Ok, so we’re in the post-Thanksgiving stage now. Now is the run-up to Christmas and then…the new year of 2021.
Media says that folks are staying home for the most part and that any Friday of Color of serious quantity is being done online. Works for me. I love online shopping. You youngsters may not remember it, but in the dark days before Al Gore invented the internet, if you wanted to shop through the mail you had to get a catalog. And the only way you even knew that there was a company you wanted a catalog from was to see their ad in a magazine or something. Then you’d send them a letter asking for a catalog, wait for them to receive the letter, they sent you a catalog, you waited to receive the catalog, you ordered from the catalog by sending them your order in the mail, wait for them to receive it, they ship it to you, wait for it to arrive, and then…finally…you got your cool survivalist geegaw. And then you’d find out it’s the wrong size/color/yield and have to send it back and the whole process would start over. Broadly, it could be a month from when you saw the company’s ad in the back of Soldier of Fortune to when you actually got your goodies.
Nowadays, I can literally….literally…have a plate and plate carrier on my doorstep in three days or less with one-click of my mouse. You kids have no idea how spoiled you are in terms of amazing choices and accessibility to quality survival gear. No idea.
I can be sitting at my desk watching YouTube and someone says “Hey, I bought a [Item] and have been testing it. Its awesome, you should get one!” and I can have one on order in less than a minute. How utterly amazing is that? There are people on this planet who have to walk five miles with a bucket on their head to get drinking water and I can order up a hundred pounds of ammo to be delivered to my door and I don’t even have to get out of my chair. I love this country!
Of course, there’s a drawback to all this – it’s easy…really, really easy…to spend money quickly and carelessly. I won’t say I have never had buyers remorse, but I’m much better at resource management than I used to be. Still..sometimes it’s an enormous relief when I go to order something and find hat I can’t because it’s out of stock.
So…while you’re doing your FOC shopping today think back to those dark days of survivalism where you actually had to slap a stamp on an envelope to order up your LL Baston underbarrel Mossberg 500 mount for your AR15. You kids have it so easy today.
“We’re all gonna buy.” No lie, this was an Actual Thing back in the ’80’s.
Commander what about the days when Shotgun News was full of ads for anything you ever would want related to firearms! I had a subscription to Shotgun News when I was deploy Operation Desert Shield/Storm. I had everything shipped to my mom’s house. When I finally made it home it was like Christmas in July!! Then I found out she was storing my pile of boxes near the wood burning stove!!! Boy she was mad!! I remember ordering 2 dozen 15 round M-1 carbine mags for some insane price like $5. Wish I would have ordered more- ahhh the Good Ol’ Days.
It was kinda fun to look at all the camo and BDUs in the the US Cavalry and Brigade Quartermaster catalogs. Filling out order forms and not sending them in were my first “wish lists”.
Selway armory had some decent ammo “deals” today. Federal 9mm 115grain 200/$45, winchester 9mm 115grain 200/$50. They had wolf 100rds for $65.
My deals came off armslist. Bought 2lbs of imr4895 for $70. Guy said he’s getting out of reloading. Asked if he had any primers and he did. Considering everything going on got 2 boxes of cci #41 and 2 cci #34 for $50/1000. I thought I had plenty of components but I didn’t.
“Media says that folks are staying home for the most part…”
Guess we’ll have to watch re-runs of fat people fighting over skinny TVs in Walmart this year.
*sniff*
If you wanted to speed up the process, you could pick up this thing of color that had a cord attached to it, spin a wheel on the front of it and talk to a person at the actual store (which often double as what you kids know as a warehouse). This could shave many days off the receipt of your goodies.
… And a person actually answered in English, was knowledgeable about their products and could help you complete the purchase. Of course you actually had to send payment, but many places sent an invoice with the item expecting you to pay for it after you received it – they actually trusted you. That was when Americans had integrity and actually did send the payment. Isn’t it funny how that all changed after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act? It’s also funny how the 1968 Gun Control Act was right about the same time. We should have stamped out Progressivism back then.
I forgot to mention the riots, burning and looting that in the 60’s were called “non-violent protests against racism”. Today they are called “mostly peaceful protests against racism”.
Anticipation. Weeks of anticipation. Kinda miss that.
Reminds me of the time I first learned of the Vang Comp system. Called for some details and who answers the phone? Hans. Classy guy, and always had time to talk. (then)