Stuff "I" heard at Wal-Mart last night

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skizzums

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Okay, so I am in Walmart three days ago, the one by my house, they sell a few guns and have a half an aisle of accessories, mainly AR. I see everything AR marked down 50%, not much left. They do have three MFT BattleLink Low Utility Stocks marked from $120 to $40, hoy cow. I assume these three were left on the shelf because the are for commercial. I do not have a commercial, but I am building a rifle for my father-in-law at the moment, so I snap a pic to make sure he likes it/wants it. I go back last night and find the last one that had apparently been cleverly "hidden" behind the clay throwers.

I buy it, I tel the clerk at the gun station, "wow, what a great deal, even online these run $100 or more". he said, yes these are quotes, "well, they are making us get rid of anything that has to do with AR's as quick as possible, Walmart doesn't want anything to do with them anymore, I guess it's political".

say it aint so.....I am not big on buying AR accessories at Walmart, but did they really cave? haven't they always stood firm on following the rule of law and if that supports the 2ndA then so be it, not their business. I dunno, could be totally untrue, and maybe just MY store, I didn't clarify. have you guys heard anything about this?
 
If you mean is it a directive from WalMart corporate head offices? I have no idea. Unlikely the sporting good clerk would know for sure, either. "They" might be Coporate HQ, or "they" might be the store manager.

One thing I do know is that WalMart general policy is, if they don't sell a given amount of the product, they drop it in favor of using the shelf space to sell something else. NOT just guns, but everything.

Maybe its coporate, caving to the anti's to "protect" their image. Or maybe its just "we don't make enough money on these, not going to order any more, discount the left over stock and get it out of here, so we can put something that sells better on that shelf".

I have 3 WalMarts within easy distance. All three do not all carry exactly all the same stuff.
 
The clerk has very little knowledge of why Walmart does things.

Walmart only sells what will sell in a given area.

I doubt Walmart will cave to any kind of pressure unless it's economic.

Walmart really doesn't care about politics. Most likely it just wasn't selling there well

Some Walmarts have ARs galore. Some only bolt actions. Some no guns at all.

Some have piles of military caliber ammo some have only shotgun shells.

They only strive to optimize sales at each store and the have complex software and algorithms to do it with. They will even force ship pop tarts to certain store depending on weather predictions.
 
Plenty of AR stuff and guns at all three of my Walmarts. They watch what moves. Carrying costs that are out of control can mean the difference between profit and loss
 
Okay, so I am in Walmart three days ago, the one by my house, they sell a few guns and have a half an aisle of accessories, mainly AR. I see everything AR marked down 50%, not much left. They do have three MFT BattleLink Low Utility Stocks marked from $120 to $40, hoy cow. I assume these three were left on the shelf because the are for commercial. I do not have a commercial, but I am building a rifle for my father-in-law at the moment, so I snap a pic to make sure he likes it/wants it. I go back last night and find the last one that had apparently been cleverly "hidden" behind the clay throwers.

I buy it, I tel the clerk at the gun station, "wow, what a great deal, even online these run $100 or more". he said, yes these are quotes, "well, they are making us get rid of anything that has to do with AR's as quick as possible, Walmart doesn't want anything to do with them anymore, I guess it's political".

say it aint so.....I am not big on buying AR accessories at Walmart, but did they really cave? haven't they always stood firm on following the rule of law and if that supports the 2ndA then so be it, not their business. I dunno, could be totally untrue, and maybe just MY store, I didn't clarify. have you guys heard anything about this?
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Wow that is weird, I heard the exact same thing today, all of their AR's were marked down and the lady said they were goign to stop selling them because "it was a trend" or something similar. Very strange.
 
I've heard similar things about Wal-marts dropping AR-15s, but only isolated reports and only in a few areas. More likely it has to do with sales figures (they're not selling like they were two years ago) or local store management. I don't recall seeing any AR15s at my Walmart, but they're still selling .223 and 7.62x39 ammo as well as "tactical" type accessories and magazines talking about 3 gun stuff. I know I bought some 12 gauge ammo for something like 21 cents a round pre-tax there the other day.
 
I still stand by my statement that they're not doing it for political reasons. It stands to reason that Walmart simply jumped into the AR market too late, and didn't achieve the sales numbers they wanted.
Of course, this is all speculation on my part.

Maybe they got a tax break to discontinue sales?
 
I agree with the others this is probably more economic than political.

It could be a mix though. Walmart got out of handguns b/c ATFE watches handgun sales in much greater detail than long guns. With their turn over it was difficult to keep someone on staff who was trained in how to log gun sales without mistakes reliably. ATFE started to hassle them over problems and they pretty much agreed to stop selling handguns instead of increasing training and wages to have better employees. At least as I understand it.
 
