If I want a pack of white t-shirts, I can go to any Walmart--any store that sells clothing, for that matter--and pick up a package of them. At any given time, they're just sitting there on the shelf, waiting for me to buy them. In other words, they're available. Hanes, in some crazy scheme to turn a profit, decided long ago to--and I know it's wacky, so hear me out--actually produce their product and put it out for consumers to buy. And the idea was just crazy enough that it worked.

Let me put this into perspective for you. I could fart the Battle Hymn of the Republic faster than the time it takes DD to make a RIS II rail. Colt, people want your SOCOM uppers. Why do you produce so few? How much time do you have to spend to intentionally find new ways to fail? Because it has to be intentional. It defies all probability that you could make so many obviously wrong decisions in a row--decisions that cost you money, in an arena where the goal seems to be, you guessed it, making money. Don't you want to make more money? And even when you manage to allow yourself a small victory (looking at you, complete Colt pistol-legal lowers from Brownells), you still somehow, against all odds, manage to shit it up. Someone in some office at Colt gets paid by the fuck up. And damnit, Christmas is gonna be nice this year.

And why oh why isn't every manufacturer offering a pistol lower? Are you actively trying to obstruct freedom? AR pistols are the most significant thing to happen to the firearms industry since the AWB ban sunset. And a ton of companies still haven't embraced the bandwagon. How about y'all join the team and come on in for the big win?

And before anyone says, "Well they somehow seem to be doing pretty well without your brilliant insight," I'll have you know I learned to tug it without an instructional manual, which just goes to show that sometimes you manage to succeed in spite of your own ignorance.

Don't think you can slink out of the room, either, Okay mags. Why are so many vendors out of stock on your basic 30 rounders? You should be shipping so many they're building houses out of them in the parking lot of the warehouse for hobos to live in. ESPECIALLY in times when all the talking heads are rambling about banning "high capacity" magazines. You should be pushing these out and flooding the streets with them.

And HK. Oh, my darling HK. After all these years, you still don't get it. You could have manufactured a US-made MP5 with a 16" barrel and wrote checks to yourself for numbers that don't even exist yet. A years' worth of sales in America would have made your military contracts for the last decade look like seat cushion change. But you didn't. You clutched those fart-soaked nickels to your chest and smiled proudly at your decision not to pick up dollar bills. I'm not going to pretend to understand it. I just hope you wear your helmet when you leave the house.

Long story short, manufacturers, you need to be producing more shit and making this shit available to vendors. Vendors, you need to be stocking said shit and making it available to us consumers. We want to give you money. Help us do that. /end rant

Not much of a response other than to say I thoroughly enjoyed your rant.

Inventory costs money....

Initial investment of having surplus. Taxes on inventory. The cost to house inventory etc..

Most businesses realized that and converted from having things in stock to ordering it in. The customers accepted the delay(s). The manufacturers learned the same.

The laws of supply and demand continue, but you already knew this.

Well-constructed and delivered rant.

Also, I can't disagree. I'm a knuckle-dragger with a mediocre academic history, and even I can figure out that if flooding the market decreases your profit by 10% per widget, selling twice as many widgets still makes you rich.

I changed my thinking about thirty years or more,colt was the first one to piss me off,we civies took back seat as they sucked up to gov contracts.
To us single buyers the dropped the quality and took away the beauty we all loved.
Anyway I ordered yesterday another psa pistol lower.
Have several of their other examples and have not managed to ware one out yet.
Should be delivered to my ffl this week.
The price was a hell of a lot less than 20 years back.

Not saying you're wrong but a few things come to mind.
- Pistol lowers. I think the gun manufacturers are a little hesitant still waiting to see what happens. Bump stocks are gone. The manufacturer had to get rid of all his and have them destroyed. Last I heard, he was filing suit for lost revenue. He still lost all of his inventory with no money made.

- HK. Their product(s) are solid. Could they have sold a gazillion MP5 civilian versions? Absolutely. Then they'd have to deal with civilians. I'm sure everyone knows HK's motto.

