Opportunistic Money Making
Belt of 7.62mm linked ammunition. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Recently I have run across something I had never seen before. People were waiting outside of an Academy Sports store for it to open in order to purchase ammunition and magazines for a specific type of gun. Why, I wondered, would someone stand outside for hours in the freezing cold for this? Why not just wait until the store opened?
Well, the answer is that the guns, ammunition, and magazines were on their way out. Thanks to impending gun control laws, or just the fear thereof, suppliers were no longer selling these products, which put them in scarce supply and high demand. What the people waiting could buy for fifteen dollars at the Academy (or Gander Mountain and other such stores) they could resale online for forty or more.
This is what I like to call opportunistic money making. You see a demand with a scarce supply and capitalize on it. Where I can see the appeal, I don’t know about the moral ramifications. Is this okay to do? Is it price gouging of a sort, or just capitalism at work? Would you be willing to stand in line for hours early in the morning to get a deal like that, or do you feel that it is worth your money just to pay extra?
What about the guns themselves? At some of these locations they sell the scarce guns. Do you think it is okay for someone to buy a gun and then resell it? My fear is that even a ‘legal’ sale of a gun will still result in guns getting into the wrong hands. I feel better about gun reselling sites that do the same background checks as the stores do, but it is still a risk. Are guns and ammo a special category of opportunistic money making, or are they just a dangerous offshoot of a common occurrence?
Author Byline:
Allison after graduation allows her to combine her two passions: writing and children. She has enjoyed furthering her writing career with www.nannyclassifieds.com . She can be in touch through e-mail allisonDOTnannyclassifiedsATgmail rest you know.
Category: Business
