Beyond his memorable career in professional wrestling, Gene Snitsky is also an entrepreneur, running a military and survival gear store named Priority One Surplus in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. During a recent appearance on “Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw,” Snitsky shared details about his business and its connection to the military community.
When asked by co-host Gerald Brisco how he got into that line of work, Snitsky explained, “Buddy of mine started it with his son back in the day, and I was kind of getting done doing the film stuff, and he asked me if I wanted to get involved, and then said, ‘Sure, I’ll give it a shot.’ See you again. See how it is. And nine years later, here we are.” He noted their current store has been at its new location for five years, having moved in March 2020 during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, where they “deemed ourselves essential, and we stayed open.”
Snitsky highlighted the range of products offered: “Oh, man, we sell a little everything. We sell survival stuff, camping gear, clothing, collectible, military stuff, knives, ammo, Mags, boots, it was best, plate carriers. We dabble in a little everything.” When JBL asked if they sell guns, Snitsky clarified, “We don’t have an FFL [Federal Firearms License], too much of a headache, too much of a paper trail, too much, you know. Ammo? Oh, yeah, yeah. We sell a ton of ammo.”
A key aspect of Priority One Surplus is its strong connection to military veterans, who make up his staff. “We have all the guys that work here are army guys,” Snitsky stated. He introduced one of his employees, Ben, during the podcast: “He’s a Army guy. Uh, eight years, yep. So he was in for eight, Jeff was in for six, Jonathan was in for 5-6, as well. Yeah. And Aaron, the other guy who works here, he’s just retired after 20 years.”
The store caters to a clientele interested in Second Amendment rights, hunting, fishing, and outdoor activities. “We’re in a hot bed of like two, a Second Amendment type stuff. And, you know, hunters, fishing, you know, outdoors people, we sell like we sell tents, we sell hammocks, we sell sleeping bags. So we kind of try to cover all the bases,” Snitsky said.
He also touched upon how societal events can impact sales. “It’s very, it’s very, it’s very, depending on the situation. Obviously, we do have we sell ammo. So we do notice, like, an uptake in ammo sales whenever something happens, per se… definitely with the politics and the way the world is these days.” He noted that during certain political administrations, “we tended to have a lot more… more preparation. Like, we’ve got a lot more preppers and stuff like that.”
Snitsky also spoke about his family’s military connections, further explaining his store’s ethos: “My dad passed away, unfortunately, and my mom’s still around. But my dad passed away, and my brother passed away too. He was in the honor guard. He was in the old guard in the army. So we do a patch board. We got a patch board here at the shop, so we collect patches from all the units and stuff like that.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
