Wal-Mart sold out to the anti-gunners

[MrTwistedFock]

Wal-Mart announced today they are pulling all sales of semi-auto rifles. The Wal-Marts near me all sell AR-15s and Ruger Mini-14s and Ruger 10/22s. I bought a Ruger 10/22 from Wal-Mart in 2009.

I suppose Wal-Mart corporate legal is terrified someone is gonna use of THEIR rifles that THEY sold to someone somewhere in the country in some sort of whacked out, mass shooting. And that they'd then become targets of a super duper deep deep pockets lawsuit. As Wal-Mart is loaded.

Biggest retail operation in the country pulled semi-autos today.

[Shug]

Are they still the biggest? I thought I heard Amazon just beat them on gross sales value.

[timshufflin]

So sad, same old same old.

[Shug]

On the positive side, smaller stores that provide customer service no longer have to compete with them on pure price. There are lots of small store owners of lots of types of goods who would love to have Walmart to no longer in competition with them. Small guys can't win a price war against a retail behemoth that does Walmart's volume and has their leverage with manufacturers on cost.

[Old Guard]

I was there last night, no .22 ammo and very few rifles in the racks...

[canes7]

Damn.. Where else can one go to buy an AR-15 while wearing leopard print spandex pants that are 3 sizes too small with poop stains running down the back of the legs and a pastel blue wifebeater?

I don't think I'll miss this at all.

[cuppednlocked]

Personally, I enjoy the show periodically. Where else can you go for people watching that is even half as entertaining as a trip to WallyWorld?

[musketjon]

Hell, Wally World quit selling guns here in the PRK about 10 years ago, maybe even longer.
Jon

[seaninmich]

On the positive side, smaller stores that provide customer service no longer have to compete with them on pure price. There are lots of small store owners of lots of types of goods who would love to have Walmart to no longer in competition with them. Small guys can't win a price war against a retail behemoth that does Walmart's volume and has their leverage with manufacturers on cost.

^this^

Walmart can do whatever it wants. Good for them. He demand will not change one bit just because Walmart is no longer a player. That demand will just be satisfied by other, more qualified, purveyors of firearms.

Don't kid yourselves. If Walmart were making margins on ARs, they would still be selling them. They know damn well that they are not a real player in the market. No one with two brain cells to rub together is buying ARs from Walmart. We know it. They know it. All they did is use this to gain a little publicity and look PC.

[canes7]

Personally, I enjoy the show periodically. Where else can you go for people watching that is even half as entertaining as a trip to WallyWorld?


Work. Definately work.

[MrTwistedFock]

I dont buy guns from Wal-Mart either, other than a Ruger 10/22 way back in 2009. I dont even like Wal-Mart and hate shopping there. I dont shop there very much. I admit I buy most of my CLP and Hoppes #9 from Wal-Mart, but thats all. When I used to live in Charlotte and had more variety regarding stores to go to that were very very nearby me, I NEVER went to Wal-Mart. Because like many of you it sounds, I basically cant stand the place.

The people that frequent this message board are a much more sophisticated, advanced end user of semi-auto rifles than your typical Wal-Mart guns and ammo buyer.

The point is, when the nation's largest gun seller pulls semi-autos from sales completely, that is sending a signal out. What that message is, IMO, it aint good. Wal-Mart followed their announcement up by saying, "they would be focusing on hunting and sporting rifles from here on out." Wait a minute, many semi-automatic rifles ARE sporting rifles. And even hunting rifles. Anybody who keeps up on this knows the gun industry has been pushing ARs for hunting for the past four or five years. Pushing ARs in .30 caliber, pushing AR-15s using high grain Barnes Bullets for medium game even. And target shooting...thats a sporting activity. Whats Wal-Mart consider semi-automatic rifles? Obviously Wal-Mart corporate must not consider semi-autos "sporting and hunting" rifles.

Maybe some of you will get the point, I dont know. IMO, it aint a good thing for the gun culture generally.

[MrTwistedFock]

Not necessarily. Wal-Mart is filthy rich and has whats known in the litigation legal world as "deep pockets." That makes Wal-Mart a potential major target were someone to use a semi-auto purchased at Wal-Mart in one of these wacko mass shootings that are going on nowadays. Wal-Mart corporate, or more specifically Wal-Mart legal corporate, could have pushed this decision mostly for preventative litigation reasons. Companies do that all the time. They foresee something happening legally to them and they take action to make it not foreseeable, least not to them.

The tradeoff between a profit margin and being the potential defendant in some highly publicized, mass shooting related litigation is probably small for Wal-Mart.

I mean, think about it. The last thing Wal-Mart corporate wants to wake up to one of these days is to turn on Fox News and hear, "shooter killed fifteen people today. And oh by the way, an AR-15 was used and it was traced back to a legal purchase at a Wal-Mart." Wal-Mart has a lot of stuff to potentially lose.



Don't kid yourselves. If Walmart were making margins on ARs, they would still be selling them. They know damn well that they are not a real player in the market. No one with two brain cells to rub together is buying ARs from Walmart. We know it. They know it. All they did is use this to gain a little publicity and look PC.

[cuppednlocked]

WGAF about WallyWorld selling or not selling AR's?

YEARS ago they had a reorganization of sorts regarding selling guns. Corporate removed all firearms from many stores. They were stores that did not sell enough to be profitable.

[MrTwistedFock]

WGAF what your opinion is on the subject?

Where Im at, all the Wal-Marts sell AR-15s and Ruger Mini 14s and a few other semi-autos. And the ammo to go with them. Being they are the largest gun retailer in the country, I think its a big deal that Wal-Mart announced they are pulling semi-autos completely.

And as I said before, considering my twisted history, WGAF what my opinion is on the subject?



WGAF about WallyWorld selling or not selling AR's?

YEARS ago they had a reorganization of sorts regarding selling guns. Corporate removed all firearms from many stores. They were stores that did not sell enough to be profitable.

[cuppednlocked]

My twisted history? Grow up and go away RT40. Better yet, just go away.

[KnickKnack]

I've never purchased anything firearms related at Walmart, other than cleaning supplies. Their selection here has always been poor, the prices on ammo were no better than anywhere else and their staff has zero knowledge about the firearms products on their shelves. I even had to explain to the sales clerk how the cleaning stuff that I bought was used. As others have stated, this is simply about Walmart making a profit and apparently firearms is one product that they cannot compete in.

[cuppednlocked]

I got ya Tim!