My local Walmart quit selling guns maybe ten years back, could be fifteen years ago.... Carry ammo and BB/Pellet guns. New wallmart opened up couple years ago about 20 minutes away, location is more rural, they carry a few black powder rifles and a limited amount of powder, bullets, primers etc. In my area Walmart is not gun friendly. I'd rather pay a little more and support some LGS.
 
Our local Walmart also quit selling firearms about a decade ago. Probably the main reason, is here in northcentral Pennsyltucky, we have a significant number of gun shops-some very large, some very small, but all very competitive in pricing!
 
More likely it has to do with sales figures (they're not selling like they were two years ago)
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This is most likely the case. I've heard nothing about any political pressure on Wal Mart. If there was any, it would be in the news.
 
I was surprised when I saw Walmart carrying AR's and AR stuff. Walmart traditionally sold .22's and some hunting rifles. I never understood why it jumped on the AR bandwagon to begin with. Plus, they were late to the party and couldn't compete very well. Also AR folks typically like to customize their rifles and Walmart isn't set up to support that; and that's where the real profit is.
 
If Walmart got completely out of the shooting stuff, it wouldn't matter much in our area.
Other than .22 ammo, when they have it, and some airgun supplies, there's really not a whole lot to be interested in.
Most of their stock seems to be the lowest end and very little of that.
Especially with other shooting supplies across the street and around the corner, both of whom have better choices and people who are at least somewhat experienced.
No loss around here.
 
yep, no AR stuff at my local Wal-Mart. those guns are expensive and my area is economically depressed. an AR would sit for a while like they do at the local pawn shop.
 
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I happened to be back at my Wal-Mart yesterday and there were several AR-pattern rifles in the case and a whole display of "tactical" accessories such as Blackhawk stocks and slings. They did have a pretty sweet clearance on an M&P15-22 for $299. Seemed normal though. They mostly stock typical hunting rifles and shotguns and some .22 plinkers.
 
At on of my local walmarts all of the ARs were tagged for clearance and I got the same "no more ARs" story. 10 miles up the road is another walmart that still has ARs with no clearance tag. Who knows?
 
The LGS's are crammed with ARs right now, the panic is over and a lot of folks that thought they were going to make a bunch of money had bills to pay, I guess.
 
For those out of the loop, and only looking at a gun where they buy their milk and bread: have you checked the internet and other gun stores lately?

There was a surge two years ago, production remained high until the shortage was covered, distributors and retailers overbought, and now the market has dropped to the cheapest prices we have seen in 20 years.

The market as a whole is glutted and everybody is cutting prices to get out from under the debt load on their inventory. It's make little to no profit now, or keep losing profit completely on those items for months longer at the high prices they thought they could charge.

Businesses take product in because it will sell - not once, but multiple times. It's called "turns," where the backstock sitting in warehouses or distributors fills the empty spot on the shelf and it's going to make another sale. If the product won't turn 2-3 times, or more, you mark it down and put in something else you already know will. Money tied up in inventory that won't move is like having call girls who can't get customers - what are you thinking?? Worse yet, all the other street walkers are charging half or less.

Time to refresh your inventory to something that gets repeat sales. "They" aren't against AR's any more than "they" don't like pump shotguns - it's a matter of which has more turns and can bring more profit to the store for the market lifespan of the product.

Which is why some stores are dumping AR's and some aren't. Same as stocking 6.8SPC or 6.5Grendel - some did, some didn't. It has nothing to do with politics, it's entirely profit based and controlled by metrics.

Lots of Walmarts have an aisle of markdowns in the store, I've found usb power banks in them lately for $25 bucks - still too high compared to Ross Dress for Less at $15 for the same capacity. And, they are still sitting there where Ross is selling out. Again, look on the internet and gunstores - AR's are selling, and some are selling out. Walmart's generic M4geries at their prices, not so much.

It's not politics, it's a game of merchandising and marketing. It's a buyers market, the best we've ever had in a long time, and if you are smart and want an AR, you don't spend your money at the bread and milk store for a higher priced one when you can save 20% down the street.

If people studied economics and retailing as much as they regurgitate conspiracy theories we'd be hiring a better quality Congress and Administration. But, like they say, we get the ones we deserve.
 
i did the quotes because Mo had just put up a post with similar title. I tried to do bold, wouldn't allow in title caption.

I understand the market is saturated. I just thought it interesting. mot a lot of walmarts around here ever stock ar15 rifles, but they do usually have the 6 feet of aisle for the slings and quads and buttstocks etc, just thought it odd that they would clearance it all out in a hurry. I am sure Walmart knows what theyre doing, just curious if what I heard from the clerk had any bearing.
 
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