Yesterday was actually the third attempt, first failure, to buy a gun from Wal Mart.
The first was The Lovely Harvey's purchase of Dee. The purchase, back in 1997, was easy enough and identical to every other gun purchase I'd ever done with the exception of having to be escorted out to our car by a store manager.
The second was Wilma. The open letter Marv and I penned is still open. This is actually three purchases.
In all four cases, we took possession of our purchase the same day.
Now there's still all the bullshit from before (and notice more is added each time we try this) plus an additional "I promise to not misbehave and hold Wal Mart harmless if I do" EULA and a three day way in addition to any imposed by the state or federal gubmints.
I don't think I shall bother looking there any more, because the entire point of making the purchase in person is to not have to wait days for the item I bought.
When you make it functionally equivalent to buying from AIM Surplus, Brownells, Buds, GunBroker Palmetto State Armory or other online vendor; why would I shop at the, at best, apathetic about guns Wal Mart; especially since they're demonstrably shifting towards being anti-gun.
Since they stopped carrying pistol and self defense ammo, there's Brownell's (again), Lucky Gunner Midway USA and Widener's.
If Wal Mart was trying to make a point past "we don't want your business, shop elsewhere!" I'm not seeing it.
They certainly don't have enough control over the market to keep us from buying what we want by refusing to carry it.
I also don't think that their departure from the firearms market will have much negative effect on the market as a whole. What business they were doing was based on the convenience of "well, I'm already here buying a [insert item] I might as well get some ammo too."
The question is, can Wal Mart survive the people who're at the gun shop buying ammo realizing that they can buy their [insert item] from a different vendor as well. Amazon, I am sure, is eager to sell [insert item] to the people who're pissed at Wal Mart.
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So in the urban areas , Walmart not such a big deal. During the ammo droughts they still has a steady supply. My friend who lives in the Galax VA area told me that they were always well stocked. The Mountain and rural folk depend on them for supplies. I wonder if they will cut off there base?
ReplyDeleteThe only ammo still on Wal Mart's shelves during the Great Ammo Drought was .22-250 and .270 Win around here.
DeleteThe local shops were "only" out of the most common stuff.
I bought a few rifles from Walmart a number of years ago. Other than the mentioned being escorted out of the building, it wasn't a big deal. The first two I bought were at a store in Austin, but then they quit selling firearms in all the stores in Austin due to pressure from the city. The last one I bought out in Round Rock, near Hutto, which is more conservative and small town. But from what I've heard they don't even sell them there now. None of the Walmarts in the area do. To make matters worse, three of my favorite small gun stores have closed within the last three years. I'm not sure where I'd even go if I wanted to buy something retail now. The only big box places that carries anything I can think of are Bass Pro and Cabela's, which are super expensive and Cabela's is quite a drive. The only sporting goods stores that carry them are Academy, which is OK for what it is, and Dick's, which I refuse to patronize and only sells fudd stuff anymore anyway. Neither of those are great price wise either. Guess I need to start doing some research on what is left as far as small shops.
ReplyDeleteMy cute little Merchant of Death(she's a former Marine) down here in Seguin has a decent selection at decent prices for a small shop.
DeleteIf she doesn't have it, she can order it for you. It's Seguin Guns on Old Hwy 90.
Like you I wonder what the "unintended consequences" of the changing attitude of WalMart towards guns will do their overall business. I really don't believe they will receive a lot of love from the anti-gun crowd who will suddenly start shopping at WalMart because they are taking such a brave stand. My attitude when they announced their new policies was "well I'm not going to boycott them but I'm not going to make them my first stop either". Actually I've found my visits to WalMart have decreased even more than I anticipated. I used to go to WalMart for things that I could get elsewhere but elsewhere didn't have guns and ammo to wander by since I was there. While I still don't go of my way to avoid WalMart, since WalMart isn't exactly in my way either I seldom stop. Looking at my credit card bills, they have lost a pretty significant part of my business and they are doing nothing to regain it, and I suspect I'm not alone. I never tried to buy a gun from WalMart except when I was out of state and they wouldn't sell to anyone from Connecticut (can't really blame them) so I've never suffered the indignities of their process. I know I've decided to never buy another from Cabela's since my last gun purchase took over 2 hours when they were not at all busy and I had to do most of the work on their computerized system, while a purchase at my LGS took 20 minutes (it was Connecticut after all).
ReplyDeleteWal-Mart reminds me of how K-Mart slowly got out of firearms market. Our Wal-Marts down here appear to slowly be ridding themselves of their stock.
ReplyDeletejrg
Hey Angus;
ReplyDeleteI used to buy ammo from Walmart,When the wife would send me to walmart to buy groceries, I would swing by and grab a couple of boxes of ammo and I gradually built up my stock after Sandy Hook. I wasn't going to get caught short again. I tend to buy from Academy,my last rifle was from there and the people behind the counter do know their stuff and the prices ain't bad either. There is no little gun shop near my house anymore. There was a range near my house but it went out of business and got bought up and now caters to law enforcement only and their toadies. So I have to drive a bit.
I used to patronize Walmart heavily (there are 2 close by in this rural area) but I started scaling back several years ago. Since they started changing their store policies I have almost entirely stopped shopping there.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that this position isn't profit related since a couple of years before they had added or expanded guns in many stores because they found it drew more men, and women who had their husband with them bought more.
I have a under 21 friend who runs a business - when they denied him ammo he could legally buy at 18, he took $800 a month in purchases elsewhere. And he went across the street and bought the ammo at a farm store that doesn't even ask for ID or proof of age.