Walmart Sporting Goods Manager Denies Computer Reports

[ColtPythonElite]

Why does everyone want .22 so badly?

To shoot.....

 

[X-Rap]

If you wish to see if the local WM has your favorite tooth paste or when it is back in stock you can do that, same with ammo. WM is really pretty transparent inventory wise if you look.
After seeing that I am even more doubtful that managers or associates are willing to risk their jobs by stashing ammo or selling off the back of the truck.

 

[HEAVY METAL 1]

I would not doubt for a second that there is some "keep some aside for a buddy" thing going on at times. A local store here was doing it w/ ARs during the height of the panic. An employee in the gardening dept which is right next to the sporting goods dept told me that. This is in a West Coast well known chain store.

OTOH I have went into Walmart for an electric shaver and none of the model I wanted were on the shelf and an employee looked them up and said, "We are supposed to have 3 of them out there (on the shelf)." No inventory control scheme is foolproof.

 

[Autopistola]

You should all back off! I used to work those counters. 6 months of prying customers and constant disappointment, and a handful of happy 7am scalpers. Guess what? It arrives when it gets there! Back off and let the sorry associate get some work done! This includes store assistant managers, who know what's on the incoming freight, they don't have time for you. Walmart only gives lip service to giving a damn! It's all about a quick turnaround.

 

[goon]

The local Walmart gets a little ammo every morning. People promptly run in and immediately buy it as soon as it's off the truck.

Meanwhile, the local gun stores are both well stocked in everything but .22lr. But I picked some up from Midway just over a week ago by checking twice a day and just buying it when they had it.

So no... it's not so bad that I feel the need to go through Walmart's books and angrily demand that they sell me ammo that they probably don't have.

 

[Redlg155]

I bought 100 rds of .22 from my local wallyworld last night when I happened to catch the store associate returning from the back of the store. We used to have specific times given as to when the ammo is restocked, but complaints from customers and lines have discouraged that practice. They now put it out at random times.

 

[Mainsail]

I think I'm reading (between the lines) in the OP, that there may be some belief that Walmart employees or managers are buying it before it hits the shelves in order to turn it on the private market for a profit.

It wouldn't surprise me but for now it seems to be pure speculation.

 

[lumpylead]

My preacher bought some 22 ammo the other day and he said that it was being kept under the counter. He said the only way he knew that was because someone else asked for it.

 

[rule303]

I don't get it. If Walmart increased their price to the point where less people were buying the ammo so it was always in stock, everyone would be screaming about how they were gouging. As it is, they have held their prices mostly the same and put a 3 box limit on it to try to spread it out, and everyone is still complaining. So there is two choices, you can buy any ammo you want, anytime you want for a higher price, or you deal with sporadic availability at regular prices.

 

[hso]

Speedo66,

Have you personally seen inventory reports for that store yourself or are you going on hearsay? Were they current or some past inventory?

 

[mac66]

Last Thursday I was in the Walmart in Houghton Lake, Michigan. Just out of curiosity I checked and there was no .22 ammo on the shelf and none in stock according to the person at the counter. No other customers around. I walked over to the Subway within the store and went back to sporting goods 20 minutes later to pick up something I forgot and there were 5-500 round boxes of CCI 22lr auto something or other on the shelf and 5 guys waiting in line for someone to come to the counter. I thought that was odd.

Is it possible that the store only got 5 boxes in (less than one case) and that's all? I don't know or care since I don't need any .22 ammo but it makes you wonder.

 

[Lj1941]

Wallyworld

There is member of my gun club that has ammo for sale at every meeting. He is even in with the club secretary and she sends an email to all members that this guy has ammo for sale and he will have it at the upcoming meeting.This has been going on since the panic right after the 2008 election.I mentioned it to a friend of mine who is also a club member and shoots IDPA because he prefers to shoot factory ammo for sanctioned matches.His answer was this guy's wife works at Walmart and she gets the ammo for her employee's discount price.He said he would not buy it from him because of this. So,my point is-it happens!
.

 

[mac66]

If you worked at Walmart, wouldn't you take first dibs on ammo? I probably would in this day and age. One of the perks of a low paying retail job.

 

[Speedo66]

Speedo66,

Have you personally seen inventory reports for that store yourself or are you going on hearsay? Were they current or some past inventory?

No, I'm getting my info from this site, which was recommended, and used, by others here. www.ammo-can.net/

Even if it's not 100% accurate, I'm curious about the dept. manager's story of no .22 ammo in 2 months. The site says it obtains it's info from Walmart. Again, I'm not expecting absolute accuracy, but it seems to be fairly accurate for others.

I rarely shop at Walmart, but knew I was going to be in close proximity, so figured I'd see what was going on there.

We retirees have to have something to do.

 

[ridgerunner1965]

its very simple, like a lot of brick and mortar stores and online stores, the web inventories dont match up with whats on the shelves.there is a lag time be tween whats sold and whats posted online.id just guess its 12 hrs at least.the programmers update everything in the morning and then dont update till the next morning.or sumpin like that.wal mart is not going to hire sumone to enter every sale on the website as it happens.very simple.

and if the dept manager said he has seen no ammo in 2 months? he prob hasnt as its all sold before he gits out of bed.

if your a big shooter then your main source of ammo should be yourself.cast and load for your pistols. reload for your centerfire rifles and keep plenty of components in stock. as far as 22 lr goes, umm didnt we see this same thing in 08?its now 2013? yu didnt think to pik up a bit in between?baffles me.

 

[rhinoh]

Is it possible that the store only got 5 boxes in (less than one case) and that's all?

