Is Walmart employee telling the truth ?

[Hillbilly]

I went to Walmart today to get a few things,and as I went by sporting goods I saw the man behind the counter taking shells off a cart,and putting them on the shelves,So I figured I'd try to get some 22 lr hollow points before I get too low,.He tells me that they don't have any,which I know is not uncommon these days,but when I asked when they would get more he said he didn't know.He said they get trucks in every nite,and they never know when they are getting them.Then I asked could he scan the tag on the shelf where they should be,and tell me when they are coming,and he said that he couldn't...I have been in Walmart looking for other things that they are out of,and they have always just took their little scanning gun and zapped the tag on the shelf and seem to know everything about the item.They know if they have one in the back,and if they don't they know when they are getting it,and they even know if the other Walmarts in the region have it in ...I just have a hard time believing that a company as connected as Walmart doesn't know what ,and when they are getting something.....Why would they know the status of all their goods EXCEPT shells?

[stomp442]

They know he just didn't want to help you. The gal behind the counter at my local Walmart scans ammo and guns for me all the time.

[Hillbilly]

Thanks Stomp..I kinda figured that he was fibbin .It may have even been the managers policy ,or he might be letting his buddies have first crack at everything.

[sixonetonoffun]

They can only see if it is in transit ie on today's load or on order.DC sends it as they get it. They haven't been able to place orders for customers since Sandy Hook.

[Jamie]

They can only see if it is in transit ie on today's load or on order.DC sends it as they get it. They haven't been able to place orders for customers since Sandy Hook.

That is how it is at the place I work. We can tell you if they are slotted to come, if they are in transit, in the back room or where on the shelf it is but our system does not tell us the delivery date.

[Wildboarem]

^^^^+1. What he said. They don't always know when they are coming just that they are ordered. WAL-MART gets their ammo via Fed ex or ups and not on their normal trucks. My local sportsmans warehouse doesn't know what their getting until they unload the truck. Like Jaime said the distribution center will know but not necessarily the store. So I would say he is not lying to you.

[sniper15545]

My wife has been a manager of Wal-Mart for 22 years. They don't know when the ammo is coming!

[Hillbilly]

Thanks folks....You learn something new every day

[Stockrex]

True, but the ammo comes in the delivery truck, which is packed via a picklist generated , they can tell which day the ammo is most likely to arrive.

[Texas Solo]

Just to pile on here, I work the gun counter at an Academy Sports store. I'll say this ONCE:
I DON"T KNOW WHEN, WHAT KIND, OR HOW MANY BOXES OF .22LR I WILL GET.
As mentioned, I can see if I have any "in transit", that's all. All I can tell you is to be here early when we open, and IF I get some that day, so will you.

."Why would they know the status of all their goods EXCEPT shells?"
Because the DC (distribution center) has no idea when they will get more, so how can they tell us? Think about it.

"They know he just didn't want to help you"
Thanks Stomp442...I appreciate being called a liar.

"True, but the ammo comes in the delivery truck, which is packed via a picklist generated , they can tell which day the ammo is most likely to arrive."
And which ammo retailer did you say you work for?


Now to vent...
I am so tired of people calling me a liar, telling me that they KNOW I have some.
NO, I can't order some just for you. If I could do that, don't you think I would have already ordered it?
NO, we're not out of stock because we just didn't order enough
NO, I won't call you personally when I get some
NO, I won't hold it for you...you're not special
NO, I don't know why this is happening...other than the few customers that brag about having 10,000 rds at home. Please stop asking me this.

I just wish people would consider what we on the other side of the counter go through every day.
I mean, how many times can you have the same conversation and be asked the same question in one day?

Rant over.

[SFLEFTY]

I AM the guy behind the Walmart counter here. Do you have any idea how many people ask for 22 ammo EVERY DAY? About 100. And no Stockrex, I don't even see picklists and my boss doesn't see them until the day the truck arrives. They never come in the same night twice, and we are receiving only a Mom & Pop store qty maybe once a week. It's getting worse again, not better. Read the American Rifleman article, and get off our backs. And here our buddies wait their turn like everyone else, THAT is Walmart policy and you can get up to fired for ignoring it. They have reprogrammed us several times on that point through this hell.

[Texas Solo]

I'm with you SFLEFTY. We've already had one guy fired for holding .22LR for himself.
These folks who accuse us of wrong doing think they know so much about the current state of the business.
It's so aggravating.

[Stockrex]

I AM the guy behind the Walmart counter here. Do you have any idea how many people ask for 22 ammo EVERY DAY? About 100. And no Stockrex, I don't even see picklists and my boss doesn't see them until the day the truck arrives. They never come in the same night twice, and we are receiving only a Mom & Pop store qty maybe once a week. It's getting worse again, not better. Read the American Rifleman article, and get off our backs. And here our buddies wait their turn like everyone else, THAT is Walmart policy and you can get up to fired for ignoring it. They have reprogrammed us several times on that point through this hell.

