) writes:

Boy, the word "surplus" brings back memories. When I was growing
up
in Detroit ('50's-'60's) there was a huge store in town called
"Gell's
Civilian PX". Anything - and I mean *anything* - ever made for or
used
by the military could be found there for amazing prices. More than
one
buddy of mine had a SW receiver that was military surplus - heavy,
dark,
muscular-looking cabinets with huge dials. Then, almost overnight it

seems, the "Military Surplus Store" was a thing of the past, for the
most part. There is one near me right now. Canteen covers and
post-Desert Storm polyester field jackets is about the extent of the
true "military surplus" they have.

Tony


So, why did the real military surplus stores disappear? I'd think that
the military has just as much, if not more, aging items it could sell
off. What happened?

Steve


"Surplus stores" may have existed before, but clearly they got a big
boost (or were created) after WWII where there was a shift from a massive
war footing to peacetime. There was indeed a lot of surplus, ie things
that were no longer needed by the military. There was a lot of stuff
and it was cheap, for the surplus dealers to grab up and hence for
the customer to guy.

That stuff lasted a long time. I was able to buy a brand new Command
Set transmitter for ten dollars in 1972, I seem to recall that it was
even in some packaging.

As time progresses, such large wars are a thing of the past. Yes,
there has been near constant war somewhere, but it is generally handled
by the usual level of equipment. There are no spikes, where suddenly
massive amounts of equipment need to be bought, and then nobody wants
it afterwards.

So there is much less surplus than there was as a result of WWII ending.

I suspect what there is, is increasingly bought up by other countries
(within whatever rules there are about export), to be used by their
armed forces. It's cheaper than buying new, but since it's a necessity
they can outbid the surplus dealers that remain.

IN WWII, much of the equipment was pretty generic, give or take some
cypher equipment. A radio receiver was a radio receiver, and a teletype
machine was no different from a "civilian" version except maybe it
was painted green.

I suspect more and more, military equipment is specialized. It has
the cypher equipment built into the receiver, and that Teletype machine
is now a computer, that may be built to certain specifications. Given
that, they don't want that stuff to go out on the market, because they
don't want everyone to have those capabilities. Hence I suspect
there is much more that will be destroyed rather than put on the market.

Another fact likely rides on all of this. Surplus was once a relatively
big thing. The stores were small, but I think they tended to be a
bigger part of the culture. The neighborhoods where the stores were
have changed, driving up rent prices and the owners have aged or
even died. So no matter what surplus is still available, it's no
longer distributed the same way.

Michael