I like the point you are making, but 4 mil
per day would suggest maybe a little more availability. But as I have stated in another forum post,
all ammo manufacturers slowed down the production at the end of the year to limit what was in stock at the wharehouse so the tax man couldn't get them for more. That coupled with the election and the tragedy in Newtown, people panicked and bought everything they could find wondering if they would ever see it again which is why there is still limited availability. It will all be OK again soon
.
The bold, italic statement is where you and I disagree. Those are your words, not mine. I didn't put those words in your mouth.
The stuff I said about the workers is because I
know they are working OT making ammo. If the manufacturers slow down and the workers are still there on OT, then what else could they doing? You can't spend much time counting the ammo on bare shelves. That's why I said, tongue in cheek, that they must be playing cards. I never attributed those words to you.
Your statement that "Most manufacturing facilities go through this every year" may indeed be true when no shortages exist or when companies choose to keep inventory in stock so their end users don't see shortages.
THAT ISN'T THE SITUATION RIGHT NOW in firearms related industries.
Your statement
"The manufacturer's don't make money from the retailers - so having the store shelves empty doesn't effect them. They make it and store it and distribute it when they please" is only partially true.. Somebody is buying the product so the manufacturers can make money.
Yup, most manufacturers don't sell directly to retailers, they typically go thru independent distributors (except the really big retailers like Cabelas, Walmart, BP, etc.) But, if the small retailers are buying from the distributors.... then why are their shelves bare?
"Make it and store it when they please" I have no clue what that means. The whole purpose of manufacturing something is to sell it as quickly as possible; storing inventory for any period of time costs money. Inventory should be turned often. That makes the shareholders/owners happiest.
Thanks for the google info on inventory carrying costs. I never learned that stuff in my graduate level accounting classes or from the CPA firm that I paid tens of thousands of dollars to do my company's tax returns.. I'll be sure to pass on the info.
Evidently you were still able to buy ammo in 2012. I checked my records, the last easy to find bulk packs that I bought were back in Novermber 2012. By December it was very hard to find. I guess that "slowdown" really worked, there was no inventory to tax. (Again, that was "tongue in cheek". There was no slowdown.)
The people I knew at Federal have been working mandatory OT for several years, not just a couple of months in 2013. There was no "save money on taxes" slowdown in 2012. Maybe Federal (and their other companies: CCI, Speer, etc) were the only ammo manufacturers who got behind.
You wrote:
"the manufacturing facility I worked for dropped all warehouse inventory to minimum in October and we worked OT from December until the following March or April to build stores back up for the summer and following winter. It depends on the state that the facility is in on whether there is an inventory tax or not."
I don't understand why a company would drop inventory to a minimum in Oct of one year only to work OT a few months later to build it back up for the following summer and winter (doesn't the following Oct come between summer and winter?)
That statement may have been perfectly fine for what ever product and buy cycle that worked for your company's customers during normal supply and demand cycles.
Right now (and for the last 4+ years) things have not been a normal supply demand cycle in the ammo/firearm industry.
Applying what you saw in the industry where you worked AND trying to apply it to another industry by making the statement that
"all ammo manufacturers slowed down the production at the end of the year to limit what was in stock at the wharehouse so the tax man couldn't get them for more" is wrong based on what I've seen and know. That is where I took exception and your explanation doesn't apply accurately.
