Local Gunstore Inventory Discussion

[RKS]

Supply, demand, profit. It is no different than anything else. Follow the money and the people who have the most to gain.

 

[DiffEQ]

Supply chain is screwed up, world wide production is screwed up, sheep are scared.

Simple train wreck logic : pandemic + panic consumption + production headaches + pathetic delivery schedules = empty shelves in far too many places. That's across all industries.

That's what happens when you ship your manufacturing overseas.

 

[redrockranger]

I am not a constitutional scholar by any means but I don’t believe I’ve read anywhere that we are guaranteed the right of ammunition or components in the second amendment. I have no doubt that things are being produced but the good old boy system I’m sure is in play behind the supply lines.And like Joe Salt said get ready to pay more.

Neither is the U S Supreme Court

 

[TheOtherZilla]

The one down the street closed a few weeks ago.

 

[Bill K]

Neither is the U S Supreme Court

You a right there. US Supreme Court used to be fair and impartial, now days it and most of the judges are being the opposite and are in various peoples pockets, and getting money under the table to make a lot of the rulings they do, Right ? Too many of the Judges have become political pawns, rather than what Judges should be.

 

[G Liles]

I am not a constitutional scholar by any means but I don’t believe I’ve read anywhere that we are guaranteed the right of ammunition or components in the second amendment. I have no doubt that things are being produced but the good old boy system I’m sure is in play behind the supply lines.And like Joe Salt said get ready to pay more.

I’m not either but wouldn’t restricting ammo or withholding it be an infringement on my right to keep and bear arms, a gun without ammo is just a paper weight!!

 

[1K6BRA]

I’m not either but wouldn’t restricting ammo or withholding it be an infringement on my right to keep and bear arms, a gun without ammo is just a paper weight!!

Bingo! Winner winner chicken dinner! Surely the brainiacs in D.C. have thought of that angle. But so did I.

 

[DiffEQ]

Too many of the Judges have become political pawns, rather than what Judges should be.

Look at the Federal Firearms Act of 1938. I think you'll have to go back quite a while before you'll find judges that weren't political pawns, or corrupted in some other way.

 

[muleman69]

Prices need to keep going up to discourage hoarding and opportunistic resellers.

I have to disagree ,if prices were to go up it would not be good for the shooting sports as Mom and POP and the family may not be able to shoot much if any. This is something that the commies would like to see, folks priced out of the business.

 

[JimT]

I am not sure exactly>>>I do have some suspicions. I will give you ONE of my "suspicions". The "world" right now is a tinderbox. Between Iran threatening Israel and America, China exerting it's muscle in the South China Sea, as well as skirmishes with India and other "combustible" areas of the world, loaded ammo is desperately needed. I suspect that militaries around the world are paying premium prices for LOADED ammo. It is better for a country to be in oversupply than lacking.. In the same vein, ammo manufacturers here, for public consumption, can make a substantial profit making LOADED ammo, rather than piecemealing out components. That is just one of my suspicions. Right or wrong, it is MY suspicion..

VSTO reports quarterly earnings tomorrow, I will report back how much loaded ammo China and Israel bought from them.

 

[rijndael]

No inventory

I have to disagree ,if prices were to go up it would not be good for the shooting sports as Mom and POP and the family may not be able to shoot much if any. This is something that the commies would like to see, folks priced out of the business.

People are going to be priced out of the business if they can't get new inventory.

 

[DNorton]

Panic buying 101. How many folks here have 20,000 primers or more? Who has 20,000 bullets or more? Did world governments buy up all our toilet paper during Covid? No. We did.

 

[Greyfox]

I haven't seen anyone mention the fact that there were 4.3 million backgrounds checks done in January. It seems reasonable to me that the majority of these were for new firearms, mostly handguns and AR types. This means mostly 223 & 9 mm, which are arguably the ammo in shortest supply. I have two good friends who own LGS and they at least attempt to provide a box of ammo for each sale. Anybody want to add that up? Seems to me this is simply an issue of supply and demand. The brass and primer factories are running wide open and cranking out as much as possible, Their capacity is based on a normal flow, which today is far from normal. Even should some of these folks choose to take a chance and spend the $$ to significantly increase manufacturing capacity, that kind of thing isn't done in a day, a week, or a month. Also, why would any American company choose to sell outside the US, unless they already had contracts in place? Really doesn't make sense. It's possible that some may take a chance and build more facilities to manufacture, but in today's political climate, that's a dangerous gamble. Like the great toilet paper shortage, this will probably correct itself, but it will take a while.

Rick

 

[muleman69]

No inventory


People are going to be priced out of the business if they can't get new inventory.

