Posted on 02/18/2014 7:39:38 AM PST by Nachum
“Good grief! Reading the stuff you write is like listening to Pravda’s candidate, Chris C.”
Perhaps I believe facts trump silly paranoia and frankly I could care less what Chris C. thinks about this issue.
CDNN had bricks of Philippine .22lr a few weeks ago. I bought two at more than $.10 per round just to have some. Good ammo though ...
CTD has shown itself to be opportunistic price gougers on their loyal customers. I have stopped buy ANYTHING from the bastrds.
“So why is there a shortage of ammo? Anyone know this answer?”
Simple. Supply and demand.
Before the shortage, manufacturers made just enough to keep the sales pipelines filled. No point in making significantly more product than your customers will buy, and no point in putting lots of capital into manufacturing equipment, lines, and personnel if you’re not going to make that much.
Then a large percentage of buyers, spooked by political situations, started buying more than usual to stockpile it. A LOT more than usual. Like “I usually buy 200 rounds a month, but looking at what I’ve got I want to buy 10,000 rounds RIGHT NOW. And 1000 per month after that until my wife gets pissed off at me.” And the buying spree kept going for years.
Given something like a 2x to 100x increase in demand overnight, the supply chain got emptied immediately, and any ammo that was manufactured was bought up immediately (like, say, Walmart getting a 3000 rounds of 9mm in at 7AM and the first customer saying “I’ll take it...all of it!” every day). Squeeze having started and continuing, those who really need it in large quantities see the trend, see their plans, and make arrangements to buy vast quantities well before it’s even available.
Manufacturers can’t just increase production by that much that fast. Turn all the manufacturing lines on 24/7, and it’s still not enough to meet all that mundane demand. “Build more!” you’ll say, but that takes a lot of time and a lot of money, and will cost a lot if all the new machines & personnel go idle not long after the demand spike subsides. Ergo, they’re reluctant to do so until assured that it will pay off.
So, yeah, if customers suddenly demand a lot more product than production can produce, and demand continues for a long time, it’s gonna result in a long term shortage until either demand wanes or production increases.
No need for silly conspiracies akin to the Department Of Health solving obesity by buying up all the potato chips.
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