Activists On Both Sides See Walmart's And Others Policy As A "Middle Ground"

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When I went to Wal-Fart today to check prices on .22 Mag and .357 Mag, it was to compare them to an advertised price at a nearby Rural King. The RK had ads for Hornady V-Max (30 gr. FlexTip) for $12.99/50 and Blazer Brass (158 gr. JHP) for $19.99/50, but WM had neither. What they did have was CCI MaxiMag (40 gr. JHP) for $10.56/50 but their shelves were already partially empty. The .357 ammo they had was lighter weight and FMJ AND higher priced. I ended up getting 2 boxes of the CCI at WM, 2 of the Hornady and 2 of the Blazer at RK.
 
The development that I'm seeing is Walmart declining to enforce its suggestion to customers not to open carry. People who lawfully carried in Walmart before and continue to open carry in Walmart are not committing a crime. The onus is upon Walmart to enforce any such policy by confronting those customers carrying openly and directing them to leave. The customer does not criminally trespass until they refuse to leave following such a confrontation. That means Walmart must direct its employees to confront customers openly carrying in order to enforce the policy it has expressed a desire for. So far, it has not demonstrated a willingness to do that except where the customer was creating a disturbance and probably would have been asked to leave under their previous policies. The bottom line is the announcement is panning out to be nothing but vain virtue-signaling and likely won't be enforced. They may just as easily reverse their decision on ammo sales, especially when there is less attention on the subject.

In a CNN Business article, I won't link, Christian Conners, CEO of Shooter Detection Systems explained the conundrum businesses face when they detect someone carrying openly or concealed: "Even if you do have some way of seeing if someone has a concealed gun, what do you do then? You're going to pull someone aside in a busy area and ask them to pull out a weapon in the middle of a crowd and give it to you?" Obviously his suggestion is rhetorical because of how ill-advised those actions would be. But employees at Walmart are faced with no less a concerning dilemma regarding people who continue to open carry there. Even asking a person to leave involves a confrontation that neither side wants.

"Walmart has said it plans to take a "non-confrontational" approach to enforcing the policy. A company spokesperson said that means some customers may be allowed to openly carry guns into the stores, such as customers making a quick stop for supplies on a hunting trip, provided they don't threaten to cause any harm."

In essence, the policy allows Walmart greater discretion to eject undesirables carrying openly when their management determines it is part of an offensive stunt while still allowing the management to ignore people who carry openly without creating a scene. One employee said, "It's not actually a policy, it's more of a suggestion, and it hasn't helped at all because customers still keep entering the stores with guns."

We'll soon see if Walmart really has no handgun ammo on its shelves come Black Friday. Even if it doesn't this year, there's next year too.
 
Wonder if they will put up 30.07 signs in TX. Many businesses have them with no noticeable impact on business. The big supermarket chain, HEB, has them. Their grocery is jammed. Target (no signs) does not do will selling groceries.

A Seafood chain put them up. Jammed for lunch and dinner. Asked the manager about it and she said after the signs first went up, they had two old toots have hissy fits. NO one else did. Business is fine.
 
I see gun owners with Starbucks all the time. (Remember when they said they didn’t want business from gun owners?) I won’t give them a penny. It’s caused some ripples in my marriage since I refuse to pull in when we are in the city. If I was liberal I’d sue them for it. Same will hold for Wal-Mart. People are all keyboard no spine. Heck there’s almost no business from the big city you should do business with.
What we should do is act like the queer folks and sue the daylights out of people not wanting to do business with us. Those folks have some spine. I applaud them for that, though I don’t agree with their lifestyle.
 
SamT1 said:
...Heck there’s almost no business from the big city you should do business with....
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Maybe those are your convictions. I have much stronger convictions about God than I do about guns. If I refused anything to do with the ungodly, I might as well take myself out of this world. Similarly, the conviction that one should have nothing to do with the "ungunly" won't do any good. We can be in their world without being of their world. Holding those who think differently than us in contempt is not "spine." Spine is not submitting to their desires. Are you advising to hate them and submit?
 
