Far fewer "basement bandits" than you would imagine. Most were driven out during the "kitchen table dealers" purge under Obama. Mostly it's internet sales now. A major southeast distributer sells AR kits for under 300 bucks, completed rifles for 400. Then customers come in and scream that 30 bucks is "gouging" on a transfer. I saw Beretta APX compacts advertised for 369, with a 100 dollar rebate on top of that. A dealer without massive buying capability simply can't compete.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward: A dealer without massive buying capability simply can't compete.

ergo, gun manufacturers and the industry need to evolve their business.

Anybody in sales knows that the big box national stores are what moves the needle, full stop. Not only do they carry a big pen, their formats allow brands to best promote their presence and assortment. The local LGS, also needs to manage their business better, learn to forecast, ask themselves why are they open and who are their customers, can that customer support their business. Start segmenting their business where high-margin items can command a large chunk of their business and they're not entirely reliant on firearm sales.

The lawsuit against Wellspring, the owners of Ellot, is quite interesting.

"[Ellet Brothers] (and United Sporting and SportCo (together, the “Guarantors”), each of which guaranteed [Ellet Brother’s] obligations under the loans) have failed to retain sufficient property to pay the indebtedness owed to [the Plaintiff].

Indeed, despite Ellett’s insolvency and financial struggles, neither Wellspring IV nor the other shareholders that received the Fraudulent Conveyances have made any capital contributions to the company to support the business. Instead, as described more fully below, Wellspring Capital and the D&O Defendants grossly and recklessly mismanaged the business and carried out their respective roles in a manner that was devoid of reasonable inquiry and diligence in dereliction of their fiduciary duties to [the Plaintiff] as a creditor of the increasingly insolvent enterprise.”

Details: Lawsuit

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Originally posted by apf383:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
Poor planning on their part. What the heck where they doing during the Obummer gravy train years?

Loving life selling everything at a good markup, I'm sure.

I have ZERO POINT ZERO % sympathy for them.

They bet and lost.

Ditto.

Some short memories, round these parts.

Panic at the Gunstore is still a sticky, and I'm sure all of you were around when Sandy Hook happened. I was in Afghanistan at the time, faced with trying to set up a power of attorney so I could have my dad put my entire gun collection in the NFA registry at $200/pop - provided I could find a lawyer to do that, and it was all legal, if the proposed AWB that hit Congress afterwards passed.

I redeployed several months later to $2K AR15s and 9mm ammo at $0.50 a round - if you could find it. And I was on this forum for the duration. SIGForum had a lot of coverage of the Panic of 2012. There were a lot of posts and a lot of news stories of stores with empty shelves, and a few others, selling upmarked Anything Evil And Black like hotcakes. The general consensus - backed by the forum membership - was one of smart businesses who had planned ahead. An interview posted here, with a shop owner saying "this has been coming for a long time...anyone could see the writing on the wall" as way of explanation for their deep inventory, got a lot of positive feedback here. There was another minor panic around the elections in 2014, which was also commented on in this very forum. If we back up a bit, there was another panic in 2008, when Obama was first elected, and another, smaller, panic in 2010, all dwarfed by 2012.

Fast forward to 2016. I didn't quite do backflips when Clinton lost - it was, after all, very late, and I've got back problems - but that last pour of whiskey rocks went down with a lot of satisfaction. It's really hard to blame retailers for "backing the wrong horse" when every single news outlet (including, for a long damn while, Fox News) told the entire country that Trump didn't have a chance in hell, and we all know the Clinton stance on our right to keep and bear arms. Had that election gone the other way, all of the outlets whose surplus inventory has driven the market to bedrock over the past two years would have been lauded here as sensibly prepared, and we'd be thankful for the opportunity to make a few final bucketlist purchases while we still could before the few ARs left were being sold by scalpersy like Cheaper Than Dirt for $2K a pop.

Leveraging yourself past the breaking point expecting the worst isn't exactly a great business strategy, but could we not dance on the graves of failed businesses on the grounds that they were ideologically impure for expecting the worst? All but one election cycle for a decade prior brought panic buying, and according to damn near every source out there (including, as none other than Parabellum have chastised repeatedly, plenty of this very forum's membership), Hillary Goddamned Clinton was going to win that one.

That plan didn't work out for this distributor, but I can't really say I fault them for it. I'm sure as hell not going to laugh at them for it. And anybody who bought an extra case of ammo or some more magazines or an extra Evil Black Rifle or two before the 2016 election should probably reflect on their choices before they pile on. I know damned well I did, and I know damned well where my loyalties were that November.

Yeah...about that. The "we bet and lost" excuse is probably not accurate. That is basically what happened to Acusport (what little is left owned by USC). With USC (owns Ellett, Jerry's, etc.) word is that it's something else = mostly fraud. People may very well end up facing criminal charges in this one.

It's sad to see. Both Acu and USC go back a long ways and had plenty of good smart people there. I knew people at both. The fall of Acu was just a monumentally bad business decision by the newer generation of management (Hillary will win so let's really extend ourselves on evil black guns!!!). USC appears to look a lot more like criminal charges may come out of it. I don't think many that actually know them believe them on their claim of why this is happening. And for those that have been close to them this isn't really news. The filing of bankruptcy is more like just making official what people have been thinking for quite awhile.

If we're talking fraud and assclownery, a pox (and a prison sentence) on all their houses, and I'll join you in cheering for the gallows.

I don't have much sympathy for Remington, for the same reasons. They weren't hurt so much by Trump winning the election as they were by their own shit quality control, marketing, and product management. The name can only carry you for so long before someone calls you on it. Same with Colt, and their utter neglect of, if not disdain for, the civilian market before FN finally dethroned them from the M4 contract and they had to make money off of the great unwashed.

On the other hand, if we're all about the schadenfreude for a firearms distributor who over-stocked before November 2016 and lost their ass, we should probably think back to how things looked and felt in 2013 and do some self-reflection.

quote:

Leveraging yourself past the breaking point expecting the worst isn't exactly a great business strategy, but could we not dance on the graves of failed businesses on the grounds that they were ideologically impure for expecting the worst?

It’s not so much to me that some part of the gun industry was idealogically impure and expected the worst, it’s that some part of the gun industry wanted Hillary to win to continue driving panic sales and was mad at Trump winning for the dip in sales. I had one of the main dudes at a large gun shop that does online business that gets mentioned here tell me as much to my face. Hoping for the best while preparing for the worst is one thing. Hoping for the worst for all of us so that you can see an uptick in short term sales puts you squarely in my “fuck you, I’m dancing on your grave” list.

That said, I no longer buy surplus arms and ammo from a certain shop in Tacoma.