Saturday, December 31, 2016

Stopped at 4 Dallas/Ft. Worth Walmarts: 3 had .22 LR





As I drove around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex during Christmas season, 2016, I stopped at four area Walmart stores.  The first one was a couple of days before Christmas.  I did not have a car until the 24th, so I only looked in the Walmart at Frankford and Marsh Ln before Christmas.  I have written about .22 at that store for a year and a half.  It has had .22 LR in stock pretty reliably during that period, so I was not surprised to see a a couple thousand Winchester Super X, a couple of thousand CCI Stingers, a thousand CCI .22 short CB caps, and five  hundred CCI minimags.  They all seemed over priced, with the minimags the best buy of the lot at 7.47 cents a cartridge.



Benbrook Walmart Display
I stopped at the Benbrook Walmart next, on the other side of the metroplex, at the far South West edge.  I have been watching it for a year or so, and have never seen any .22 LR in it.  It was no surprise either.  The prices were the same as on the North Central edge, but there were only a few boxes of .17 rimfire.  No .22 LR.



Display at Dallas Parkway and Beltline Walmart
After meeting my Daughter for lunch, I stopped at the Walmart at Dallas Parkway and Beltline, a more central location. I did not expect to find any .22 LR. I thought the Frankford location was a fluke. I was wrong.  The Parkway and Beltline store had a fairly good stock.  The prices were the same.  You can see .22 Magnums on the left of the picture, some CCI .22 LR shotshells, plenty of Winchester SuperX, and some CCI .22 CB shorts.  I talked to a friendly Walmart employee who explained the situation.  For a period of time this year, the Walmart had been closed for remodeling. During that period, .22 ammunition kept coming fairly regularly, but it could not be sold.

When the store when back into operation, the employees keep the shelves stocked with .22, and they have not run out since.  SuperX is the most common .22 LR round they get in. They get some CCI, and a little bit of both Remington golden bullets and Federal .22 LR. They do not have a three box limit on purchase.

Plano Store Display

The last store I stopped at was in Plano, off the George Bush Turnpike.  The nearest cross street was Park.  This store was not as busy as the others, but it was a weekday afternoon between Christmas and New Year's Eve. I did not expect to find any .22 LR there.  Surprise! There, tucked down in the lowest shelf, with no price showing was nearly 2,000 rounds of Winchester SuperX, some CCI .22 Magnum and a carton of CCI .22 LR shotshells.

I was pretty sure I would find .22 LR at the Frankford store, but I was surprised to find significant quantities at two of the other three stores where I stopped.

The prices were nothing to smile about.  8.37 cents a round for Winchester SuperX seems a bit high to me.  Using a constant dollar calculator, it would translate back to about 1 cent a round in the early 1950's. It is not completely out of line.

I expect .22 LR to become more plentiful and cheaper in the coming year.

None of the .22 LR was in bulk packs, and that is where the best deals for blasting ammunition is found.  The Internet sellers have .22 LR as low as 5.6 cents a round, but you have to pay shipping.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

If only the WalMarts here in Jax, FL would stock .22 ammo like that! Some of ours don't even carry ammo and it's rare to find ANY type of .22 in them.

AIB/44

Anonymous said...

Well, lucky for you Texans.
Still no .22 in South Carolina at Walmart.
Only the sporting goods stores have any and overpriced.
BPS, Gander, Academy.

Anonymous said...

