My Walmart nightmare

[sw282]

lf you want real ammo, go to a real gun store. Thats where l get mine and l dont get robbed either. l dont do walmart for ANYTHING. l will not support a company who l feel has done more to hurt America than anyone.

 

[Alnamvet68]

Tennessee charges a ten cent tax on every box of ammo. (The money is supposedly used for wildlife conservation, etc.) A small sticker is tagged on every box by the merchant which serves as a tax stamp.

Oh wow....first a tax stamp, then a ammo purchase permit, then ammo registration, then limits to ammo purchases, then....aw ****, my head hurts.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

I remember several years ago when our local Wally World opened. I was shopping with the Ex & she was buying material. I wandered over to sporting goods. They had Federal 22 LR hollow points in 525 round boxes for $8.88. I bought 8 boxes. The Ex out spent me by 3 bucks. Gosh, I sure miss those Federals.

 

[68lemans462]

Wow! Man you guys are dedicated to your 22lrs. No way im spending money and gas to drive around for hours looking for any ammo let alone 22lr. Even if i have one box of BBs....so be it.


What i started doing was shooting more surplus stuff now.

Couldnt agree more!!

 

[Glacialhills]

I remember several years ago when our local Wally World opened. I was shopping with the Ex & she was buying material. I wandered over to sporting goods. They had Federal 22 LR hollow points in 525 round boxes for $8.88. I bought 8 boxes. The Ex out spent me by 3 bucks. Gosh, I sure miss those Federals.

I have some of those same 525 boxes but I got them on sale back in 1994 for....4.50. still have 3 of them. lets see that comes out to 0.0085 a round. I remember thinking I probably shouldn't buy more than a couple but ended up getting 5.

 

[the ringo kid]

My son worked for them after college for a few years.I would blow a gasket after a week in that environment!Corporate America at its best ��

I worked for them a little over 33 years ago. They were bad then-but not near as now. Also, when Old Man Walton was still alive--they and the corporation still had some ethics.

 

[the ringo kid]

Man 8UP it sounds like the Walmart's in your area have some real ******* employees. What state are you in? I've seen crowds forming in the mornings (especially on weekends), but the one's I've been to here, employees have been courteous and patient with all the questions they keep getting asked every minute. One store I visited which is in a very busy part of the city, the ammo guy was even telling people what was coming in the next day and at what time we should get there in order to secure a box. They have a list of inventory which is usually a day in advance. That store has been mostly getting 9mm, 40, and a lot of turkey ammo.

Plenty of the same type of WalMartian-employees here in my area as well.

 

[the ringo kid]

I don't think the guys pillaging local stores around me have jobs cause they are at all the stores in the a.m., daily. I think they see this as an opportunity to send their kids to ivy league.

If I hit the stores early and see ammo.. I post on the local fb group so others have a chance the pick some up.. vs some of the local gunshops and gunbroker douches driving to all the stores in the area and cleaning up before the doors open.

Several gun shop owners in my area pay people to stand in line to buy the ammo. Ill not buy from any of those who practice that and we still have a few GS owners here who dont practice their trade like that who ill always buy from.

 

[the ringo kid]

I bet there are thousands of Walmart employees and managers that are begging upper management to permanently stop selling guns and ammo. They are so tired of customers getting mad and complaining when all they are doing is selling the products to them at the normal pricing. If it weren't for Walmart, Academy, and some of the other big name stores keeping prices reasonable, you would see all the local gun stores and online stores raising their prices even higher and $50 for a brick of .22 shells would seem like a bargain!

In a way, I disagree with this post because--those WM employees-IF they were honest to begin with? most folks would not get peeved and cause scenes. I have seen that numerous times at 3 diff WMs in my area. It's interesting what one finds out by simply observing the situation.

 

[jaykellogg]

This thread is three months old.

I spoke to the counter man at WM the other day and he said they line up at 6:00 AM to buy ammo. I did score some about a week ago but no .22LR. I hear they line up at Dicks about 2 hours before store opening also. I refuse to buy from scalpers

 

[the ringo kid]

I bet there are plenty of Walmart employees with large ammo stashes at home (and listed on GB or craigslist). One of the ladies in the gun department at Gander Mountain told me they buy ammo before it even hits the shelves. They've been out of reloading supplies and ammo for so long that they moved other merchandise into those spots. They had S&W hoodies for $65 sitting where the used gun racks used to be!!!! Expensive no matter what they sell....

There are. One gent from one of my local WMs openly brags about this and does so knowing his Store Manager will not do anything about it. That store in particular--also has a reputation to sell out of the remaining product to whom ever has the largest bank account. Also, ive been told by someone at their Main office in Bentonville, Arkansas, that the stores are not supposed to start selling ammo before 9Am. Whether that person told me the truth or not? I do not know.

