Thanks to one American online retailer, we have a fascinating look at the impact of the COVID-19 panic on Americans and its not just about toilet paper, hand sanitizer and bottled water.
Here is a map from Ammo.com:
Ammo.com notes that Americans are purchasing ammunition at an unprecedented rate. On February 23, 2020, an Ammo.com press release noticed that ammunition sales jumped significantly in February. According to Google Trends, searches for the word "coronavirus" began to rise around February 23. Since then, the measurement matrix of interest for the term "coronavirus" has continued to increase, rising from 5 on February 23, 2020 to 100 on March 15, 2020 as shown here:
When comparing the period 11 days prior to February 23 (i.e. February 12 to 22) to the period 11 days after February 23 (i.e. February 23 to March 4), Ammo.com noted that their total number of transactions had increased by 68 percent.
On March 10, the day that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 1000 in the United States, a ten-fold increase in one week, there was a surge in sales of 276 percent that continued throughout the week and into the weekend.
When comparing 22 days worth of sales from February 23 to March 15 with sales from February 1 to February 22, Ammo.com found the following:
1.) 309% increase in revenue
2.) 78% increase in conversion rate
3.) 222% increase in transactions
4.) 77% increase in site traffic
5.) 27% increase in average order
Here are the top 30 state rankings by total sales volume and showing the most popular caliber of ammunition purchased:
Here are the following top five increases sales by caliber:
1.) 40 Cal (S&W) ammo: 645%
2.) 7.62x39 ammo: 386%
3.) 12 gauge shotgun shells: 368%
4.) 9mm ammo: 308%
5.) 5.56x45 ammo: 296%
Significant sales increases were also noted in .45 ACP ammunition and .22 long rifle ammunition.
One thing is certain, if (or when) medical martial law is declared in the United States, many American households will feel that they are well equipped to deal with whatever may lie ahead. This is yet another unintended consequence (like the hoarding of toilet paper) that results from governments trying control their citizens by instilling fear.
Posts
While "martial law" fearmongering and conspiracies about a totalitarian takeover of US citizens make for a exciting narrative (or a fucking Michael Bay movie), there's nothing to see here except a really, really bad pandemic. Do your homework. This ain't the first time (and won't be the last) this happened. Seems our leaders are trying to learn from past mistakes. For once the people we elected are trying to lead and we take it as a communist conspiracy. The gubment would WAY WAY WAY WAY prefer us all out running around like lemmings, generating tax revenue than sitting home inside. The Black Plague was defeated by quarantine, as was the Spanish Flu. So, sit inside - stay safe and stay healthy until this nightmare passes.
ReplyDeleteNeither the Black Plague nor the Spanish Flu were defeated by quarantine. In fact, with a handful of very small, isolated exceptions, quarantines failed to contain either pathogen.
ReplyDelete