First of all, Wal Mart is not an ammo supplier... they are a department store, and they "supply" ammo from their sporting goods department. I'll bet all these "ammo shortages" you've encountered were also coincident with ammo shortages in other stores that carried ammo as well.
Working in a gun store, I know a little about "ammo suppliers"... and "suppliers" are nothing more than distribution companies. If they did a good job of ordering, or have a good "supply train", it's no big issue to get ammo or anything else they carry. During shortages, EVERYBODY is out of whatever's short, unless they have a "stash" of it stored for such emergencies.
We have a local ammo manufacturer who gives me a lot of insight into what goes on in their business, and it takes several things to go "into production". First, they have to have the "makings" for the cartridges... that means empty brass, primers, powder, and bullets in sufficient numbers to make a production run profitable. A shortage in any one of those streams, can cut off the line and shut down that particular caliber's production. With the economy in the toilet, brass suppliers, primer suppliers, powder suppliers, and bullet suppliers don't have the vast amounts of excess everything they used to carry, and are producing what they have sold or what they forsee in the market... so it makes the "supply train" both slower, and a bit jerkier as they have "spot" shortages in areas where they might normally be functioning.
The "great .380 acp shortage" was caused by several things... every gun manufacturer on the planet introduced a new .380 into the market, the public panicked and instead of buying two boxes of .380, they bought ten cases, and it all occurred during the normal "down time" for the production of that particular caliber during the industry's manufacturing process. The wholesalers got wiped out in about a week, and it was several months until the industry was scheduled to start producing ammo in that caliber again... so it was a "perfect storm" that was both misreported and fueled by rumors more than facts.
As for Wal Mart's "ammo shortages", they treat ammo just like anything else in their sporting goods department. If they're out of fishing gear, they order more of it and wait for it to arrive. Just because YOU have a need for their goods, it doesn't mean that they are rushing to supply it... they have it going through their normal ordering process, and it will arrive when it's supplied from their distribution center.
What is true, is that true "ammo suppliers" are now fighting a lot of regulations and fees that weren't in place prior to this administration... but there's not any kind of actual ammo shortage out there. It's a "supply train" problem, and our wholesalers are backordered out the wazoo for "special caliber" ammo, and certain specialty ammos... but that is tied to the supply train, not to production or an actual "shortage".
There are limits on how much powder can be shipped on a truck, hazmat fees for shipping both powder and ammo, and the list just goes on from there. What's clear is that ammunition is over-regulated, and it is over-regulated at the distributor level and not so much at the production level... but with this administration, I can see that changing at the first available opportunity.
If you're shooting bulk ammo from Wal Mart, you can go to places like Georgia Arms, J&G Sales, CDNN, etc. and order "bulk" packages and have it shipped directly to you. What a lot of people don't realize is that you have to be a "shipper" to be able to ship ammo, and if they send you the wrong stuff, you can't send it back. Since we deal with ammo shipments at the gun store every day, it's pretty clear that ammo is available, and the public has many different avenues to get ammunition, including reloading... so don't panic if you don't find what you need at Wally World... go to a local gun shop and buy it. I know from checking regularly, our prices at the gun store are comparable with theirs... and we're just an independent gun store... not one of the "big box" suppliers.
WT