 

[the ringo kid]

I'm glad this WalMart app is working well for you guys, but I have been searching a 70 mile radius and there is no .22, 9mm or .223 in any WalMart around here.

'Out of stock' is the only thing I ever see...

Ditto that here.

 

[doc540]

Knowing how to build and maintain relationships can come in handy during ammo crunches.

all purchased recently and on the up'n'up

I shoot a lot of .22LR

btw:
at the local Academy Sports, people start lining up around 7am
an employee comes out between 7 and 7:30 and tells everyone what ammo is available
doors open at 8am - one box per caliber per customer (and sold near the front checkout)

One box of 500 rnds can count as the "one box".

I discussed what was needed by a friend in line, so I bought him a box of .22WMR and he swapped with me for a .22LR bulk pack.

 

[the ringo kid]

I remember several years ago when our local Wally World opened. I was shopping with the Ex & she was buying material. I wandered over to sporting goods. They had Federal 22 LR hollow points in 525 round boxes for $8.88. I bought 8 boxes. The Ex out spent me by 3 bucks. Gosh, I sure miss those Federals.

I remember when they were less then $5 for a tub of 500.

 

[Kanewpadle]

No way I'm driving all over hell and back for ammo.

Gas at close to $4 a gallon!! Don't make sense to me. So what are you REALLY paying for that ammo?

Sure I need ammo like everyone else but I ain't playin that crazy game.

Patience and timing. Being at the right place at the right time WITHOUT driving all over or waiting in line. I stay within a 5 mile radius. If they have it fine. If not that's fine too.

I stopped at the LGS the other day mainly to use the restroom. But noticed that they had 1500 rounds of 9MM behind the counter. I bought 400 rounds.

 

[smokindog]

And I remember 19 cent gas and 25 cent cigarette machines. I also remember that you would NEVER see a stream of "entitled" children making a scene in a public store over product availability, berating employees, and throwing tantrums. It's been pointed out already in this thread and elsewhere that there is a certain threshold when even Walmart will assess the disruption versus the profit on selling such things as ammunition. They've already done it with guns. Look how many fewer Walmarts sell guns today than 10 years ago.

Stop blaming the Walmart employees and look at the behavior of those "complaining" in these threads. If you have a beaf with something, take your facts to the front desk and walk away.

Here I broke my promise to myself again by joining in this "discussion".

I remember when they were less then $5 for a tub of 500.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

This thread is three months old.

That's a long time to stand in line at Walmart.

 

[David LaPell]

I refuse to buy ammo from Walmart or Dicks (never before was a company so aptly named) because of Dicks yanking the semi auto rifles after Newtown and for ID'ing every ammo purchaser like some teenager trying to buy beer. My local Walmart even admitted that they sell all the .22 ammo (not three boxes per customer like they have on the card at the counter) to the guy who owns a local gun shop who proceeds to take it up and sell it for nearly twice the amount. From what I was told by the clerk, every morning at 7am there he is waiting after driving thirty minutes and he cleans them out of .22 ammo. If I could ever catch him at it I would certainly call him on it. I know that I won't buy anything from him anymore since he feels as though he needs to gouge his customers. Personally I think that part of the problem is that gun owners instead of calling these places on their deeds like what Walmart, Dicks and a few others do instead of paying their prices they just keep buying. It is getting better, I noticed one shop with .22 ammo on their shelves even though it lasted only a day or so before it was gone, but their prices were reasonable.
I think that come January here in NY unless something changes it won't get much better with having to do a background check on ammo. I think Walmart and Dicks will call it quits on ammo sales then, I mean they can barely do 4473 forms I can only imagine how bad it will be for another form and another call. Plus there is talk of $10 in addition to the cost per box of ammo. I have enough .22 now to get by for a very long time and pretty much everything else is handloaded, which is the way to go I think, until someone decides to regulate that as well. But I think we need to call those gouging and hoarding for what they are, because in some ways they are no better than those that caused this mess in the first place.

 

[smokindog]

First, argee on the Dick's. Here in the DFW area they actually welched on Black Friday sales.

On the other issue, get the clerk's name, document what you just said here, and send a complaint to Corporate. The situation will be rapidly resolved if it is as egregious as you indicate. Corporate will handle all the "I Spy" work for you. They have people on payroll for just these things.

From what I was told by the clerk, every morning at 7am there he is waiting after driving thirty minutes and he cleans them out of .22 ammo. If I could ever catch him at it I would certainly call him on it.

 

[cowart]

Midway USA

I just checked the Midwayusa site for rimfire ammo. As expected, most of it was marked as "no back order". However, I did note 2 useful features on the website - there is a checkbox you can click to only show items in stock. They do actually have one flavor of (expensive) 22 ammo in stock. Also, you can sign up for an email notification when your favorite type(s) of ammo comes in. I ran through the order process for a randomly selected type of ammo, without actually ordering it. It showed an expected arrival date in stock on 7/31.

