{"id":4482,"date":"2019-09-04T02:37:43","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T02:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ammunitiontogo.com\/lodge\/?p=4482"},"modified":"2023-03-15T14:19:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T14:19:14","slug":"walmart-ammo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ammunitiontogo.com\/lodge\/walmart-ammo\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact of Walmart Leaving Ammo"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s no denying Walmart was<\/em> a behemoth in the ammo world.<\/p>\n

The Arkansas-based retailer sells somewhere around 20% of the ammo purchased in the United States, if you believe what their CEO told the world in a memo this week<\/a>. Based on United States excise tax information, you can extrapolate that out to assume in a “normal” year, Walmart sold somewhere around $400 million worth of ammo in its stores. That’s the equivalent of about 1.3 million cases of $300 .223\/5.56 ammo. Or 2 million cases of $200 9mm ammo!<\/p>\n

What’s Changing?<\/h3>\n
\"Winchester
Mainstays in the shooting world, like the 9mm Winchester White Box ammo pictured here will no longer be for sale at Walmart.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the retail giant isn’t completely exited the ammo business, they announced they will no longer offer handgun and “short barrel rifle ammo”. Their definition of short barrel rifle ammo includes the popular .223 and 5.56×45 calibers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As we’ve alluded to in the past, 9mm and .223 ammo alone make up a disproportionate chunk of the ammo market<\/a>. From our perspective, Walmart’s estimate that they’ll maintain 30-45% of their ammo sales is an optimistic one.<\/p>\n

What’s Next for the Ammo World?<\/h2>\n

While we here at AmmoToGo.com are obviously eager for the chance to impress those former Walmart customers, the void left in the ammo retail world is huge. Assuming all rounds are equal value, a Walmart cash register rang up 1 in 5 rounds fired downrange in 2018.<\/p>\n

The departure of the retail giant brings up some interesting points about the future of ammo in the brick and mortar world.<\/p>\n

Who Stands To Gain?<\/h3>\n

As far as we know, there aren’t any ammo retailers that can touch the 4000+ locations Walmart has in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

But there are some retailers that stand to gain with Walmart pulling the plug on a lot of ammo sales.<\/p>\n

Based on geographic footprint, retailers like Academy, Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s could see more ammo sales from customers who want to shop face-to-face. (Bass Pro Shops purchased Cabela’s in 2016<\/a>. They’re now the same company.)<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at at the location for some of those larger retailers with significant brick and mortar footprints.<\/p>\n