand due to reloading it.

 

[22-rimfire]

WM can't buy it for the lowball price they are willing to pay per unit so they are waiting out the manufacturers. Meanwhile we all suffer shortage at their stores. Look at the story of Rubbermaid their greed and dealings with WM for a lesson in going bankrupt. It is out there on the net. Still there seems to be a fair supply of .22 ammo at other stores but at a slightly higher price than WM was selling it for.

WM can be a bit pushy on pricing from manufacturers as I understand it (Rubbermaid, Stihl etc). I believe that WM more than likely had contracts with fixed pricing on 22 rimfire ammo and when those contracts ran out, the manufacturers resisted renewals on the same basis. That's okay. I prefer WM to stock 22 ammo, but I can buy elsewhere. But what goes around comes around as the saying goes. In the case of Rubbermaid (RM), WM had a replacement in hand, but on plastic tubs and things they clearly aren't as good. For one thing they degrade a lot quicker if you keep them outside. I simply go to the home centers for the RM stuff.

 

[Reloadron]

Having trouble here, too. The local shops are still having issues with most of it. The nearby Wal-Marts have gotten in a full compliment of the common calibers, and prices have even dropped back to almost pre-panic prices. But still no .22LR.

You aren't the first in Florida to mention this. Maybe you guys in Florida should start a where it's at thread for Florida. I spent time in Pensecola and Clearwater Beach this past summer. I stopped at the Bass Pro in Tampa which was well stocked with 22 LR and the Destin which was also well stocked. You guys in Florida need to get networked as to where the 22 LR can be found if it that hard to find for some of you. I can't begin to understand why Florida?

Ron

 

[Deus Machina]

No idea why here.
Maybe it's Wal-Mart and the little guys--the most traffic vs. the lowest volume.
Did find some of the basic plinker stuff at Dick's the other day. None of the good stuff, but $20 for 550 is acceptable for Federal.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

I was at the Cabela's in KC, Ks., yesterday and they had a pretty good supply of various types of 22. I picked up a couple boxes of Winchester 22 Mag. at 9.99 a box.

 

[1911 guy]

My wife thinks going to Wal-Mart should be an Olympic sport. I, on the other hand, do not like to patronize them unless I cannot get my desired item elsewhere. Large buyers expect concessions and get them due to volume. However, Wal-Mart goes well beyond this and demands things that are not industry standard. For example, i have a family member who owns a plastic injection company, they make flower pots. Any shape and size. However, there is (was?) an industry standard that a certain size pot was a certain color, different sizes were different colors. He made the mistake of signing a contract with Wal-Mart, who then demanded all sizes in all colors. This caused immense amounts of down time changing over and cleaning out the machinery from one color to the next.

I have no inside information on the .22 situation. But knowing what little i do about the way they do business, I suspect they would rather not sell .22 than sell it without the demanded concessions. Their way of trying to pressure manufacturers to give in.