If people would stop buying any ammo for a couple of months they would begin to use ammo as a lost leader and the price would be forced down. that is the way marketing works. When K-mart here stopped selling ammo, a California border town. they were selling shot gun shells by the case for 3.00 a box. that was a serious increase from when I bought shot gun shells years ago for a dollar a box in Phoenix.
the price of an FFL has increased to where the price is inflated on ammo just to afford the license. so the price has been forced up. My license was 10 dollars a year now I understand the yearly fee is 2,500.00 dollars a year. explain that, over head and outrageous regulations have not helped. The ATF regulations manual is well over an inch thick. Like no one ever heard of Shall not be infringed. I would love to get my FFL back but not for 2,500.00 dollars. all any business should need is a retail sales license for sales tax reporting purposes. My reading of the constitution says the only legal tax is a sales tax. Only profit can be taxed and wages are not profit. If your business is not making profit you are in the wrong business. when I had my gun store my books were in the black from day one and five other stores closed down. I had customers from as far away as 150 miles.
One of my customers refused to buy anything else after looking at my prices. he said I must be selling black market inventory. If you do not know the business you should not be in it. I kept my over head to a minimum and shopped for whole sale prices. My customer service was top notch. My inventory was what would sell quickly and I special ordered everything else. You can not make a profit with a 30,000 square foot floor and a million dollars in inventory setting on the shelf. When I closed down and turned in my license the ATF sent me a letter telling me I could get my license back any time because of the excellence in my records keeping. I made a perfect score on the pre license test. If you think people will not wait for special orders to get good prices. explain that to the guy that bought three Remington 270s at the same time. One guy bought well over 50 pounds of DuPont IMR powder. I bought so much inventory from one of my suppliers he put guns on my shelf and said send me the money when they sell. He said my sales were improving his business. I could get just about anything from any where in three days for my special orders. One guy bought a silver shadow over and under the day it came in he ordered a second one. Half down half on delivery. Integrity in business helps. One guy drove 100 miles to get replacement reloading die locking rings. No one else would order them they wanted to sell him new die sets. He drove 100 miles to get six rings for a dollar a piece. the shop in his town went out of business. I was getting customers from Las Vegas. I helped get a skeet club started 70 miles away. they bought by the truck load. 50,000 WADS, PRIMERS, HULLS. A TON OF SHOT AND 50,000 CLAY TARGETS. AND LOTS OF ACCESSORIES.

Anonymous said...

I bought ten cases of .22LR for my shop at my prices it lasted three days and it was not a lost leader. I doubled my investment. People were simply amazed at my inventory and prices, My advertising budget was simple business cards and word of mouth from satisfied customers. I answered their questions and even taught a few how to reload for free. I kept a game watch for them and could tell them were to look. My shop was open three hours a day and three days a week and five other shops closed down. I was taught to reload by the owners of the RCBS company.

Unknown said...

None of the Walmarts in my area in central Maine have .22LR ever sitting on the shelf. Still lines in the mornings on delivery days and stock sold out in minutes. The LGSs have small stocks at the apparent new normal prices (8-10 cents a round) though. Which I understand, because as an FFL holder myself, I can't even buy it wholesale for less.

Anonymous said...

The way to order and get enough 22LR is to order a semi tractor trailer load and become a distributor. then make just enough profit to make your self known. you will have all of the business for hundreds of miles around and force the price down everywhere in the area. it will not take long to be ordering your next trailer load. you have the license learn the business. call the manufacturer get a price on a full load raise the money, place the order and start selling. get a price per case and the number of cases in the load plus the delivery fees. make sure you know how many cartons are in the case some manufacturers pack differently. calculate your profit and see how much you can make off of that trailer load. selling in that quantity you do not have to jip your customers. If you make even just 50% profit you will be under selling everyone around you. 20% mark up and you will need another trailer in a week. You will have a chance to see how well word of mouth advertising works. get lots of copies of your FFL ready. I put 200 copies of my FFL out and could have used many more. If you want the price to come down do not sell to other distributors. do not sell more than a case at a time to anyone. never worry about breaking a case they will all sell. even by the individual box. eventually you will be able to get into other calibers. keep your over head low and put as much profit back into inventory as possible. good turn over builds a business fast. worked for me.

J. P. CAZADOR said...

"When will the brain-dead Left wake up and draw the obvious conclusion?"

The Left, or what is better referred to as Communists, are neither 'brain dead' nor do they need to'wake up'.
They're domestic enemies and they know DAMN WELL what they're doing.
The ones who are indeed brain dead and lacking in balls are the so called patriots who continue to tolerate their intolerable bull$hit. WAKE UP TIME.....