SLT223 says it very well IMHO.

Primers and .22 seem to get drained fastest and most severely in these situations. I read someplace recently it is because the manufacturing processes for these particular products (the primer part) are the most difficult to adjust volumes on. (Labor expertise and training, processes, etc.)

Capitalism is EXCEEDINGLY effective at creating efficient businesses. A major component of that product delivery system is optimizing around the average demand. As soon as that demand volume changes the whole system gets disrupted. What was pre-demand-surge an efficient delivery of product (cost vs price vs profit) has now gone totaly out of whack.

If I were in one of these shortage-susceptible businesses and knew the increased demand was long term I'd invest in increased capacity in a heartbeat. But since we've shown over and over that things will calm down after our individual storage locations will tip from the weight of everything we've accumulated and we stop buying, these manufacturers will be faced with the opposite situation: Full supply chains and shelves....and product not moving.

I've been in businesses where demand has temporarily exceeded product supply. It is an extremely unpleasant situation as a supplier - distributors/customers calling incessantly asking for special favors, etc. While I don't know for sure, I'm pretty sure these vendors would MUCH rather have business be now as it usually is.....as would we. Certainly a good chunk of the current drought can be attributed to new gun purchasers needing ammo for their new guns. But certainly existing gun owners are contributing to the ammo drought. And there CERTAINLY aren't enough new reloaders to have that be the cause of primers being impossible to find.