GEM said:
Asked the manager about it and she said after the signs first went up, they had two old toots have hissy fits. NO one else did. Business is fine.
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So gun owners voicing their disagreement with a business posting No Firearms signs are "hissy fits"?

I'm surprised to see your choice of words for describing two elderly fellow gun owners standing up for their belief in the RKBA.
 
labnoti said:
Maybe those are your convictions. I have much stronger convictions about God than I do about guns. If I refused anything to do with the ungodly, I might as well take myself out of this world. Similarly, the conviction that one should have nothing to do with the "ungunly" won't do any good. We can be in their world without being of their world. Holding those who think differently than us in contempt is not "spine." Spine is not submitting to their desires. Are you advising to hate them and submit?
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Go read 2corinthians 6:14 and on.

We’re not of this world anyway. Shine your light into their darkness, that’s our sole purpose.

In 2019 companies gauge public approval of their political/religious stance by revenue. You show approval with your purchases. It’s not hate, it’s simply not supporting their position. You can disagree with someone without hating them.

Spine is being willing to give something up because buying it would give support to something you don’t agree with.

We shouldn’t really sue them, but we should not do business with people with opposing beliefs.
 
Walmart is a private business and if they want to stop selling ammunition they can, and if they want to prohibit open carry they can. Open carry is still illegal or limited in many states.

But, when the CEO releases a statement that reads (in part): "We do not sell military-style rifles, and we believe the reauthorization of the Assault Weapons ban should be debated to determine its effectiveness. We must also do more, as a country, to understand the root causes that lead to this type of violent behavior. Today, I'm sending letters to the White House and the Congressional leadership that call for action on these common sense measures. As we've seen before, these horrific events occur and then the spotlight fades. We should not allow that to happen. Congress and the administration should act."
THAT is where I draw the line and choose to take my business elsewhere.

But, since I only went in a Walmart about four times a year, and seldom bought ammunition there, there won't be a financial impact on their profits anyway.
 
Jeff22 said:
But, when the CEO releases a statement that reads (in part): "We do not sell military-style rifles, and we believe the reauthorization of the Assault Weapons ban should be debated to determine its effectiveness. We must also do more, as a country, to understand the root causes that lead to this type of violent behavior. Today, I'm sending letters to the White House and the Congressional leadership that call for action on these common sense measures. As we've seen before, these horrific events occur and then the spotlight fades. We should not allow that to happen. Congress and the administration should act."
THAT is where I draw the line and choose to take my business elsewhere.
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Wal-Mart is correct in assuming they won’t lose much in the way of ammo sales, at least from me. I don’t spend much on ammo at Wal-Mart.
However, for every dollar I spend on ammo at Wal-Mart, I usually spend at least $1,000 on other merchandise there.

And I do respect Wal-Mart’s right to make a political statement. I also have a statement to make which is “Goodbye”.
It may be a bit inconvenient and cost me a few cents more, but I would rather suffer a bit of inconvenience and some extra cost by taking ALL my business to merchants who aren’t actively campaigning against my 2A rights. There are plenty of them out there.

This is the same anti-gun nonsense that Kmart tried to shove down our throats years ago when they stopped selling guns and ammo and appointed Rosie as their mouthpiece. As I recall, that didn’t work very well for Kmart. I expect the same end result for Wal-Mart.

There is no such thing as “too big to fail”.
 
Jeff22 said:
Walmart is a private business and if they want to stop selling ammunition they can, and if they want to prohibit open carry they can. Open carry is still illegal or limited in many states.