Yes or even less. I bought one box of .22 one morning, there were only two boxes of 1000 in the shipping cardboard box or "case".. That was all that came in, I actually spotted them on the cart the clerk hadn't unloaded yet.

That was one of the days the clerk claimed a one box limit and wouldn't sell me both of them

 

[Officers'Wife]

I really have to ask, is Walmart the only place near you guys that sells ammunition? Even lowly Jasper County Indiana has two gunshops and a hardware store that sells a variety of ammunition with only a 20 to 40 cent difference from Walmart. Rural King in Monticello had a good variety of stock even during the "shortage" and again not that much higher and in the case of some rifle cartridges lower than Walmart. If Wally World gives you that much of a runaround why bother?

 

[morcey2]

I don't know about the accuracy of that website, but I do know that there have been some shenanigans going on at one of our local wal-marts. In April, I went in at about 8:00 AM to pick up some wax worms and shoelaces. I asked the guy at the sporting goods counter if they had any 22LR in, fully expecting to get the standard "Haven't seen it in weeks" answer. They had a dozen or so boxes of the mid-size remington golden bullet bulk packs, so I picked up 3.

Skip forward about a week. I was in there in the morning and asked The Same Guy if they had any 22LR. That's when I got the "Haven't seen it in weeks/months" answer from him. When I told him that I bought a couple of boxes from him a week earlier. I was the one who was mistaken and could have only bought it at one of the other local stores. Then he told me that none of the other stores have "seen it in weeks/months."

I know one of the other sporting goods guys at the same store pretty well, but had to track him down later. He said that they got it in a couple of times a week and he wasn't sure what the other guy was talking about. Funny thing happened after that. Never saw the other guy again, and they occasionally had 22LR in stock. Not a lot and you had to be there when it was unloaded, but it was available.

Matt

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Does walmart offer "site to store" where you can order it online and it is delivered to the store in your name and you pick it up?

Just looked at http://www.walmart.com/cp/Site-to-Store/538452#37416 and it says hazmat items are not on the list, wonder if that is ammo too? Just by seeing whats going on at the stores ammo would never make it to the shelf if walmart let you order it.

Loaded ammo is not Haz Mat...

 

[oneounceload]

I really have to ask, is Walmart the only place near you guys that sells ammunition? Even lowly Jasper County Indiana has two gunshops and a hardware store that sells a variety of ammunition with only a 20 to 40 cent difference from Walmart. Rural King in Monticello had a good variety of stock even during the "shortage" and again not that much higher and in the case of some rifle cartridges lower than Walmart. If Wally World gives you that much of a runaround why bother?

Exactly, but you need to realize that some gun owners still try to squeeze two nickels together to make a quarter and seem to think that any ammo over $.01/round is overpriced and gouging - they really should be looking at reloading, but don't want to spend the money on equipment. 30 years ago, ammo was double and salaries were half and folks paid the money and went shooting. These days, between the entitlement mentality and the need for instant gratification, folks expect everything immediately available for prices their grandparents paid, and when that doesn't happen they whine on the internet.

Soon they will realize the folly of that and the reality of current market conditions. it would help resolve this shortage situation if Walmart would just triple their selling prices to current market/demand levels - shortage and high prices solved within a month

 

[goon]

From what I've been told by my friend who works at the LGS, they are only getting in a brick or two of .22 at a time.
Distributor reps are now calling them and saying they have "500 rounds" of .22 ammo instead of a case. Since that's all there is, they always just take what they can get.
Walmart is bigger, but they're not big enough to create ammo out of thin air. If they could get more, they would. Then they'd sell all they could.

Wish I'd had the foresight to pick up another 5,000 rounds of .22LR back when I first started the last job. But I didn't. So now I'm shooting a few Super Colibris and making the odds and ends in the bottom of the ammo can last. It'll come back. Just stop with all the panic.

 

[22-rimfire]

It'll come back. Just stop with all the panic.

I used to say that or something similar. What if it doesn't come back for years? I'm not the person standing in line, but 10 months of this is really getting on my nerves.

 

[X-Rap]

In the last 6-7 months I can honestly say that I know of a very small group of people who have managed to accumulate over 40,000 rds. of ammo most of it being 22lr. They were johnny come latelys and didn't heed what I told them but are now true believers.
Most of that ammo went to two households and all of them have real jobs and hobbies and spent very little time in line and no they don't have inside connections.
This is why I laugh at all the sniveling and whining and wild accusations.
And none of it went to the secondary market.

 

[C0untZer0]

I've been able to get Federal 115gr FMJ for $14.00 and Winchester 115gr FMJ Target for under 14 bucks at Walmart - while that stuff is selling for $17.00 at LGS and more than that online.

If employees were buying up & reselling ammo why would they just be choosing .22LR ?

 

[Malamute]

The local wal mart here has 22's off and on. They dont know when it will be in or how much, and several times didnt know it was sitting on a pallet 30 feet away waiting to be stocked.

I've talked to various sporting goods people, and sometimes get the same story (we havent had any 22's in weeks"), then talk to someone else "we had some a couple times in the past week, but it's all sold within an hour or two". I think some of them never see it so dont think any ever comes in. It's stocked at random times, it seems like whenever they have time to mess with it. I've found ammo out on the floor buried on pallets several times, mostly they dont know it's there until I point it out. It's like magic when the ammo is taken off the pallets though. People start showing up like they smell it.

Most recently, they've told me they've been getting more ammo more often. It still sells fairly quickly, but more is coming in.

Prices have been pretty much normal when they get stuff in, with a few small price increases.