Supporting LGS

[Okcafe86]

So...I prefer buying things at my local shops. Something has happened recently in the primer department though. Remember the primer shortage; what a 1 1/2 ago or so? Prices went up a little b/c the supply was so low. Makes sense. I didnt buy any during that time (I was actually deployed so didnt care) Now the prices and availability are back to normal. My local shops are all charging the old prices though. 50$ a box for small pistol primers!! I say something and they say oh blah blah thats what the supplier charged. I realize this, but the market has come back down! Those things are never going to sell at that price. Why wont they just eat the difference and get stock rolling again? Anyways, as much as I like them I go to Cabelas and buy the same box for 30$. Even less with their military discount they finally started. Their loss. Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Potatohead]

Yes but I think it might take the mom and pops a bit longer to adjust to a new market. Or if they're heavily invested in the high market they may not have the choice. JMO

 

[RussellC]

50 is a little extreme. I can find CCI, Federal or Winchester for 40.00, and sometimes a little less. I usually wait if I have a powder order in the future, and throw a bunch in with that order.

I just bought a couple thousand pistol primers at my range for 40.00 a piece. I have also bought a couple of pistols there I could have saved 35 to 40 bucks on buying online and paying a neighbor of mine who charges a 20 dollar transfer fee.

They have a brick and mortar store and range to support, and its nice to have someone there who is willing to help me with sight installation, squib removal, and general questions from their guy who is a pistol trainer, certified armourer and all around nice guy!

Russellc

 

[splattergun]

Local prices are $35-40 per thousand. Lower at the chains like Sportsman Warehouse, higher at the LGS. Why the difference? Quantity pricing, partly. The retailers get better wholesale prices when they buy larger quantities, thus the big boys can sell lower than mom and/or pop.

Also, availability of the product is only one factor of the price. Cost of manufacturing, such as raw materials, also play a major role. Brass and copper prices are higher, so are the cost of certain chemicals.

And let us not forget that once a price goes higher for whatever reason, retailers and wholesalers are loathe to reduce prices as quickly as they raised them. They like that extra cushion of profit.

 

[Reloadron]

So...I prefer buying things at my local shops. Something has happened recently in the primer department though. Remember the primer shortage; what a 1 1/2 ago or so? Prices went up a little b/c the supply was so low. Makes sense. I didnt buy any during that time (I was actually deployed so didnt care) Now the prices and availability are back to normal. My local shops are all charging the old prices though. 50$ a box for small pistol primers!! I say something and they say oh blah blah thats what the supplier charged. I realize this, but the market has come back down! Those things are never going to sell at that price. Why wont they just eat the difference and get stock rolling again? Anyways, as much as I like them I go to Cabelas and buy the same box for 30$. Even less with their military discount they finally started. Their loss. Has anyone else noticed this?

I can't speak for your local gun store but can offer a little of how I ran my shop. When Kathy and I owned a brick and mortar shop we also actively worked gun shows. During those years I made some very smart buying and selling business decisions and some really incredibly stupid decisions. Be it primers, bullets, powder or whatever there were some dumb decisions on my part. Since I made decisions like that I couldn't even blame Kathy.

Once I knew I screwed up my thinking was get rid of the excess inventory, be it primers or whatever. That inventory represented money that could be better spent. Now if that meant dumping 50,000 or 100,000 primers at cost then so be it. I could then take that money and reinvest it. Inventory, any inventory that sits on a store shelf day after day and week after week is not doing me any good. Dump it at cost and move on licking your wounds and live to fight again.

That is just my take and my thinking on the subject.

Ron

 

[Sunray]

"...Why wont they just eat the difference..." Would you? Small shops do not get the whole sale price breaks, credit terms, etc., bigger places do. Eating the difference might put 'em out of business.

 

[moxie]

Cheapest I can find primers around here is $36.95/1k plus tax and that's been frozen for over 6 months. Too high for me. Ditto powder.

I'll be heading up to Cabelas in FW or group buying on line rather than pay those prices.

I priced a Bushnell AR scope last month. Best LGS price was $199.95. Amazon wanted $142.95. Dropped last week to $124.95 $75 difference. No way a local shop can provide value added to compensate for that!

Scuba shops went through the same gyrations with the advent of the internet. Many folded when they refused to change their business models and charged outrageous prices. When Leisurepro in NYC will sell a regulator for half what the local store charges, with the same guarantee, something's gotta give.

 

[Potatohead]

I clicked on here to say hopefully ReloadRon would chime in..See above.

