Can civilians buy military surplus gear? Yes, civilians can buy military surplus gear. Military surplus stores specialize in selling these items to the public. They offer a wide range of products that were once used by the military but are now available for civilian use.

Entrepreneurs often buy these goods and resell them at surplus stores. Usually the goods sold by the military are clothing, equipment, and tools of a nature that is generally useful to the civilian population, as well as embroidered patches, name tags, and other items that can be used for a faux military uniform.

One of the key advantages of shopping at surplus centers are the discounted prices.

Now those stores and their competitors are out of business. The few stores that remain have basically two lines of stock: some real army surplus that's much-picked-over, basically the rejects of the past few decades, stuff that won't sell for another few years yet… and a line of imported-from-China knock-off stuff.