Why don't ammo stores sell ammo one round at a time?

[wreckhog]

I was just reading that it was normal a few decades ago to buy ammo this way. People would purchase five 30-30 for the season, or eighteen .22LR for the week. Not eighteen bricks, but just enough cartidges to fill your mag tube. Is it the lack of a bar code, or are stores not allowed to do this any more. Or was ammo just more expensive back in the day? My local shop does have a bowl of old, corroded looking cartridges and slugs for 50 cents each. Last time I looked, it was Federal slugs and .257 Roberts reloads mostly. Never seen this anywhere else.

[gypsyman]

Probably because after the store breaks the box, and sells just a couple rounds out of the box, the next ''customer'' is going to ask, what kind of a deal can I get for the remaining ammo. And, then try and low ball the dealer. Or, he'll say, I didn't want 150gr bullets, will you break a box of 165's. And so on. Pretty soon the dealer has hundreds of partial box's sitting around his shop. Lots of money tied up in inventory that he might sit on for years. gypsyman

[guzzijohn]

When I was a kid in the late 60s, our town pawn shop owner would sell me individual 45-70 rounds for .25. I don't think he did it as a practice however, just took pity on a poor farm kid.
GuzziJohn

[Swampman]

When I was a kid we would go into a store and buy one out of each box to add to our cartridge collection.

[wreckhog]

I also recall not so long that you could buy individual cigaettes for $1 each. I think that the cheap flavored cigar market killed that.

[powderman]

As a kid in ILL I do remember the local store had a box of misc ammo. I cut grass, baled hay, yardwork, etc for spending money. I'd buy several 12 ga shells at a time to kill blackbirds. Didn't have to be 18 years old either. POWDERMAN. 

[LAREDOBOB]

 I also remember that the little store down the road would sell shotgun shells for a quarter I believe and .22 shells for a penney. You didn't have to be 18 there either. Worked my butt off cutting grass etc and would always go there to buy shotgun shells. FINALLY it was a banner time in my life when I had a whole box of shells, and THEY ALL MATCHED. .22's weren't a problem LR were .50 a box Shorts .25 and Long Rifle Hollow Points were .75 a box. Those were the good old days.

[powderman]

LAREDOBOB. Bought many a brick of 22s for $5, shot em up on the weekend and saved up for more. POWDERMAN. 

[mechanic]

The liability lawyers won't let them break the box now, for the same reason they can't take back any ammo, nor sell ammo they did not buy from a distributor or manufacturer.  My local store does consignment, and if the seller has ammo, it is included in the deal for consign.  They will not buy even complete boxes of ammo from an individual, for obvious reasons.

[Brett]

Buying loose candy by the piece or by the pound used to be common too.  Remember when a piece of Bazooka bubble gum cost 2 cents and if you saved 10,000+/- comics you could send them in for a genuine sharks tooth or some other silly thing.      

[nova71]

I remember as a kid walking to the store and finding a soda bottle and turning it in for the 2 cent deposit on it and buying two 22 shorts for a penny a piece and then go hunting...

[jhm]

     When I was a kid in Detroit you never were told you were too young to buy AMMO we always walked into the old hardware store and buy a box or 2 of 22 ammo and when it came close to deer season we went to a real gunshop in Lincoln park Mi. ( hoods gun shop ) and buy real ammo 32 win. special.  I  bought my 1st deer rifle there at the age of 16 by myself.   No background check, no NICS, no problem.   Jim

[GRIMJIM]

Are you trying to tell me before all the gun control laws people didn't go around shooting and killing each other?

You got to enjoy a much more sensible time.

[MGMorden]

Likely a combination of factors.  My guess is that it's mostly two things that have already been referenced:

1) You end up with a bunch of half-full boxes that you may never move.

and

2) Individual rounds aren't labeled or barcoded for retail sale.  Most places use computer driven inventory systems these days as they allow you to view what's selling, what's no, how much of an item you have left, when you need to reorder, etc.  Selling individual rounds just doesn't work with that system.

What would be interesting though, would be 5-round boxes of rifle ammo.  They already sell buckshot that way.  Buying a small 5-round box of .30-30 or .30-06 would probably have a market. 

All in what turns out more business though.  5 round boxes (or single rounds) make the store less money.   They have to ask themselves: is this customer likely to walk away if we will only sell them 20 at a time, or are they likely to moan and groan and buy the box anyways?   If they're going to buy the box anyways, then it's in their best interests to sell em in bigger boxes.

[Sourdough]

I remember back in the 50s and early 60s all the local farmers coming into the Hardware store and buying one shell for their rifles.  That was all they needed for the year.  I remember my Dad buying five shells when he bought his 303 British rifle when I was young.  Dad never bought more than five shells at a time till they quite selling ammo that way in the late 60s or early 70s.  I remember how Dad fussed about having to buy a whole box.

I remember .22LR was 45 cents a box, and how we howled when it went to 50 cents a box.  A whole nickel, that was the price of a candy bar.  When I was 11 my Grandma would give me fifty cents to drive her into town.  I'd take that fifty cents and buy a box of .22s and a Three Muskateers bar.  If I did not need 22s I'd walk to the drug store and have a Hamburger for 35 cents and a Coke with ice for 15 cents. 