SFLEFTY, my apologies, I did not mean to offend anyone,
Wally's distribution is a work of ART. My point is a very simple one, you can look at a the selves and predict what the truck will have in it.
It is quite fascinating how a pallet of .22 will be split and individual shipment for each store will be grouped and stacked and then wrapped.
Believe it or not, at any given time, wally is able to tell you where the product is and how much is on what pallet.
The bean counters at Bentonville can even tell how many hours the product spent on the distribution center, truck, shelf before joebuyingammotoresell picked it up. It is very fascinating.
So, who in the stores have access to truck content? ;-)

I don't give half a soiled diaper about American Rifleman or if Wally's has any ammo. Most of my buddies who shoot garands keep a 10k to 20k 30-06 reserve, that might give you an idea of my .22 reserve and I have not bought ammo in 20 months or so.

[J.Baker]

Stockrex, what you're missing is the fact that just because it's out-of-stock on the shelf and is "on order" in the system doesn't necessarily mean you'll be getting any in anytime soon. The distribution center can have it on order, but if the manufacturer doesn't have any to send out, or doesn't have enough to send out to allow the DC to fill all the orders for each and every store it's not going to get filled. When supply is limited the larger/higher volume stores being serviced by a certain DC will get priority on product shipments over the smaller/lower volume stores. That's just the way it is.

I was an area manager for Meijer's for a number of years (Michigan based regional chain similar to Super Wal-marts) and just because the computer says something doesn't necessarily make it so. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I had to substitute an alternative product for an advertised item because our ad allotments never came in. And naturally there are more than a few thousand times where something showed as being ordered and was scheduled to arrive on a certain day on a certain truck but didn't.

Maybe in a perfect world all would go as planned and everything would run like clock work, but we live in the real world and in the real world things don't always work as well as they should.

[SFLEFTY]

Thanks Jim! Meijer's-----they are neat! "The kids" did a stint in MI in their former sign sales life, and I've been in one. They loved the place, they keep Walmart on their toes in MI. The coolest thing was seeing 8mm, 300 Savage, and 35 Rem on their ammo shelf! And yes, "on order" can mean anything except soon, and "In transit" still doesn't tell us which truck, which day. Sorry if my sinful pride is showing, but I was a manufacturing engineer for 22 years. Several of us in the store had interesting careers before. Don't assume we're all dummies, it makes us argumentative.

[Texas Solo]

Sorry if my sinful pride is showing, but I was a manufacturing engineer for 22 years. Several of us in the store had interesting careers before. Don't assume we're all dummies, it makes us argumentative.

Amen. I was a District Manager with 10 stores in the Wash, D.C. area for 26 years.
Yeah, I know a thing or two about retail. It wasn't until I retired, moved to Texas, and began working for Academy as an hourly employee, that I realized how rude and all knowing the public can be.
Sometimes I think I'll just quit because of it.

[n4ue]

Texas Solo. I feel your pain. A couple of weeks ago, I was at my favorite lgs. The owner was conducting a hunter safety course in town. His son was there and the phone kept ringing off the hook from people calling wanting .22 ammo.
He had one guy on the phone that was very rude and cussed the owner's son out, because he told the guy on the phone quite politely:
"I'm sorry sir, I do not know when we will get .22s, and 'no', we do NOT save them for anyone".....

I am honestly surprised there hasn't been a shooting over this (yet). That's just what we DON'T need.

ron

[SFLEFTY]

Yikes! Good point!

[lal357]

there starting to come back i went to our local outdoor place and picked up 2 tins of 325 each on monday and my son picked up another on tuesday. they are keeping them in the back (you have to ask for them ) and limit you to 2 tins a day per person they tried to leave them out but it got nasty. so now they are in the back and you have to ask.

[mazda3gun]

Walmart has it. But they really don't know when or what the shipment will hold.

You just have to be there when it's there before it's bought out by the hoarders and they're welfare dollars(aka: kids) lol

My local Wally is out of .40 ammo, why? Because I'm the only one who buys it, it seems, and they don't order much so they don't stock much. The lgs/sporting goods store that's VERY proud of what they carry in all their departments, had 50rnd Blazer 22LR for $4.99, so I bought some for the heck of it.
Show up to work this morning and a fella had CCI Mini-Mag 100rnds for $25, bought one of those too. Paid too much, but it was in front of my face. Not hoarded, not hidden. The math is a lil off, but it's better ammo than the Blazer.