But, when the CEO releases a statement that reads (in part): "We do not sell military-style rifles, and we believe the reauthorization of the Assault Weapons ban should be debated to determine its effectiveness. We must also do more, as a country, to understand the root causes that lead to this type of violent behavior. Today, I'm sending letters to the White House and the Congressional leadership that call for action on these common sense measures. As we've seen before, these horrific events occur and then the spotlight fades. We should not allow that to happen. Congress and the administration should act."
THAT is where I draw the line and choose to take my business elsewhere.

But, since I only went in a Walmart about four times a year, and seldom bought ammunition there, there won't be a financial impact on their profits anyway.
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My ammunition purchases at WM are minimal at best and were mostly during the last shortage and the one before that. Now... I don't even bother to look at their ammunition. As to the comment above about the WM CEO, I think debating the effectiveness of the "Assault Weapons" ban is okay. We know the ban was NOT effective in reducing crime. They know it too. Like many laws enacted by Congress they mostly apply to honest citizens. The bad guys ignore the laws or the details of the laws.

I honestly expect very little impact with WM sales (other than direct ammo sales) because of this latest deal. Yesterday I filled up with gas at Sam's Club, the price differential was over $0.24/gallon at many gas stations....
 
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22-rimfire said:
I honestly expect very little impact with WM sales because of this latest deal. Yesterday I filled up with gas at Sam's Club, the price differential was over $0.24/gallon at many gas stations....
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We'll see.

I spent several hundred dollars on groceries and gas this past week at Fred Meyer 30 minute drive away. My 2019 Pacifica gets steady 30-32 MPG
doing 60 MPH and getting 10 cents off per gallon on $3.19 at Freddie (It's over $4 in CA), I ended up saving $12 which more than covered the cost of fuel for the round trip.

On groceries, since I only picked up sales items like 12 pack of Coke Zero for 4/$10 (I picked up 24 12 packs), even with double the deposit of 10 cents instead of 5 cents, I saved over $20. On ~ 9 oz Frito Lay products, I saved over $1 per bag (I picked up 50 bags so saved over $50) along with 5 tubs of ice cream for $2.49 with savings of $5 with half gallon chocolate milk at $0.99. This was just one trip and I made 3 trips total just this past week on other fresh produce and grocery items on sale. I saved even more shopping at BiMart, especially not having to pay sales tax. Oh, items I picked up are shared with our son and his girlfriend.

So, just from savings from this past week's shopping at Walmart's competitors, I saved enough to buy me a Ruger 10/22 Man's Best Friend Collector for $199 + $17 shipping and $15 tax - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...s-best-friend-collector.856461/#post-11237184

And there are 52 weeks in a year. :D
 
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hps1 said:
Sounds like a deal w/double payback to me!
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When I was working, Walmart boycott would not have been feasible but now that I am retired, I have the time and will continue my boycott until Walmart changes their policy on guns/ammunition.

Besides, if I monetize savings of several thousand dollars a year from Walmart boycott, I will simply buy more guns/reloading components to celebrate. At my current savings rate, boycott may entirely fund my annual reloading cost and pay for few gun purchases/AR builds. I am looking forward next to another AR build with money saved from Walmart boycott in coming weeks. :thumbup:

Cheers, Walmart CEO/management. < Drinking $0.99 half gallon chocolate milk and munching on $0.88/lb apple from Fred Meyer >
 
LiveLife said:
When I was working, Walmart boycott would not have been feasible but now that I am retired, I have the time and will continue my boycott until Walmart changes their policy on guns/ammunition.....
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It may not be "feasible" for other people, but you insist on a boycott. Consider how many people might actually shop at WM because of their new stance?

I am not going to compare "savings" from some gas station miles and miles away from me for the purpose of discussion. I try to save money, but I am not going to even consider driving any significant distance to shop for groceries unless I have no other choice. The cost of fuel alone generally does not justify such an approach unless it is a very large purchase. Savings are not going toward buying some gun. I own more than I can use in several lifetimes.

Bottom line: You do what works for you and I will do the same. I edited out some stuff that was totally unimportant.
 