 

[Okcafe86]

Reloadron sounds in line with my thinking. I supposed after several years of not selling primers they will bite the bullet and mark them at what the current market is. Btw, before that shortage a few years ago, they were selling at the same price as cabelas. 50$ a box is retarded.

 

[PhilMc]

Just bought 2 boxes of 1k SPP for $23.00 each at a local sporting goods store in the Cleveland Ohio area.

 

[Potatohead]

"...Why wont they just eat the difference..." Would you? Small shops do not get the whole sale price breaks, credit terms, etc., bigger places do. Eating the difference might put 'em out of business.

True dat

 

[moxie]

Well, if they don't move product they paid for and is sitting on their shelves gathering dust they'll go down at some point anyway. Reloadron has the smart approach to the problem.

 

[oneounceload]

IF they bought them at a higher price, then they have to sell them at that higher price so they do not lose money, same thing for gas

 

[GT1]

They can't afford to sit on them at the insanely inflated over market price.
They will lose even more money because when I go there I won't buy them, and I'll likely be soured on buying anything else.

LGS have a tough row to hoe, they have to compete with instant quotes on anything at the click of a button. They snooze they lose.
$50 per k is over double the online price with hazmat fees when you buy 10k.
I guess there are rubes out there somewhere that will pay that price out of sheer ignorance, maybe.

 

[gamestalker]

Like Potatoehead said, some of them bought from higher priced markets, thus wanting to be the only act in town to have components. All was good while they were moving the inventory, but now that things are settling down they're left sitting on expensive inventory. My guess is they will have to eat the losses, or wait until another panic hits the industry.

GS

 

[jmorris]

I have a friend that owned a gas station in a small town, we asked him once on how he set his gas prices.

He said that his prices went up as soon as the gas prices went up (even if his tanks were full of "cheap" gas and they didn't go down until his tanks were empty of "expensive" gas.

Look at the costs of owning a store where you have to pay for all of the overhead, even if you don't have anything to sell for a year...The ends have to meet, unless your email ends with .gov.

That said I don't like to pay more than I have to and am generally pretty bored if I can be found in a LGS or gun show over the last 25 years.

 

[oldreloader]

What puzzles me is my LGS had lots of powder today.. Most of it I can't find on line.. I bought a pound of IMR4350 for $30. High but available.

 

[ljnowell]

I have a friend that owned a gas station in a small town, we asked him once on how he set his gas prices.

He said that his prices went up as soon as the gas prices went up (even if his tanks were full of "cheap" gas and they didn't go down until his tanks were empty of "expensive" gas.

Look at the costs of owning a store where you have to pay for all of the overhead, even if you don't have anything to sell for a year...The ends have to meet, unless your email ends with .gov.

That said I don't like to pay more than I have to and am generally pretty bored if I can be found in a LGS or gun show over the last 25 years.

That's because he has to sell his gas at the price it will cost to replace it, regardless of what he paid to put it there.

Unfortunately done if these local gunshops need to realize that they are going to have to bite it and let the stuff go at a loss.

One guy in my town bought up a bunch near the end of the shortage and refuses to drop the price. He is asking 41.50 for CCI SPP. I will not pay that. He can restock for much cheaper but won't lower the price so no one will buy any. Myself and four other reloaders I know all take turns going to a town 30 miles away and picking up primers for us as a group. I know for a fact that he could have sold just our little group over 100k primers if he would just put the price where it belongs in those thirty or forty thousand he is sitting on. He has literally had the same primers on his shelf for a year.

To let that much business walk away because you don't want to give up the money on those is ridiculous. There are many reloaders in our area. If he would have put them where they should be he would have sold way more than ten times as many primers as he has sitting there, but he "refuses to lose money" as he told me and my buddies. I guess he doesn't realize that not selling the products your customers are buying is losing revenue also.

 

[jim243]

Small shops do not get the whole sale price breaks, credit terms, etc., bigger places do. Eating the difference might put 'em out of business.

Being stupid is just being stupid, it cost a hell of a lot more (advertising, raffles, more advertising) just to get a customer into your store than the extra they will make by over charging. Word of mouth is the best advertising a store owner can have and customers know when they are being raped and these stores will go out of business a lot faster that way than if they eat a couple of dollars on a sale just to keep a customer happy and more customers coming into their store.

Jim

 

[Potatohead]

...The ends have to meet, unless your email ends with .gov.

True dat Jmorris!



Also, we do that with produce (go up as soon as the market does)..it's the only way to make any money in our biz.

 

[FROGO207]

Well if they sit on them long enough then price increases to all the others will eventually cause their product to be priced there as well. Might take 100 years of no primer sales for them to get equal pricing however. Being in business is a hard act if you want to stay competitive AND make a living wage.