Thursday, January 31, 2013

Logistics: Demand still high but supplies are flowing (they just get snapped up quickly). Life among the WalMart "store jumpers."

"What the hell are you in such a hurry for, Ernie? They'll only sell you three boxes a day."
"Ammo Out of Stock? Maybe not."
Now that we're down to one car, my daily drive takes me past a number of WalMarts, and I lose little in gas expenditure when I stop by to window shop and gauge the marketplace. The WalMarts around here actually got some .22 Long Rifle in about 48 hours ago, but within 12 - 24 hours, depending upon the store, they were gone. There is a growing band of "store jumpers" who, when they learn that one store received some, go to every store they can easily reach (for some that may mean within a twenty mile radius) to see if any are left at other locations. They see each other at the various locations and smile knowingly. The rationing of 3 boxes per person per day is still on, so it is not entirely a matter of a horse race, winner take all -- hence the smiles.
But one fellow I asked said that he was memorizing when the regular sporting goods counter person would go to lunch and then wait in the parking lot until he could double up on his cull with the relief. He sniffed at my observation that the gas money was probably killing him.
"So?" he replied. "At least I'm getting the ammo." But why .22, I asked? I mean, I could understand combat ammo in 12 Gauge and military and police rifle and pistol calibers but why did he think that .22 Long Rifle was so scarce?
"It's the only thing I can afford to shoot these days," came the answer.
And that's life among the WalMart "store jumpers."

4 comments:

Patrica Henry said...

Hey Mike, congrats to you & David for receiving the "David & Goliath" award from JPFO!

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhh, yessss.....

The enemy loves it when you panic! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see their names on the investors list of the very companies they purport to attack.

Easy money, when you command government actions and have inside information. Easy money when you can cause people to piss their pants, WITH WORDS.

Anonymous said...

The best thing to do is find out when your store starts to unload its GM (General Merchandise) truck and show up about 45 minutes later

Anonymous said...

Hilarious that these "store jumpers" think they're smarter than everybody else - not realizing that they are actually stupid. The smart people were buying ammo quietly and consistently over the last five or ten years and paying fair market price for it. Now with 80k+ rounds in the basement, I couldn't care any less whether or not WalMart EVER gets another load of it.