wristtwister
Member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2008
- Messages
- 419
To read the advertising, you'd think you could run right out to your local gun shop and pick up almost anything on a moment's notice, but working in a gun shop will teach you differently. I've been reading and hearing about the LC-9's, the Kel-Tec PM-30 (maybe PMR-30), the Remington R-1 1911... with increasing regularity... the only problem is that our distributors aren't getting any of the guns. I've hammered several of them with emails and phone calls, but just keep getting the runaround regarding shipping dates, etc. They tell me that the guns are "readily available", but their company reps don't seem to be able to get them to the distributors, and the distributors don't seem to have the "ample supply" the companies keep referring to in our conversations.
Since we run our store on a cash basis and pay for orders when they're placed, it makes me wonder why all the "new stuff" stays on backorder for months at a time. We've had SR-9C's on backorder for at least 3 months, along with a tub full of other guns that are also supposed to be "readily available"... problem is that none of the distributors have any on their inventories, because we log in and read their inventory list... so, where are the guns?
Personally, I think the advertising departments of the gun manufacturers are six months to a year ahead of the manufacturing plants, and have everybody jacked up to buy the hottest new guns shown at the shot show, and are just sitting on the demand to raise prices. One of our distributors told us that Ruger was shutting down the LCP line and retooling to produce the LC-9, so I can only guess that this will cause a short supply of both... hence a price rise for both guns because of short supplies.
We've already been told that there is an ammunition price increase of up to 25% coming because of rising raw materials costs and the worth of the dollar dropping, so it seems to me that everybody is just sitting on their supplies to wait for the prices to surge. Luckily, I've stocked up on ammo and reloading supplies, so I'm good for a long while, but it sucks to keep telling customers about guns that should be in the cases and don't show up. The "price increase" won't nearly make up for the volume of guns I could sell if they would just deliver on their promises with these new models.
Like any other business, our customers want us to talk to them from experience with these new guns... and it's hard to gain any experience with them when even the distributors can't get their hands on them. We have a rising customer base of pi$$ed off customers who ARE the gun market, and with the economy in the shape it's in, it's the one industry that's got solid retail sales right now. While it might be good business to drum up a demand for a product, the "cry wolf" syndrome being used in the gun market is starting to cause long time customers in our shop to lose faith that the companies mean anything they're saying about their "new guns". We'll believe them when we see the guns.
WT
Since we run our store on a cash basis and pay for orders when they're placed, it makes me wonder why all the "new stuff" stays on backorder for months at a time. We've had SR-9C's on backorder for at least 3 months, along with a tub full of other guns that are also supposed to be "readily available"... problem is that none of the distributors have any on their inventories, because we log in and read their inventory list... so, where are the guns?
Personally, I think the advertising departments of the gun manufacturers are six months to a year ahead of the manufacturing plants, and have everybody jacked up to buy the hottest new guns shown at the shot show, and are just sitting on the demand to raise prices. One of our distributors told us that Ruger was shutting down the LCP line and retooling to produce the LC-9, so I can only guess that this will cause a short supply of both... hence a price rise for both guns because of short supplies.
We've already been told that there is an ammunition price increase of up to 25% coming because of rising raw materials costs and the worth of the dollar dropping, so it seems to me that everybody is just sitting on their supplies to wait for the prices to surge. Luckily, I've stocked up on ammo and reloading supplies, so I'm good for a long while, but it sucks to keep telling customers about guns that should be in the cases and don't show up. The "price increase" won't nearly make up for the volume of guns I could sell if they would just deliver on their promises with these new models.
Like any other business, our customers want us to talk to them from experience with these new guns... and it's hard to gain any experience with them when even the distributors can't get their hands on them. We have a rising customer base of pi$$ed off customers who ARE the gun market, and with the economy in the shape it's in, it's the one industry that's got solid retail sales right now. While it might be good business to drum up a demand for a product, the "cry wolf" syndrome being used in the gun market is starting to cause long time customers in our shop to lose faith that the companies mean anything they're saying about their "new guns". We'll believe them when we see the guns.
WT