- Production. A lot of companies went to the Lean Manufacturing process. Did the gun manufacturers too? I'm not sure but if they did, could be an explanation.
Pull don't push. JIT(Just In Time) and other Kaizen principles.

- Supply and demand. As noted, this may be the #1 factor. Simple economics. Demand high, supply low = sellers market.

Prices have gone up a little bit there’s still pistol lowers and full gun pistols everywhere for sale. Looks like Palmetto is really cranking them out.

That was a good rant.

Aren’t HK and Colt threatening to be insolvent? If they are scared of the fickleness of the US consumer, how do they feel about government contracts that they develop for and never happen? Both of them would rather chase the abusive contract model than fill markets that have spawned whole companies to fill holes that they leave.

We went to the store to buy a couch. They said it will be delivered in 6-8 weeks. They said after the last bubble burst around 2008 they had football field sized warehouses with unsold furniture and took a massive hit. Now they basically make them when they sell.

I think the gun market is pretty similar. There are too many flavor and color options anymore. I want this lower receiver but I want it with this specialty coating or this logo. I want the key mod rail not the picatinny rail. I want a left hand configuration kanoodeler.

Interesting perspective. I worked in the firearms industry back during the Obama administration.
Talk about having very little inventory to sell at the retail end of the business, every time I called my suppliers the first thing I said was do not laugh but do you have this in stock. They laughed. The store managed to survive. Eventually thing got better.

Right now if you want a stainless steel Rolex sport model it is pretty much the same thing.

quote:

Originally posted by ffips:
Inventory costs money....

Initial investment of having surplus. Taxes on inventory. The cost to house inventory etc..

Most businesses realized that and converted from having things in stock to ordering it in. The customers accepted the delay(s). The manufacturers learned the same.

The laws of supply and demand continue, but you already knew this.

this,

and also accountants/line or supply managers,

the Colt Socom,, likely parts supplied by a subcontractor, who was contracted to build x many pieces, and then that builder or manufacturer gets a contract from someone else etc etc,

and the accountants/management is high five'ng everyone cause the sold out and did not have to sell the excess to CDNN for a quarter of the price,,,

Industry with worse business sense? Doctors.

Good rant! One thing you failed to consider in your rant though, was CHINA! When you look around Walmart for instance, they have all kinds of stuff and the stuff they seem to have the most of, is shit made in China. China made shit is relatively cheap.

You mentioned the Firearms Industry, firearms stuff ain't cheap, and the demand for firearms stuff is going to be limited to those who can afford it and have a need for it. In other words, demand is still going to be low when you compare it to the amount of China made stuff that is imported and sold. Stores, even those that specifically deal in firearms, are only going to stock what they can sell.

Is there a market with customers more fickle?

First thing I thought of after reading the OP's first paragraph was HK. The rest of Monk's post did not disappoint.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
Is there a market with customers more fickle?

And who are notorious cheapskates - deal seekers?

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
Is there a market with customers more fickle?

I’d have to think a bit to decide if “fickle” is the word I’d use, but I believe it must be incredibly difficult for manufacturers to know what gun buyers actually want. Remember the “double stack” P220 that people clamored for for years? How many handguns chambered for 45 ACP are even being sold these days, much less with the moribund double action/single action trigger?

How about the 10mm P220? (Although I admit SIG might have sold a few more if someone there had not decided that the only purpose anyone would purchase the gun would be for bull’s-eye shooting or something similar.)

I don’t really follow the new gun market very closely, but I’m sure there must be countless other examples of what people claim to want and then don’t buy.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sigfreund,

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Industry with worse business sense? Doctors.

Both industries, doctors and gun manufacturers, have a lot of constantly changing government control, and fickle customers!

I think this explains a lot.

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:
- Production. A lot of companies went to the Lean Manufacturing process. Did the gun manufacturers too? I'm not sure but if they did, could be an explanation.
Pull don't push. JIT(Just In Time) and other Kaizen principles.

"You clutched those fart-soaked nickels to your chest and smiled proudly at your decision not to pick up dollar bills." - Monk

That right there is sheer poetry.