>Go to “Army/Navy Surplus Store”
>Racks filled with Rothco, 5.11, and Carhartt clothing.
>Cases full of mid-tier knives - mostly Mora, Cold Steel, or Spyderco.
>A bunch of Made in China camping equipment.
>A couple shelves stacked with plastic Plano ammo cans.
>Not one single solitary piece of military surplus equipment in the entire place.
What went wrong, anons?
That's sad. My local place has Alice equipment, WWII knives and helmets, Kevlar, and basically any surplus you can think of from the 70s-90s. Also a gun stand in the back
Where you from user? My local place has a ton of legit surplus stuff.
You forgot the beat to shit surp ammo cans for $60.
Can't you read their sign? It says they don't actually sell surplus.
It’s a problem I see a lot. There are still a few places with a lot of genuine surplus, but for the most part, it’s all going this way.
>go to surplus store
>there's bloodstains on the sleeping bags
most are run by jews
What's wrong with Carhartt?
Nothing. Fuck surplusshits.
it isn't surplus you illiterate
It’s not surplus.....
any other AZ fags here 'member based Larada's? they were still pretty good when they moved and became freedom surplus (iirc). the new place in mesa is mostly a tacticool outfitter. still a little bit of legit stuff tho
>What went wrong, anons?
Nothing. Surplus is by it's very name, limited in supply. They sold the WW2 and Cold War stuff, and gear suppliers found they could sell direct to the public via the internet. Plus lots of people figured out surplus wasn't all that great anyway and developed their own tactical gear.
Army Navy stores were great in the 90's good place to get cheap tools, I remember getting a $10 Vietnam era helmet for a school project over a $25 school branded plastic hard hat
nashville boiii!
They gave all the milsurp to cops.
The surplus ran out a long time ago
Shitty employees at mine, that's why they closed. Half empty never cleaned shelves of garbage fillers like Coleman, "new" sleeping bags that smelled like your grandmothers cootch.
Half the store was racks and racks of woodland camo that wasn't sized or laid out in condition order.
Always kept the mall ninja shit in the locked case. Had more boots than the holocaust. Over priced patches and coins. Would only sell dress blues to military only.
>What went wrong, anons?
the internet.
Military gear has a active duty life.
They should be up to their eyes in every militaries second hand goods.
So who is buying it. Not countries, they have access to new.
Yea it’s fuckin (((Friedman’s))). What a shithole.
Surplus is pretty much gone and the gov isn't going to do what it did in the past and just sell off all of it. Surplus stores in the USA trace their roots to the Civil War which post a massive internal war left a lot of goods to be sold. Into about the 30s these stores were having issues (even the post WWI bump couldn't help them) and they were starting to run into the same issues we see today. Then WWII happened and the cold war build up and surplus stores have been stocked for like 5 decades. But as we all know surplus does t last forever
>walk into Army Surplus store
>the guy behind the counter is nothing like the one from Falling Down
You lucky bastards don't know how good you still have it. I have 500 miles to drive to the nearest place selling surplus or even copy surplus stuff.
>Not countries, they have access to new.
Nowadays that shit gets sent to the third world as foreign aid.
A while ago there was was a contract on that website the dudes from War Dogs used to score contracts, it was for dyeing old UCP uniforms. Instead of surplus'ing that shit the military thought "hey let's see who can do a cheap dye job on this shitty UCP in green or tan and send it to some third world government forces we're training".
>So who is buying it
Terrorists/NSAs probably
true, i used to like going there back when they had guns and some cool shit, but now it’s pretty much a military themed rei.
I think it was during the Clinton administration that they started throttling what the army suplussed to civilians based on "muh home grown terror"
There's still a legit surplus store in Glendale that has stuff from WW1 to Desert Storm. Can't remember the name of it though.
Their stuff is cheaply made garbage. I bought some cargo shorts for work and wore holes through them in a couple weeks. I’m just a delivery guy too, it’s not like I’m crawling in the dirt and really testing them.
yikes.
mine still has tons in great condition for 12 dollars.
based, its just branded well so people think they are getting rugged clothing. Duluth trading co and dickies is the way to go
well by the looks of it you went to friedmans on 21st
Man it’s almost like an incredibly disruptive group of technologies completely changes the way we engage in commerce, and the notion of what a “store” is. Brick and mortar stores that deal with clothing are so fucking obsolete it’s not even funny.
Carhartt was legit until ~5 years ago when they started offshoring production and advertising more as a fashion brand.
There's a reason every girl you know has a Carhartt beanie now. Meanwhile I went from gettinga year or two out of a pair of Carhartt double-fronts to getting a couple months out of a pair. Nobody in my field wears them anymore
Yep, actual surplus seems to only be had online
a new surplus store opened near me and it was nothing but what you're describing, but lower tier and worse. Everything was over priced too.
Isn't that the surplus store in Nashville? The only surplus they have is 50 Alice packs.
Fucking what?
That's disappointing. I was thinking of buying some new overalls since the Carhartt's I had were always too big since my mom bought them for me years ago when I was in college and she for some reason kept thinking someone in their early 20's would "grow into them"
damn that sucks, here by me we have plenty of good milsurp stores though honestly nothing beats the online milsurp stores like Kommando or Varusteleka