Select U.S. grocery stores are selling bullets

Brb—going to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for dinner and a side of ammo.

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What? Yes, ammunition.

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A Texas-based company called American Rounds is selling vending machines stocked with ammunition to grocery stores. The company has installed six machines at grocery stores in Texas, Alabama, and Oklahoma, with plans to expand to Texas and Colorado by the end of the month.

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American Rounds hopes their vending machines make buying ammo safer and faster:

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• The vending machines utilize facial recognition software to verify the buyer’s identity
• Huge lines formed in gun stores across America during the last election cycle; grocery stores could make it more accessible and convenient

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One thing to watch: Past elections have accelerated the demand for guns and ammunition, and many predict the Trump shooting will accelerate it even more. But it hasn’t shown up in the data yet. Firearm background checks, the best proxy for gun sales, are tracking toward similar numbers to 2023 but well below 2020.