I remember (and I'm younger than the lot of yah )
And i think I've still got an empty ammo pack with a kmart price sticker somewhere.
I showed my boys and they couldn't believe it !!
Leon would you believe I went into a Westfield toystore in 1980 and bought myself a Daisy BB gun?
My first gun, and I was in year 8.
Yea i do believe RB, things were very different those days.
We, my mate and i in those days were able to walk up the street with a rifle in hand a go to the sports shop and buy ammo.
And this new one is a Gospel true story.
My next door neighbor bought a rifle at the local Scotts Gun Shop in Ballarat.
He then had to go to the bank as his last chore for the day, he asked the fella at the door ( the then doorman) which he happened to know and who actually was my Father in law, and said, "Hey Burnie just hang onto this while i go to the desk will ya".
Burnie did, but was a bit uncomfortable standing at the door of the bank with a rifle in hand.
In my youth (in the rural US) it was not unusual to get a free gun as a reward for opening a bank account...and even I was involved in trade shows (for agricultural crop protection products) where we offered hunting rifles as free drawing prizes for people who stopped by our booth and registered.
In my youth (in the rural US) it was not unusual to get a free gun as a reward for opening a bank account...and even I was involved in trade shows (for agricultural crop protection products) where we offered hunting rifles as free drawing prizes for people who stopped by our booth and registered.
Off topic, but when I worked in Indonesia in the 90's, the hostesses would stand there with a basket of cigarettes and hand them out as you walked into the plane...
Bought my first rifle, a Sportco 22, off the display wall at Myer Melbourne sports department in 1968. Carried it through the streets to my car with not a swat team in sight.
Frank.
Yep, my school friends and I used to haunt K-Mart and Mick Simmons after school back in the late 1960's just to drool over and handle the rifles. Saturdays we'd get on the train to Sydney and troll up and down George St and do pretty well the same thing although there were a lot more guns and knives on offer. Hard to believe you could just walk into the gun shops and pick up various weapons as a schoolboy and the staff were only too willing to spend the time with you. When all the new rules came in I remember having to spend around six weeks or so doing the written and practical courses for my gun licence which included pistols and rifles. Even today you have to do so many shoots each year to maintain your gun licence.
Kmart used to have a small range of guns, but of very good quality brands (including Remington and Winchester).
I remember back in the mid 80s a coworker in the office saying he really wanted a beautifully engraved Winchester semi-auto shotgun that was at a local gunshop for $450 (which was a lot back then). As it turned out, on a day off I was going through Kmart and saw that they were selling the same shotgun for $236.
I rang him up and told him. He said "Buy it for me quick please".
So I did, took it into work the next day, showed the guards who said I had to leave it in the guard house - while they each handled it and said what a beautiful well-balanced gun it was - and my co worker was delighted.
K-mart also sold ammunition at lower prices than most suburban gun shops did.
Regards,
Renato
Off topic, but when I worked in Indonesia in the 90's, the hostesses would stand there with a basket of cigarettes and hand them out as you walked into the plane...
Yes, the good old days.
Back in the mid 70s - flying Singapore Airlines - the stewards and stewardesses would come around in-flight every two or three hours and offer small packs of 5 cigarettes to anyone who wanted them in the smoking area.
Regards,
Renato
Showed my wife the advert - she worked at the local K-mart service desk from age 14 until after we married, and remembers well selling rifles etc., with next to no questions asked!
What is also interesting - check out the price of the little colour TV!
One small advert shows the impact overseas/Chinese manufacturing has had on prices of consumer goods over the last 30-40 years. Take a walk through any discount electrical retailer and see what the same $$ amount buys you for a flat screen TV today - without even factoring in currency inflation over that time frame.
Same applies to telescopes - forty eight years ago as a fourteen year old my dream of owing a 6" refractor was just that - a dream. I never imagined as a regular wage slave having affordable 20" reflectors etc. in my back yard.
In Melbourne 1980 -
I remember the Trading Post had a whole section going for at least 2 pages
with adverts for firearms.
You could just phone up - go around and buy whatever you wanted.
I have never owned a firearm - I don't like them.
In 1980 -
apparently someone got into a lot of trouble as they had a machine gun
for sale in the Trading Post and it was not a joke.
The cops went around and confiscated it and then charged him.
I do remember K mart selling guns and amo , I did think it odd even at 10 years old or so.
My dad bought me an air rifle from a pop up disposal store in one of the old woolstores in tennerife QLD.
Me and a friend in time eventually took aim at a neibours classic model boat floating in there pool , it was pretty accurate over 50 metres or so eventually we pummeled enough holes into it
the bow slowly rose and it sunk to the bottom .. I still remember this with a smirk sorry it just looked so kool
A short while later with a major kick in the arse my slug gun also dissapeared
forever more.
In hindsight guns fireworks and children probably arnt the best of ideas.
Yea i do believe RB, things were very different those days.
We, my mate and i in those days were able to walk up the street with a rifle in hand a go to the sports shop and buy ammo.
And this new one is a Gospel true story.
My next door neighbor bought a rifle at the local Scotts Gun Shop in Ballarat.
He then had to go to the bank as his last chore for the day, he asked the fella at the door ( the then doorman) which he happened to know and who actually was my Father in law, and said, "Hey Burnie just hang onto this while i go to the desk will ya".
Burnie did, but was a bit uncomfortable standing at the door of the bank with a rifle in hand.
We lived at the foot of The Dandenongs when I was you and would stuff our Dad's rifles into a hessian bag with a shoulder rope and walk two miles to the train, head up to Upper Fern Tree Gully and then walk to Lysterfield to shoot rabbits at a property owned by the Catholic church.
