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The Rise and Fall of the Army Surplus Store (article)


evets
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Closed down my surplus store two years ago finally capitulating to the Internet. Never had any problems finding genuine surplus by buying off the street, just offered vets a fair price for their gear and scarcely bought any genuine US surplus from a wholesaler over the last 20 years. But the advent of the ACU pattern hurt as nobody wanted to buy it and eventually I could not offer a dime for such gear as I already had a large inventory that was not moving. The last 10 years were greatly helped by airsoft sales, and I had one of the first full service airsoft hobby shops in the country. But airsoft too eventually moved online and it was impossible to compete with the Chinese importers down in Los Angeles selling direct to customers. It did not help that I, now over 60, could not relate that well to some 18 year old airsoft junkie who would rather be playing airsoft on the weekends rather than chasing some tail. And the adults coming into the store were increasingly these strange preppers rather than ordinary folks who happened to work or play outdoors. Then too I had changed relative to the customer base and modern retailing. I was a Jurassic retailer who was affectionately known on Yelp as "Mr. Rude" as far too many customers began to mistake me for a Nordstrom clerk.

 

I can't tell you how happy I am to be out of retail.

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Cool photos, I wonder if that is Kaufmans in Manhattan NY, I've been a number of times, I was even once robbed at knife point on my way there back in the day

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There are at least three Army/Navy surplus stores around central North Carolina, and they have all followed, more or less, the path laid out in the article. I was just in Delks near Ashboro this weekend and picked up a few things, but it isn't near as good as as it was 12-15 years ago and a proliferation of military-style clothing and foreign equipment has replaced a lot of the old US military stuff.

I have one of Bannerman's old catalogues, which is really fun to read through. I have seen Bannerman's "castle" and knew about the detonation of the old ammunition. And my best memories of the old days is back in mid-1980 stopping by an Army/Navy Store in Kershaw, Georgia, run by a Willie Nelson-like character called "Wild Bill" by the locals. There were still Civil War uniforms stacked in the aisles along with flags and other musty stores. Neat place and I wonder if it is still in business.

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I remember buying my first pair of Vietnam Jungle Boots at the surplus store, but they were reproductions "fakes" made in Korea , they didnt hold up very well and wore out quickly.

 

I wore them on many hunting & fishing trips, walking through mud puddles, sand, dirt, they looked really worn "salty" just like the real thing.

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As a kid in the early to mid 70s, surplus stores were one of my favorite places. My dad, a former Marine, brought lots of knives, bayonets, sleeping bags and more back with him. So we already used surplus when camping. I became a surplus store nut, and begged for the family to stop the car on trips whenever we saw one. They were often full of bins of bayonets, shelves full of WWI and WWII web gear, and cool hardware. One time I pulled a brown box down and couldn't figure out what the metal item was. The shop keeper said "sight for a mortar." I'm with the guy above about North Carolina, that's where I lived too, and there was a TON of surplus. As a matter of fact, my great Uncle Charlie, a WWII Army vet with Patton, came back and opened a salvage store that often had military surplus. Once in the 70s when visiting him I asked if he had any "Army stuff" on his lots. He said "go back to the yard, look for a big cardboard packing crate about 6 foot high, full of packs, and take any you want. They were those WWII rectangular packs for grenades or other general use, all marked 1944.

 

 

It was great up until the late 1980s, when I got out of the Navy and returned stateside. The replica gear slowly infiltrated, and is at about 98% in most stores I can find now. Back then, it was 90% US GI, and about 10 percent foreign surplus military.

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When my parents gave me a leather jacket(new production), my mother said that the surplus stores after the war had piles of them for $5 and she couldn't afford to buy one. I remember the stores in the 60's & 70's being fascinating although I think that a lot of the best stuff was the last remnants. By the 80's, it seemed a lot more of new production stuff was dominating the inventory. The business model of buying huge stockpiles for almost nothing allowed storing inventory for years but that isn't feasible today.

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When my parents gave me a leather jacket(new production), my mother said that the surplus stores after the war had piles of them for $5 and she couldn't afford to buy one.

 

My grandfather returned from the PTO having served in the Navy since January of '42. I have a photo of him holding his firstborn daughter (my mother) in 1946 wearing a USAAF flight jacket that looks like it is brand new. My mother remembers him wearing that for years as she grew up. I have no doubt that he got that at an Army/Navy surplus store - most likely the same one where he purchased his army tent that his family stayed in as they built their cabin on his lake property.

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  • 1 month later...

In Chicago, we had Starks for Army Navy surplus. My Dad would take me there in the 1980s and I remember many, many pairs of leather boots (maybe Vietnam era).

 

My Dad told me after WWII, you could buy the Cruver black ID aircraft for 39 cents each. He told me Starks had a huge cardboard box full of the Cruver ID aircraft. I rarely see the WWII ID aircraft at the military shows.

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