Back in the mid-seventy's I lived in Wooster, Ohio. There was a locally owned hardware store in downtown, the name of which I cannot remember. I was going out shooting with some friends and stopped there to buy ammo. I got a box of Remington .38 special and the clerk opened the box when I was checking out. Six rounds were missing. I was told it was not unusual for a patron to want just enough ammo to fill his or her gun and the owners were happy to oblige. The clerks were trained to always check and make sure they only charged for the ammo remaining in the box. I loved living in that town.

Tony

That's how it worked at Warren's Guns in Bloomington, Indiana in the '80s. Good memory; thanks.

I can remember (1950s) when country stores would bust a box of .22s. Some people would borrow a neighbors .22 to shoot their hogs so they only needed a few cartridges. Poor people in the country didn't have much. Larry

A local hardware store still sells single rounds of ammo if thats what you want.

I remember not too long ago it was quite common in pawn shops.

I remember when the convenience stores "on the other side of the tracks" sold single cigarettes for a nickel. The bums actually had something they could buy for the change they panhandled.

I believe that Warren's moved to Switz City sometime in the 80s. Warren's saga ends rather sadly, according to this link.

Did Warren's advise that the .38 Special was a better self-defense round than the .44 Special?

My son took me to a pawn shop in Youngstown Oh. a few years ago. He was looking for his first handgun and saw a S&W there and wanted me to look it over to see if it was any good. It was beat to death and wasn't worth half of what they were asking.

Anyway, while we were there, two gentlemen came in and asked if they had any .38 ammo. After several minutes of discussion it was decided they needed .38 spl. and the salesman told them the price of a box, which was about $25.00. So the gentlemen asked if they could buy just 6 rounds. The clerk said Okay, charged them $12.00 which they gladly paid and then left.

In the 1960's the Montgomery Ward at Palm Center in Houston sold WW 357 rounds for 15 cents a pop. That works out to what, $7.50 a box? Math done in my head isn't trustworthy, but it was darn cheap!

Wooster, Ohio was named for an ancestor of mine. Wooster has been passed down as a given name for a number of males in my family. I was always glad I didn't get stuck with it!

Nice town.

__________________
Life of the party until 8:00PM

Neat story!

When I was a kid... long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, when I was in the 7th - 8th grade, a friend had a German MP-40... yes, full-auto! I'd save my money and buy 9 mm by the round until I could afford a magazine full! I hope it was registered during the (much) later ammesty period!

__________________
Old paratrooper in NC

When my dad was a kid, during the Great Depression, he would trade pop bottles to the hardware store for .22 short rounds for his single shot so he could hunt squirrels and rabbits while going back and forth from school daily. Very cool that America was the way it was back then.

That type of thinking makes my head hurt when applied to carry guns and ammo though.

While in High School I worked at a Gas Station/Hardware store, we sold ammo each or by the box. One day a lady comes in who lived local and was known for being quite mean. She said she needed 38 spl. ammo, I asked how many and she says "how many will it take to kill that S.O.B." referring to her husband. I said one if you hit him in the right place, so she buys one. About 15 cents as I remember.

We are talking and laughing about it when an Ambulance comes screaming up the road, which was a rare sight where we lived. I saw her and her husband a few weeks later, after he had gotten out of the hospital and she said "I knew I should has bought 2".

MTS