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Wall-Mart .22 rimfire has been uncommon for three years now. When President Obama pushed for more infringements on the Second Amendment, starting in 2013, the demand for .22 rimfire skyrocketed. Instead of raising prices on the ammunition sufficiently to bring demand down to reasonable levels, manufacturers tried to keep prices stable to earn customer good will. It failed as a strategy. With the demand so high, less public entrepreneurs purchased all the .22 they could obtain, then offered it over the Internet, at gun shows, and other venues, at three to four times the price purchased. The producers stayed with their artificially low price policy, and the middlemen made money.
If the producers had raised prices, the money would have gone to them, and there would have been no reason not to increase production, which would have satisfied demand, and lead to lower prices again.
Gradually, producers did raise prices. In 2016, producers have purchased and put into production, the expensive machinery needed to increase the output of .22 rimfire. As a consequence, we are starting to see a bit more rimfire in the retail outlets.
Last Friday, the 8th of April, 2016, I observed 31 boxes of 50 rounds of CCI Standard Velocity .22. This is excellent ammunition. The price was $3.47 a box, a little less than 7 cents a round. It is a bit pricey for what I used to pay, but quite a bit less than .22 has been going for in the past three years.
The cartridges were observed at the Wal-Mart on the corner of Marsh Lane and Frankfort in North Dallas.
Today, I checked back. The supply had dwindled to a dozen boxes of Standard Velocity, but it was still on the shelves.
Another customer was looking while I was there. I mentioned the .22 to him. He said that he wasn't interested, he wanted the bigger boxes.
A few months ago, an employee at the store said that when they received supplies of .22 in the bulk packs, they were snapped up immediately. Wal-Mart has a three box limit on .22 rimfire to spread the supply out a bit.
Maybe we will see the 50 round boxes return to the market first.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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