The fallen giants of gun retailing

You can walk into a branch of Walmart in the US and buy cartridges off the shelf, and not only one brand but myriad different makes of rifle and shotgun ammunition.

The world’s biggest retailer, which takes such pride in its corporate ethics that it puts it front and centre on its website, has no problem supplying the hunting culture of the US. If Tesco decided to stock ounce load 7.5s for clay shooting, there would be howls of outrage from middle England.

But it wasn’t always this way. Some of the great names of the past in retail sold guns and all that went with them. Delving into the subject gives an interesting glimpse into past attitudes that seem to have morphed over time into some sort of false rectitude. One of the world’s most famous department stores — Harrods — had what must have been a busy gun department, given the relative frequency with which