I remember going home to visit during the mid to late 70s.  I'd go with my Dad and Uncle to the General Store, where we would spend half the day.  The men would sit and whittle, and talk about whatever.  One of them would say he needed some ammo in a specific caliber, others would say they too needed some or they would mention someone else that used that caliber, and when they expected them in that day.  Eventually four or five men would get togeather and buy a box and then split it up.  Caliber was all that they were concerned about, bullet weight meant nothing to them.  A bullet was a bullet, one would kill as good as the next.

[Dee]

The practice started most likely during the depression era. When I was a kid growin up, my family lived in a two room house with a tin roof, and no plumbing. TV was unheard of, we didn't have a car, but Dad did have a 14 year old paint horse named appropriately "Ole Paint". If we were able to hitch a ride to town with Grandpa, (which we most always were), we rode in a old Chevrolet car, or if the roads were too muddy, Dad would tie two tow sacks together, throw them across the saddle horn and ride the 8 miles to town. We raised, and killed everything we ate, except flour, corn meal, and salt and pepper.
The reason the small store sold Dad and Grandpa 22 and shotgun shells by the piece was, a dollar bill was as big as a saddle blanket at our place, and we couldn't afford a whole box. Most of the farmers in our area were the same, and the store owner was a good man, that was not only makin his livin sellin, but livin amoung us, and we all helped each other. Sellin those shells like that was helpin someone that needed an occasional break.
Back then a 22 rifle (in our case a lever action) put hogs on the hook, as well as beef, occasionally squirrel, and rabbits, and when possible a skillet shot (ground shot at a covey of quail) with a shotgun might net 5 or 6 quail with one shot. A 22 back then was as valuable as many think their latest super duper gotta-have-it magnum is today. My Grandpa never owned but one lever action 22 rifle, and one single shot break-down shotgun in 12 gauge. It was all he could afford, and all he needed, and he never knew the difference or cared.

[subdjoe]

Back then a 22 rifle (in our case a lever action) put hogs on the hook, as well as beef, occasionally squirrel, and rabbits, and when possible a skillet shot (ground shot at a covey of quail) with a shotgun might net 5 or 6 quail with one shot. A 22 back then was as valuable as many think their latest super duper gotta-have-it magnum is today. My Grandpa never owned but one lever action 22 rifle, and one single shot break-down shotgun in 12 gauge. It was all he could afford, and all he needed, and he never knew the difference or cared.

When I hear/read people talking about what guns to have WTSHTF all you hear is .308, 7.72, .223 etc.  I get odd looks when I mention a good old .22.  A decent .22 with iron sights.  That will be your every day, puts meat on the table gun.  You can stock 20k rounds in almost no space.  You can take a lot of game with them.  If you have some .22 shorts or CB caps, you are almost silent. 

[MGMorden]

When I hear/read people talking about what guns to have WTSHTF all you hear is .308, 7.72, .223 etc.  I get odd looks when I mention a good old .22.  A decent .22 with iron sights.  That will be your every day, puts meat on the table gun.  You can stock 20k rounds in almost no space.  You can take a lot of game with them.  If you have some .22 shorts or CB caps, you are almost silent. 

That's actually what I stock up on for SHTF scenario.  I have a "grab and go" backpack if need be.  It's got a few knives, sharpener, matches, a hatchet, stainless steel pan, some freeze dried meals (not real MRE's but same type of thing), a compass, 2 bricks of .22 ammo and a Henry Survival .22 stashed away in it.  I also keep a small tent in the trunk of the car of need be.

I may store some more ammo in the trunk when I get a chance as 2 bricks is a lot but won't last forever.  Still, like you said, a .22LR if push comes to shove will put meat in the pot just fine. 

[mcwoodduck]

If you look at it Ammo is chaep comapred to what it cost years ago.
While many have talked about buying a brick of 22's for $5.
I too remember this.  I also remember buying gas at .65 a gallon at the time.
I also remember a box of shot shells was a lot and could not think of having flats of ammo like I do now.
I now buy 22's for $15 a brick and fuel is 3.20 a gallon as of yesterday here.
As demand goes up, as production increases to meet that demand prices drop.
Unless Demand rises due to some outside force (like the ellection of a gun grabbing commie)
Our disposible income has risen over the generations and decades.
What was a big trip to the range with a few boxes of shot gun, or a box of 22 and part of a box of rifle (308) was a big day.
Now I end up taking no less than 300 rounds for short range sessions.
I also remember my Grandmother eing shocked that we got a stand up freezer.  That mom only went to the market two or three times a month and not every day.  And bought a lot on few trips portioned it and froze it and trips to the freezer to pull out this or that for dinner.
Grandmom went to the store everyday only purchasing what she needed for that or the next day with a few staples in the cupboard.
I think ammo is similar.  back then we used what we needed and only purchased what was needed for fear of the rest spoiling.
Ammo was the same way, you purchased what you could use and got more when you needed it.
Personally I would not be worried about a guy wanting 1 million rounds, I would be worried about the guy that only wants what will fill his gun.  the guy that wants only what his gun will hold is going to use them.