New ammo packaging?

[Aguila Blanca]

I hitched a ride to Cabela's today with a friend and his family. To my surprise, they actually had a few boxes of .22LR ammo left on the shelf, so I bought five boxes. The ammo was Remington Cyclone, high velocity HP. The box was the typical Remington design we all (probably) know:



However ... each individual box was tightly shrink wrapped in something. The wrap is adhesive, because when I tried to remove it from the first box, I found I was also removing the graphics. So I decided to just slit the wrapping at the end flaps, so I can open the boxes without disturbing the wrapping.

Is this the new normal for Remington rimfire ammo? Or is this something that Cabela's does to combat low-lifes stealing a few rounds out of each box?

[Lurch37]

However ... each individual box was tightly shrink wrapped in something.

I'm assuming your meaning the "brick of 500" not the individual 50 round boxes? Regardless, I haven't seen any Remington .22lr in any form around here for what must be several months now, nor have I been to the nearby Cabela's to see what's available.

I would hazard a guess and say that your Cabela's is sealing the boxes themselves.

[rickyrick]

Yes, I've been hosed on .223... Someone put wolf or something in a box of hi dollar stuff.

In other words, they got good stuff a wolf prices.

I'm sure lots of folks skim a few rounds out of boxes.

Shoplifters come in all walks of life, doctors, lawyers, college professors... The list goes on, shooters are not above having shoplifters in their midst

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by Lurch37

I'm assuming your meaning the "brick of 500" not the individual 50 round boxes? Regardless, I haven't seen any Remington .22lr in any form around here for what must be several months now, nor have I been to the nearby Cabela's to see what's available.

I wrote "each individual box" and that's what I meant. I even showed you a picture. Each 50-round box was tightly shrink wrapped.

[22-rimfire]

Interesting. I have not seen any Remington 50-ct 22Lr in a long time. My suspicion is that Cabelas did the shrink wrapping. Shop lifting is a big problem and I can't think of many things that are more irritating than opening a new box of ammo and having a few rounds missing (especially when the ammo is hard to find in the first place). This is especially true of center fire ammo.

I wish Remington, Federal and others would go back to producing the 50ct boxes of 22 ammo or since you found some, more of it.

Hope the Remington ammo shoots well and are problem free.

[Koda94]

it must be an individual store thing, I stopped by the new Portland Cabelas last weekend and none of the 22lr was shrink wrapped.

[upstate81]

Atleast there was .22 on the shelves!

[Snyper]

I wrote "each individual box" and that's what I meant.
I even showed you a picture.
Each 50-round box was tightly shrink wrapped.

You showed a picture of a 500 round brick
It's printed on the upper left

Without a frame of reference there's no way to tell the size of the box, and the small boxes have identical graphics.

[kilimanjaro]

Let's not get sidetracked on the wrapper, guys!

The real news is that .22LR ammo was available at all!

As an aside, they wrap up the ammo in plastic for the same reason there are blister packs around the aspirin bottles at the store. It prevents pilfering, and also prevents someone from slipping in a hot round just for fun.

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by Snyper

You showed a picture of a 500 round brick
It's printed on the upper left

You're right -- my apologies. What I bought was five 50-round boxes, which were individually shrink-wrapped.

Yes, it was there, but not much. I bought five, and that left maybe ten or twelve boxes. They also had some 50-round boxes of Eley Match Target -- for $22.xx per box. I passed on that.

They had lots and lots of .17 rimfire, though.

[Skans]

Shoplifters come in all walks of life, doctors, lawyers, college professors..

This is false. While there may be a one-off nut-case who happens to be a professional that has shoplifted, this class of people (professionals) overwhelmingly does not make up the class of people who are shop lifters. These professionals are used to working extremely hard to get what they want out of life. They do not generally walk around stealing stuff that belongs to others. Most of the people who do this are failures, drop-outs, losers and folks looking to take the "lazy route" to getting what they want.

[rickyrick]

No it is true.... They get caught daily. It's a compulsive disorder that can strike anyone, regardless of income or station in life.
Many of these professionals are well enough off financially to keep their misdeeds out of the public eye.
Several people in my family worked in the field of loss prevention, the typical shoplifter is predominately not what you'd expect them to be.
It's an addiction that they learned early in life and it's hard to break just like any other addiction or obsession.
Many preffessional types have obsessions, much worse than shoplifting, they are in papers and blotters everyday.

Even LE officers have been caught.

My ex worked in the field for 20+years... You'd be surprised. They just don't make a lot of noise when stopped. Most of the time it's not an aresstable offense

[dyl]

This is getting off topic. I can see the source of the clash though.
While the statement was made "all walks of life" the specific examples listed were "professionals" only.
Which could be taken as an implication that a higher proportion of post-grads shoplift.


I somehow doubt that plastic wrap was for theft prevention. After a manufacturer sells it to the next person down the line, the profit is made. Only if the manufacturer would get feed back saying "we're not buying unless you plastic wrap" or if was advantageous to themselves would they plastic wrap. Just my guess though, I might be wrong. I bought 200 rounds bulk packed in 100 rd boxes of centerfire ammo, only packaging was a cardboard box with loose rounds in it.

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by dyl

I somehow doubt that plastic wrap was for theft prevention. After a manufacturer sells it to the next person down the line, the profit is made.