 

[daveyc]

youve just got to love walmart

 

[Frank46]

Our local wally world has had exactly zip as far as just about any ammunition except shotgun shells. Academy has a pretty good selection but the popular stuff goes to customer service and you have to ask them for it. I was in cabela's last night and was suprised at the ammo they had. But popular stuff like 39 spec,357 mag, 40 S&W,45 auto was very sparse. Little powder but they did have some primers. The really funny thing is that they has made in switzerland geco 223 fmj 50 round boxes for $25 a box. That comes out to 50cents a round. So I picked up 5 boxes. than made another purchase with my brand new cabela's credit card and got 5 more boxes. First time in that store. Of course I had to go see the gun library and eventuallt walked out with a nice K38 for $399. The family took the old man out to cabela's on saturday for fathers day. For once in a long time I didn't have to do the driving. Frank

 

[charlie sherrill]

After a little investigation I found that the local Wally's (three of them) get trucks in every night but Sunday and Wednesday that usually have ammo on them. The ammo is put behind the counter, not the ammo cabinet, and starts to sell at 7:45 a.m. The same people are there every morning waiting for the ammo. They are mostly like me, older and retired. They buy three bricks of ammo in the $20.00 range and then at the next gun show you see them with a table full for $50.00 plus for the same ammo. Doing the math shows me they can make $3-4,000 tax free per gun show four times a year and more than that if they can get to the other two Wally's before they are sold out. That's not a bad retirement enhancement for working four weekends a year. I'd thought about doing it myself but I don't get up early enough and besides it resembles work, which I have sworn off of.

 

[4506517]

Hmmmmm.......I rolled into the local Wal-Mart the other day and they had all kinds of stuff. I went in to pick some odds and ends for dinner. Dropped by the sporting goods dept and low and behold they had ammo. Bought 3 100 round boxes of 9mm for 24.97 each. They still had plenty on the shelf.

 

[W.E.G.]

If you ever find yourself shopping for ammo at 3:11 a.m., you're well and truly doing it wrong.

 

[Andy Griffith]

I'm sticking to airguns, and am picking up archery...

Cause I lost all my ammo in a tragic accident.

 

[ColumbusJBR]

Stories like this are exactly why I deleted the app. Finding it in stock on the app was only have the battle, you still had to drive over and hope employees actually put the boxes on the shelf. After several experiences where they did not, I decided this was no longer worth my time.

 

[the ringo kid]

After a little investigation I found that the local Wally's (three of them) get trucks in every night but Sunday and Wednesday that usually have ammo on them. The ammo is put behind the counter, not the ammo cabinet, and starts to sell at 7:45 a.m. The same people are there every morning waiting for the ammo. They are mostly like me, older and retired. They buy three bricks of ammo in the $20.00 range and then at the next gun show you see them with a table full for $50.00 plus for the same ammo. Doing the math shows me they can make $3-4,000 tax free per gun show four times a year and more than that if they can get to the other two Wally's before they are sold out. That's not a bad retirement enhancement for working four weekends a year. I'd thought about doing it myself but I don't get up early enough and besides it resembles work, which I have sworn off of.

Exactly the same thing going on here only-the one gun shop owner who I approached having just discovered his brand new store opened in May)-was openly bragging about two things. 1) paying people to stand in lines at WM-and Academy-to buy what they could to bring back. He prices his stuff 5 or more times higher-than what was paid at WM and Academy.

2) When he gets guns-he admits to pricing them $200.00 higher than anyone else in town. One wonders why? I can simply just buy something elsewhere? Anyway, his bragging lost him a customer--me. ;-))

 

[Cyrano]

I don't get up early enough and besides it resembles work, which I have sworn off of.

A man after my own heart!!!

 

[dennis327]

I've been looking in Walmarts in about a 100 mile radius, trying to find a 1022. I found one right here in my hometown. Catch is, it has been put in back and is pending a background check. The nice young lady clerk told me that the rifle came in Mar. 7th and had been on hold since that time. She went on to say that it is corporate policy that they hold the rifle for 30 days, after the background check is run I suppose, if the prospective buyer doesn't take it right away. I know that after three days with no word from NICS, the seller can go ahead and make the transfer. The lady told me that they are re-doing the SG department and no guns would be on the shelf for a few days anyway. She said that I could check back on April 7th and if it was still "in the back" I would be able to purchase it. No, she would not put my name on it for "first dibs." I'm confused at this policy.

No different then LGS putting firearms on layaway. This most likely is some young guy that is using the 30 days as a layaway so he can afford to buy the rifle. Have you tried having walmart order one for you. I've had mine order a judge for me, when it came in they had it in the safe with my name on it. Just waiting for me to fill out the 4473.