Start-up putting ammo vending machines in grocery stores plans to grow
Candy, ice and lottery tickets have long been impulse items sold at checkouts in American grocery stores. Now bullets are joining the list of merchandise peddled to consumers as they exit at a growing number of stores around the country.
Dallas-based start-up American Rounds rolled its first automated retail ammo machine into a Fresh Value grocery store in Pell City, Alabama, late in 2023, selling various brands of rifle, shotgun and handgun ammo.
The company advertises its machines as a safer and more convenient way to buy ammo than at a large retail store or online. But public health experts have questioned whether the company’s suicide prevention efforts are sufficient, and elected officials in areas where machines were set up have worried that the easy availability of ammunition could lead to impulsive purchases by people who seek to do harm.
“If you’re in the ammunition space … you have a social responsibility to make things as safe as possible while maintaining the integrity of the Second Amendment,” American Rounds CEO Grant Magers told the Washington Post. “We wanted to accomplish both.”
The ammunition kiosks operate in nearly a dozen grocery stores across Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Colorado. Fresh Value, Lowe’s Market and Super C Mart all host the kiosks at some store locations. Representatives for all three companies declined to comment when reached by The Post.
In a 2023 promotional video for the rollout of American Rounds kiosks, Fresh Value Chief Operating Officer Terry Stanley said the company was “excited to offer … what we think is the first ammo kiosk.”
“There is no doubt that foot traffic will increase based on the feedback that we’ve gotten,” Stanley said. “We’re super excited not only to have it here, but in other locations in Fresh Value as well.”
Since its kiosks made headlines in July, Magers said, American Rounds has signed over 200 contracts and received requests for machines in nearly every state. But the machines have still been placed in only a handful of new locations. Magers cited ongoing contract negotiations and production limits as causes for delay and said the company’s goal is to ship around 100 units in 2025.
“We knew we had something special, but we didn’t know that it was going to explode like that,” Magers said.
The machines use a touch screen to display their goods – there is no transparent glass panel to view the ammo inside, as with other types of vending machines.
“These are double-walled steel, 2,000-pound machines that are always indoors under security cameras,” Magers said. “(Ammo is) not sitting on a shelf, you know, like your bread aisle in the grocery store.”
Company policy dictates that customers be at least 21 years old to purchase ammo at an American Rounds machine, regardless of state laws. The machine uses the same identity verification technology as the Transportation Security Administration at airport checkpoints, Magers said. There is no federal requirement that sellers verify a buyer’s ID before an ammo sale, but federal law does limit the types of rounds people under 21 can purchase.
“We’re the only company in America that say can say 100 percent, every (ammo) purchase, that there’s an ID verified,” Magers said.
Research indicates a correlation between firearm availability and suicide, which experts say is often an impulsive act, especially in rural areas similar to those where American Rounds machines operate, though the kiosks sell only ammunition and not firearms themselves.
American Rounds says it’s aware of that phenomenon and has partnered with a pro-Second Amendment mental health nonprofit, Walk the Talk America, to reach kiosk customers in crisis. The company displays ads for mental health screenings on its machines, which also show customers the national suicide hotline phone number, 988, before every use.
“We’re offering material for people to get help that need help,” Magers said.
But public health experts questioned the effectiveness of the safeguards.
Paul Nestadt, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, compared the machine’s warnings to signs on bridges saying, “Don’t jump. Seek help.”
“We’ve studied those. They’re not effective,” Nestadt said. “If someone is impulsively going to attempt suicide, that sign doesn’t seem to stop them.”
Nestadt said a common myth about suicide is that it often involves a plan, while in reality the majority of attempts are impulsive.
“By making (ammo) more accessible, there’s less time for that impulse to pass, for the heat to die down,” Nestadt said.
Magers responded to Nestadt’s analogy by highlighting the safety steps the company has already taken: raising age limits and requiring IDs. He compared his company’s approach to safety to that of a car manufacturer.
“People still have car accidents and have tragedy, but they take steps to make it safer,” Magers said. “They don’t just say, ‘Okay, we’re not going to use cars anymore.’”
Nestadt said regardless of whether there are more safeguards, more ammunition availability always raises the risk.
“When you put candy near the register … more candy is sold,” Nestadt said. “We know that more ammunition and guns in the community increases suicide rates. We’ve been studying this for decades.”
Ammo sales have been good and are steadily rising as buyers grow familiar with the machines, according to Magers, though American Rounds did remove one machine in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in July due to poor sales.
The machine generated just four total sales in seven months, according to a Fresh Value statement provided to WBRC 6 News.
“That location, just for whatever reason, just didn’t generate any (sales),” Magers said.
The same machine dispensed controversy when Kip Tyner, Tuscaloosa City Council president, raised constituent concerns at a council meeting on the issue. Tyner told WBRC 6 News he is not against guns but thought the machines were a joke at first and “didn’t like it at all.”
“We know we’ve got a problem with guns – and people that have guns, I should say,” Tyner said. “So why make it more convenient to buy ammunition?”
Magers said the machine’s removal took place before to the council meeting and had no connection.
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If you or someone you know needs help, visit 988lifeline.org or call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
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Video: Dallas-based startup American Rounds deployed automated ammo retail machines to four states in grocery stores and planned to expand. Public health experts had concerns about enabling impulsive purchases to do harm.© 2024 , The Washington Post
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