Toilet paper isn’t the only thing Manitobans are stocking up on during the coronavirus pandemic.
The owner of a Portage la Prairie-area outdoors shop told 680 CJOB that his customers have been buying more guns and ammunition than usual since the COVID-19 crisis began.
“In terms of the reasons why they’re buying, we’ve had quite a number,” said Wade Duncan of MacDonald’s Sporting Goods.
“The Canadian dollar’s taken a hit, so prices are going up. We’re having a lot of people want to stock up a little bit before it goes up too much. We have people who are saying, ‘I know I’m gonna be off work for a while… the weather’s nice, so maybe I can enjoy the range a little bit.'”
Duncan said the third group of customers are people who are preparing for worst-case scenarios.
“We’re having people that are being fuelled by the media reports in the U.S., where the shelves are bare and stuff like that. I won’t say ‘preppers,’ but they want to have some backup, some inventory.”
For the most part, though, Duncan said the customers — who have increased his store’s firearms sales by about a third over this time last year — are people who are reacting the same way as the wider population has been to other product shortages: they’re buying them while they still can.
“They’re worried about down the road. Things might get a little tight.
“Our reps and salesmen are phoning, saying, ‘The U.S. is sold out of this, sold out of that… Don’t expect anything.'”