I was in there yesterday because I happened to be in the area, and I decided to check out some ammo. Holy moly! $30 for .30-06?! And it didn't end there. I was looking at those prices, and I thought I had accidentally come across a way to move forward in time by a few years by walking down the right sequence of aisles. I know ammo's going up, but they sure jacked things up there in a hurry.
Still soaked in a cold sweat, I made it back to Calgary to check out their shelf. Same stuff, but still at the somewhat reasonable prices (a couple bucks more expensive than elsewhere sure, but not $10 overinflated).
That said, worst experience to DATE in Calgary? Wal-Mart on MacLeod Trail at Southland. I've bought ammo there before, without too many problems other than having to hunt someone down, but up until yesterday, I always managed, but here goes: I was in there yesterday, and I decided to check out their ammo. The shelves were a mess... no, the whole department was a mess. Junk everywhere, even all over the counter, I wasn't sure where I was going to put my purchases if I did actually manage to buy something, but it gets better. There were a couple boxes of ammo I wanted to get, as the price was good, so I started looking around for help.
Sports department... nope. Toys.... no one. Ok.... how 'bout automotive. So I finally turn the corner where the oil is (halfway across the store from the sports) and I ask the old lady I see there for help. She's nice enough, and I hear her page go out. 10 mins later, still no one. So I go on the prowl again. This time, I find another sweet old lady waaaay across the store, and she offers to page again. She tells me it could be a few minutes. I understand, as I was now starting to see a pattern: Blue hair and curls seemed to be the common theme among the blue-aprons. Once again, I hear the page go out, and wait another 15 minutes. No one showed up. At this point I left, but part of me was wondering if I should execute a search for the octagenarian who may have passed out in the aisle somewhere with that elusive key for the glass case...
I found it totally amazing that a store can go without selling hundreds of dollars worth of products behind a glass case so easily. I suppose the markup on their $7 T-shirts and volume sales make up for that easy $100s dump for one product out of the glass case, and no one can be bothered. It's bad too, because when everyone's walking away from the ammo case, the ammo doesn't sell. When the ammo doesn't sell, it's not profitable anymore, and when that happens, well... no more ammo at Wal-Mart I suppose.
