Does your Walmart Ammo shelf look like this?

[Darrell KSR]

Mine always does.

They do have that .410 defense load the Governor and the Judge use, in this pic, but not much else. And it is always this way.

2296

[BigBlueBrock]

No clue. I haven't set foot in the Wal-Mart sporting goods section in a long long time.

[CitizenBBN]

They're that way around here for sure. Heard from a guy this weekend Sportsman's had some, doubt they had it very long unless they boosted the price to match demand. Most places aren't b/c they're afraid of being seen as gouging and getting on the bad side of gun folks is a death stroke b/c they hold a grudge.

[dan_bgblue]

They turned the ones in BG into wine racks

[Darrell KSR]

They turned the ones in BG into wine racks

In Alabama, they are in the same location anyway.

[Doc]

In Alabama, they are in the same location anyway.

The Alabama version of "fine wine"

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ll5t1ka6ch1qgz5oko1_400.jpg

[suncat05]

The WalMart in Okeechobee's shelves aren't quite that bare. There is some shotgun ammo, mostly bird-shot, but still no handgun ammo or popular rifles caliber ammo.
And now WalMart has started using the empty spaces for fishing reels. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Fishing reels where ammunition used to be.

[kritikalcat]

The last two I've shopped at in Lexington look about like that. Maybe not quite so bare, but pretty sparse.

Honestly, I wondered if it was post-Connecticut PC - that WalMart was downplaying it's gun/ammo sales. hadn't thought about it being high demand!

[BigBlueBrock]

While in the Nicholasville Rd Supercenter, I decided to swing by the sporting goods section and check out the ammo case (just for you guys). This is what I found...

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/Brock2222/IMG_20130625_181750.jpg~original

Nothing but scatter shot (and not much of that) and a note:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/Brock2222/IMG_20130625_181759.jpg~original

[CitizenBBN]

The last two I've shopped at in Lexington look about like that. Maybe not quite so bare, but pretty sparse.

Honestly, I wondered if it was post-Connecticut PC - that WalMart was downplaying it's gun/ammo sales. hadn't thought about it being high demand!

I imagine in some blue states they are, they have store by store policies on ammo and guns to avoid even having it in 'sensitive' areas, but here it's 100% demand from gun nuts. :)

Brock just posted their notice, but what they're doing is rationing rather than raise the price to clear the market. People are tracking when the shipments are coming and they line up and get their 3 boxes, then send in their significant others to get 3, etc. It's gone in hours. Mostly 22 but also 9mm.

People ask me constantly why the shortage, but like any shortage the answer is mostly that everyone is so worried about their being a shortage. As long as everyone believes in stocks they don't go down, as long as everyone believes in banks there aren't any runs on them, and as long as everyone believes a given product will be readily available then it will be on the shelves. The minute everyone worries about it being available forget it, like bread and milk with a snow storm coming. In this case people think the snow storm is ongoing and may get worse so the shelves stay bare.

There is also the government purchasing which may have some impact (it's hard to say either way b/c we dont' know how many rounds are being delivered, have been delivered and by who) and the gun market has in fact expanded with lots of new first time gun owners, but hoarding is part of it too.

Also, and I think you'll find this swaggish theory interesting, I see the 22 demand in particular as something of an economic substitution effect. As the price of other ammo has gone up and as desire for having a bigger reserve of such ammo has gone up even more, people are demanding more 22 than ever b/c they are switching to shooting more 22 versus their other calibers. So I buy 1K rounds of 7.62 but I don't want to dip into my 7.62, so I buy 22 even though the price is at an all time high b/c it's a) still cheaper than my 7.62 (not by much these days) and b) I don't mind depleting my reserve of 22 b/c if the s*** hits the fan I'm far more worried about having 7.62. I figure 22 will still be legal even if 7.62 isn't.

Since 22 prices and centerfire prices are all going up, it has the effect of looking like a Geffen good,where the price of 22 goes up and demand goes up with it. Of course what is happening is the substitution effect from the price increases elsewhere is simply swamping the price increase in 22, it isn't really seeing demand rise directly due to it's higher price forcing the substitution but rather other product's pricing, but it has that appearance in a way.

FWIW I think it will all still be legal, but I do think the substitution effect is there to explain part of why 22 is so in demand. I sold it for 36c a round this past weekend. No kidding.

[dan_bgblue]

36 cents per round? You said you were not kidding and I believe you, but dauum, that is nuts.

I am harvesting and drying river cane from a secret spot, and collecting flint shards to make into arrowheads. I figure I have about $39.50 invested in gasoline, bandaids, nails and scrap lumber for drying racks, for 730 potential deadly shafts.

I do not recommend them for compound bows but for a recurve at 10 yards they will do the job.

[CitizenBBN]

Far anr away the highest ive gotten, but 20 +/- cents per isnt unusual.

[kritikalcat]

36c/round for .22 - and this isn't saboted 30mm rocket assisted armor-piercing micro-nuclear-bomblet tipped ammo?

Wow, no wonder at camp this summer they only let my son shoot 5 rounds per day