I agree with that, lets just hope for the best

 

[shoobe01]

LOL you have no idea how business works!

Or, some of us do.

My company spent much of 2020 with no work. Laid off everyone but me, but... had enough money on hand from the good years to keep going. Did the math and everything, and as planned with low-rate revenue could keep going for 3-5 years with the savings.

Ate about 1/5th of it in the first 9 months of last year, then started getting more income, leveled off, even temporarily off and on paid some people to help me, and this year looking better.

Sure, some businesses have multiple bad things pile up etc but there are many things outside your control that will not get covered by insurance so you should plan to "self-insure" like this, from economies to weather to construction, etc. And, that isn't forever; you don't go into debt but know when it's all done and what to do at shutdown time to recover (e.g. how much does it cost to sell, so you aren't left high and dry or waiting with costs for the auction...).

 

[rijndael]

FWIW: My current shop is a retired guy working out of his finished basement, it's a pretty nice storefront. He specializes in suppressors/NFA, but has regular gun stuff too. It's a job to cut his burn rate in retirement, he's not trying to support a family off it. This type of setup is going to become more popular.

 

[dragman]

Or, some of us do.

My company spent much of 2020 with no work. Laid off everyone but me, but... had enough money on hand from the good years to keep going. Did the math and everything, and as planned with low-rate revenue could keep going for 3-5 years with the savings.

Ate about 1/5th of it in the first 9 months of last year, then started getting more income, leveled off, even temporarily off and on paid some people to help me, and this year looking better.

Sure, some businesses have multiple bad things pile up etc but there are many things outside your control that will not get covered by insurance so you should plan to "self-insure" like this, from economies to weather to construction, etc. And, that isn't forever; you don't go into debt but know when it's all done and what to do at shutdown time to recover (e.g. how much does it cost to sell, so you aren't left high and dry or waiting with costs for the auction...).

What kind of business is your company?
This was directly about gun stores. Not all business is the same obviously and i would contend the gun market is one of the lowest margin businesses you can be involved in.
And laying everyone off but the owner isn't surviving IMHO.

 

[jelenko]

Yes but this is by far the worst. and it has a cumulative effect.
You can take Covid shutdown.
Riots civil unrest.
Election with an Anti gun candidate.
Any of those has and will cause a shortage like we have seen in the past like the Obama election or Sandy Hook. But now Stack all three on top of each other without a reprieve and it's a train wreck. Now consider the previous shortages were just with us. This last year because of the nature of the shortages we also gained 8 million more gun owners (not a bad thing just bad timing) Oh wait and it happened while the government was handing out free money to people with stimulus and 600 extra in unemployment. If you can't see how this is not like anything before you just don't want to look into it honestly

Didn't say it wasn't different. I was questioning whether there is a conspiracy behind the shortage.
As you rather well described, it's unrelated to a conspiracy.

 

[Lee in Texas]

It just makes you hope that it’s not the grocery stores next!

Please don’t give anybody any ideas. That has happened several times around here , even at our HEB grocery stores, famous for keeping things in stock during this wacko pandemic. For no apparent reason, you can just walk in and find empty shelves. I got a chest freezer and have it filled with meat/chicken/salmon/seafood/pork. All things that are in stock and even on sale. I don’t want to break out the garbanzo beans when grocery stores are empty.

I also believe people buy Reloading components when they can, even if it’s not what they need.

 

[miningshawn]

More than a few small stores have closed simply because there is no inventory to stock the shelves.

More than a few competitors are sitting out the season because they cannot get components.

Manufacturers are becoming their own worst enemy. The lack of components - not hoarding when none can be found - is going to alienate the two biggest long-range markets, emerging reloading and established reloading.

I am not eloquent enough to state the problem in words that CEOs and boards of manufacturers understand. I don't have enough industry leads to push the issue uphill. Maybe someone else can spur a grassroots charge with a modicum of success.

Can these companies divert just one shift per week, or a couple of days per month, to support their most loyal and dedicated customers and emerging market? If they are just chasing the large return ratio of loaded ammunition the market will stagnate when all of the orders are filled. Most people will only hoard so much.

Small stores are closing doors, box stores are driving prices. When the smoke finally clears there will be no mom&pops left and the sporting crowd will displaced by lack of care. If they truly care, as they claim in their videos and press releases, they would support their core customers, the steady income.

Does anyone have the capacity and will to lead this effort? How can we, the core of shooting sports, influence the emerging market and divert some of the supply away from the flash-in-the-pan profit and back to the proven base?

I want my LGS to stay open, and I want to compete. Is this such a bad thing?