Don't know if someone suggested this previously but from my manufactuering background, I'd suggest that ammo makers are running at capacity and adding shifts, etc. to boost capacityto take advantage of this market opportunity.
The customers (us
) started a surge in demand because of anticipation/fear due to the elections. The demand was ahead of any surge in production so it produced empty shelves. This pushed other buyers (more of us
) to start thinking we should buy to and it created an upward spiral in demand that mfg's haven't been able to catch up to.
During a time like this, (a seller's market) sellers will divert inventory (to the degree they're able) to higher margin business. So if you can't meet customer demand (the retail guys) you choose who to supply as inventory becomes available.
It's a game of sorts but you don't want to make a good customer (Walmart; good customer for base business to the ammo guy even if the margin's stink) mad.
So I suspect it's simply demand outstripping supply throughout the use which is why the replenishment cycle (days between delieveries) is more than normal at wally world.
I work in a manufactuering environment that sells packagin to customer's who package their product with our packaging and put it on the shelves of Walmart. I know for a fact (from my customers) that if that product doesn't sell Walmart is NOT stuck with it. In fact, Walmart doesn't even get invoiced for these products until some point AFTER they sell the inventory. they have the best payment terms in the world.
No ammo might be different than diapers, frozen food, pet food, potting soil etc. and there may be laws that require them to take title of that inventory right away. So I don't know for sure, however, I think this is just a big sucking sound caused by demand.
Persoally I don't think Obama will go after manufactuer's as much as he'll attempt to limit individual rights to own under the guise of "reasonable gun control".
My .02 and I'm not sure it's worth even that....