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22-rimfire said:
Consider how many people might actually shop at WM because of their new stance?
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I doubt people who didn't shop at Walmart would consider shopping at Walmart because they "modified" their gun/ammo sales policy ... They still sell guns and ammo. ;) That's why I said this gun/ammo sales policy by Walmart is LOSE - LOSE as gun owners will boycott and antis will still not shop at Walmart. :oops:

22-rimfire said:
I try to save money, but I am not going to even consider driving any significant distance to shop for groceries unless I have no other choice.
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We live in a rural area and I drive to the town Walmart's competitors are located on a regular basis so there's not really an extra cost for fuel. It just take a little planning on my part to compare the weekly sales ad and plan my shopping.

When we lived in the city, stores like Target and Costco were often located right next to Walmart and larger grocery chains with better grocery prices weren't too far away. So really no issues with extra fuel cost.

This is my "do something" I chose to do for gun rights/2A and in exchange for closer shopping convenience, an hour spent round trip could net $100+ a week boycotting Walmart. Since I do all the cooking now that I am retired, wife doesn't care where I shop and she even said, I am more than welcome to spent all the money I save on reloading components/gun purchases. :D
 
I seldom look at the sales ads overall except for soft drinks or on occasion look at the overall ad. Sounds to me like you should/would be doing this regardless of WM's new policy. So, this is mostly smoke.
 
22-rimfire said:
I seldom look at the sales ads overall except for soft drinks or on occasion look at the overall ad. Sounds to me like you should/would be doing this regardless of WM's new policy. So, this is mostly smoke.
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Actually no smoke.

Since Walmart is less than 1/4 mile from my house, I have been shopping at Walmart for groceries and automotive/gun related items/22LR for convenience since we bought our retirement property in 2014.

Since my boycott started recently, I have comparison shopped using weekly sales ad and found Walmart does not have the lowest prices on groceries and hence my multiple trips as grocery store weekly sales run from Wednesday through Tuesday.
 
Glad to hear that (no smoke). You should have switched your shopping habits before all this happened.
 
My financial expert friends says that one should check the quarterly financial statements by WalMart, before and after this action. That will determine if the chatter is virtue signaling or really means something.

He's betting that we don't see much of anything. Boycotts in general seem to do little. Boycott Levis, Chick-Fila-A, Target - no impact. As I said before, around here the 30.07 (No OC) signs didn't chase the crowds away from popular retail outlets.
 
GEM said:
My financial expert friends says that one should check the quarterly financial statements by WalMart, before and after this action. That will determine if the chatter is virtue signaling or really means something.

He's betting that we don't see much of anything. Boycotts in general seem to do little. Boycott Levis, Chick-Fila-A, Target - no impact. As I said before, around here the 30.07 (No OC) signs didn't chase the crowds away from popular retail outlets.
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30.07 signs don't bother me at all; actually, I don't think I have seen a single person OC in my little corner of the world since that law went into effect, which suits me just fine. I really never did see OC as having a positive effect as far as gun control issues are concerned.

Regards,
hps
 
I have seen three people OC in San Antonio. Their characteristics:

1. T - shirt with giant belly.
2. Semi with no extra mag in a crappy holster which was flopping around under said belly.

I do see OC on nicely dressed folks:

1. Men in dress shirts and slacks and badges. We are near the FBI local HQ and they do lunch out.
2. Well dressed women with Glocks - gold shields, the detectives at lunch in a nice restaurant.
3. The black polo shirt, 5.11 pants crowd - t-shirt says the organization, again the law.

The latter groups are quite the sartorial contrast to the big belly brigade.

You might say to dress like the OC law but then, you look like the Law if a critical incident happens and that might interfere with various action plans - like running for your life.
 
My wife and I did some running around today. We made four stops. One was to eat. I noticed OC at three of the four stops. Only one was in the categories that GEM listed, but he wasn't the only person OCing at that location.
 
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