"Are LE agencies big money for the companies? I mean, they can't possibly charge what they charge us for the guns and expect to get the contracts so they have to give a significant quantity cut"
Big money in the form of advertisement. People will buy what their police carry. Using the cars as an example - when Chevy came out with the 1991 Chevy Impalas it was a dude. No one was buying it. Chevy took an aggressive marketing approach and was cutting heck of deals to LE, cab companies, and large fleets just to get the 91 out there. Talking to Chevy execs at the time they admitted that going from the boxy Impalas to the whale was too radical of a change for the market. They hoped that by getting the 91 out there in fleets where the public could see it more often then the public would start buying. Changing cars is a bit different tho than changing guns. Body styles change, drive trains change, sizes differ, engines change. So every year a manufacture will change styling or structure a bit which might be OK with the Mom and Pop consumer but which doesn't work for a LE squad.
Same with guns. Find what a large agency near you carries and that make/model will have some sales appeal in the local market. That's why those companies can deeply discount to LE, it's advertisement. You'll see it on this forum and others when talking about guns or ammo. How many times have you read someone post that they carry such and such ammo because "X" PD carries it, or that this or that gun must be good because "Z" agencies issues it. It's all about marketing.