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. Certainly, in the retail chain each stop on the chain expects to make a profit. Profit doesn't stop when the manufacturer sells a product. If you don't think the shrink wrap ws for loss/theft prevention, what WAS it for?

My guess is that Cabela's does it before they stock the shelves, but that's purely a guess.

[BarryLee]

Large retailers like Cabelas can generally specify their own packaging requirements like shrink wrap, including the stores SKU and specific barcode. I agree it’s probably for loss prevention, but could also be for package integrity since things tend to get abused along the supply chain.

[rickyrick]

Bullets do get skimmed out of packages. Some may fall out due to people opening them to look inside, I've looked inside ammo packages many times.

And yes, having a high level of education does notake one more honest than a poor person. Lots of thieves among the gun community as well.

Extra packaging is to protect the asset of the company. Same for DVDs and other items that can be slipped out of packaging. Bullets, makeup all that stuff

[dyl]

Well ok then it makes sense to me that if a buyer *requests* certain wrapping the manufacturer/packaging plant will do it.

My scope was too narrow, I was thinking that I couldn't imagine Remington saying "let's shrink wrap these so no customers at the store will steal individual rounds" all on their own initiative. Because their job was done, they made the ammo, they sold it and got their money.

I was thinking whether a customer at Walmart gets the urge to steal doesn't affect Remington all that much. But things happen in transit. Wouldn't do to not deliver the full promised goods to your buyer.

I think get it now.

[skizzums]

Dang....I guess I gotta start carrying a razor blade when I go ammo shopping. I'll be ----ed if i cant get a few extra round in my box.

[Banger357]

Yes! People were constantly opening boxes and pocketing or trading out rounds in the stores I used to work in. Also, klutzy people would drop boxes that would then burst and roll all over the place. Of course, that wasn't nearly as bad with ammo as it was with primers. Years later, I still get nightmares about rounding up dropped primers.

[SVO]

Not to hi-jack AB's thread, but this past weekend, I picked up one of the 1400 round bucket of Remington Golden Bullet 22 LR from the local Academy. Daughter & I spent the afternoon with a pair of M&P 15-22's burning thru the bucket. I was impressed. Out of the 1400 rounds, we had one round that failed to fire, the stuff was fairly accurate at 50 yards and didn't seem to be excessivly dirty. Bucket was marked as new & improved and I believe it was.

[skizzums]

maybe that's why Federal uses those stupid boxes for primers, so people would be less inclined to dump them on the floor.

[Snyper]

Years later, I still get nightmares about rounding up dropped primers.

Every time I sold a box of primers at the shop, I'd tape up the sides.

If the customer asked me why, I was certain they had never had the pleasure of dropping a box, or having one slide open on it's own

[tirod]

Working retail much of the last 40 years, I will say that the professional classes have been more trouble with outright theft than the poor.

The poor aren't often in a gun store buying up large boxes of ammo, or pilfering thru them to score a handful of bullets. It takes cash flow with a significant disposable element to blow on toys.

It's not grandma on a SS check, or the young guy from the tire shop down the street shoplifting. It's the leisure class who don't punch the clock with nothing better to do - that's today's firearms customer, who owns more than a few guns, and who rifles thru the ammo shelves.

The poor are too busy at the job they have - or helping other family members get to one. The leisure class takes 2 hour lunches and hits a few gun stores to see what might be fun to buy for the next hunting season.

I sell auto parts and my best customers are poor. They have to fix their own cars and are forced to figure out what parts are actually broken before they buy replacements. The well to do come in, buy a complete brake job, have someone else do the work, then refund all the stuff they left sit in the back of their $55,000 diesel truck for a week in the rain. They buy electronic parts, install them, take them back off, and demand a return - which is contrary to federal law. They buy parts for a race car, break noses off of starters with too much timing advance, and demand a warranty replacement.

I can go on - but I'll defer to one more argument. Who gets brought up on charges while in political office, the poor, or professional? California gun runner, anti gun officeholder caught by the TSA? Not poor.

It's not a homeless guy pushing a shopping cart pilfering ammo. It's the professional classes, salaried employees, and tenured who are simply exercising their privileged status in life.

It very much is known to Loss Prevention. They have the video to prove it. White collar crime easily bests blue collar, what we have is a phenomenon where other white collar professionals keep it under wraps. There is at least two cases of embezzlement annually for every bank robbery. The facts are out there, the problem is being willfully informed of them.

Your suburban neighbors are stealing the ammo, not the young mother with two kids living in a shelter.

[dyl]

I'd like to avoid this turning into a class war or I can see this thread being closed as it already deviates from the title "new ammo packaging"

No one ever said that it's the homeless or single mothers who steal, a poster stated that people from *all walks of life steal. I think we may never know the true number and whom because not everyone gets caught, and not all stores will invest in and pursue Loss Prevention equally.

If i were to bash any ethnic group it would not be accepted on the forum.
So why generalize the character of any group? It's not good. Aren't there thieves right next to well meaning folk in any occupation? And well meaning folk have lapses in judgement from time to time too no matter their job.

Richer or poorer, we can split hairs all day.
We can call ourselves richer over here because
We have internet.
We have a device to type on.
If not, we have access to both somehow.
We can read and write in English and we're in America - the land where they package ammo well. There. I kept it relevant to the thread.