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mr surveyor wrote:mmmmmm.....bacon

K.Mooneyham wrote:Something I haven't seen anyone add on this topic is labor costs. Since the big manufacturers are running three shifts, well, they have to have human beings working on those other shifts...and that means paying more salaries, too. I know a lot of the equipment is automated, but I'm pretty certain there is more to operating an ammunition factory than just a couple of folks pushing buttons. I'm not saying this because I think that labor is a HUGE portion of the price increase, but that it is a multi-layered problem.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

TexasLookout wrote:But using arms holders like myself to make cause for their use of Price Gouging is not warranted.

Not warranted? Why? Because you're somehow more holy than the next guy? Who else are ammunition manufacturers/sellers going to price gouge......people who don't hold arms (and therefore don't need ammunition)? I'm guessing that you don't own your own business.

I understand your outrage, but we either accept the capitalist economic model, or we don't. If we do, then we are free as buyers to exercise our power of the purchase by NOT buying their ammo until the price comes down. If they don't sell it for long enough, they will lower their prices. The problem isn't just the sellers. It is also the buyers who are willing to pay the inflated prices. They pay it, so people charge it. It's that simple. Where is your outrage against people who willingly pay the higher prices, thereby supporting a higher priced market? That is the beauty of capitalism that a lot of people forget—that it is always a two way transaction. If people think the price is unreasonable, they have the power to not buy.

Of course, the problem is that they refuse to exercise this power, and the sellers of course maximize their profit. You could protest, if you want, by A) only buying from sellers who do not mark their prices up.......or B) you could wait to buy from only those sellers who did not mark their prices up and sold out early, when they have inventory back in stock.......but there ARE NO (A) or (B) sellers. The thing is, I went to normally reliable and affordable AmmunitionToGo.com and bought 500 rounds of 5.56 Lake City XM855 62gr. FMJ Penetrator Ammo for $204.95 (41¢/round) on October 20. Two months later, on December 18, I bought 500 rounds of Magtech 55 grain FMJ from for $224.95 (45¢/round) and gave it to my son for Christmas...........a more than 10% increase in price for a product that was inferior to the previous order. A year before, I bought 1,000 rounds of Lake City XM855 from Cheaper than Dirt for $384 (38.4¢/round), and they are not exactly the cheapest game in town, and never were the cheapest. EVERYBODY has raised their prices. I anticipated that, and I still have some of that 1,000 round purchase on hand. I also still have the two green cans of 420 rounds each of Federal XM855 I bought from Cabelas for $178.95/can (42.6¢/round) a little less than a year ago.

38.4¢/round for 1,000 rounds over 12 months ago
42.6¢/round for 840 rounds less than 12 months ago
41.0¢/round for 500 rounds 4 months ago
45.0¢/round for 500 rounds 2 months ago (for an inferior product)

The prices have clearly been going up for a while now. Others should have exercised the same foresight. Everything else has gone up in the past year too. Have you compared the price of a gallon of milk today to last year's price? My grocery bill is outrageous, and it's just me and my wife. But people happen to notice ammo and not food, because food is still on the shelves, and ammo is not. Believe me, if food were as scarce as ammo, it would be doubled in price too.