Cheaper than Dirt gouging again

SigFreud

SigFreud

Refugee from C5C and NCG0
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As folks tried to lecture me in the WTF thread "this is capitalism!"

lol

People who prey on a bad situation blow, capitalism or not, you start double or tripling your prices youre an a-hole. Yep, capitalism, legal blah blah blah, still a jerk move
 
Railsplitter said:
Never thought I'd see $0.90/round 5.56,.... crazy.
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Crazy, yes. What even more crazy is some will buy it. If not, the price will come down.

I don't care if they charge $2 each. At least they didn't cancel orders to relist the item at a higher price (not that I know of). Like the Dicks place.
 
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Are you open to a contrarian viewpoint?
  • Allowing the free market to set the price according to demand will allow more people to have the quantities they need, vs. a few hoarders to have it all.
  • In the case of regional disasters, like a hurricane, if you allow distributors to charge more, they can afford/are incentivized more to put generators, etc., on a truck and ship it across the country to where the need is greatest. If the price is artificially kept low, he'd just leave them where they were.
  • Sometimes the suppliers' costs go up in an emergency; they have to pay workers overtime, they can't shop around for raw materials, they have to accept whatever price the shipping companies want to charge. When there's nothing to sell, it doesn't matter what the price is. I'd rather be given the choice to buy or not vs. being told the price is low but there are none to be bought.
 
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HMP said:
As folks tried to lecture me in the WTF thread "this is capitalism!"

lol

People who prey on a bad situation blow, capitalism or not, you start double or tripling your prices youre an a-hole. Yep, capitalism, legal blah blah blah, still a jerk move
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This!

It’s completely legal and follows basic economic principals. What it doesn’t follow is sound business practices and the desire to preserve your business by not alienating customers. Doing this will anger both existing and prospective customers because they know with 100% certainty that you’re gouging their damn eyes out by 2-3x’ing the price, exploiting a tragedy <—- I thought only dirty libs did that;)

So I’m glad they are able to do it but hate that they are choosing to do so.
 
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CTD have three choices:
1- do nothing and just hope their stock does not run out
2- raise prices to slow down demand (especially from those who are hoarding) and to provide an incentive for more supplies
3- ration ammo
There are disadvantages of each approach. CTD opted to raise prices, this is rationing by price. It provides a disincentive against hoarding while stretching ammo supplies for those who need it (because they didn’t plan). The downside is that it will make many people angry as they find themselves paying more and conclude gouging. The alternative is that CTD may have no ammo to sell unless they raise prices, or they will limit how much consumers can buy.

I am willing to bet that most on CFF won’t pay $0.90 per 5.56 round because we planned.
 
I might be completely wrong but no ammo such as 9mm will also mean less 9mm guns sold. Of course there are people who buy guns not knowing there is no ammo available. Me, I sold off guns to consolidate my ammo calibers. I did this so I could buy more ammo in more common calibers. That may be a good decision or it may be a bad decision as 9mm is no where to be found which is almost all my handguns.
 
There's no way I'll buy any of these twisted arguments that price gouging is somehow ethical. And I'll choose to do business with companies that are there to serve me, not screw me.
 
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I've got a question,.... during a pandemic like now, people like CTD charge 4 times the normal price for ammo, and not a word from govco.

But, do the same thing with plywood during a hurricane and all of a sudden govco screams, "price gouging"......
 
How are they still in business??? Why would the gun owners choose to give their $ to these POS’s when there are many companies that didn’t gouge in ‘12. Even their name is a lie.

In ‘12 when AR’s were unobtanium Mega Arms told me to reach out to Dwayne at https://www.stonefirearms.com/ he had the only receiver set available and sold it for the best price I could have found a year earlier. Because of that I sent folks and a lot more of my $ his way.
FG&G kept their prices the same and their business really took off from loyal customers and word of mouth.
Send you $ and friends to folks that treat you well!
 
First off. If anyone on this board does not already have stock, shame on you.
Second. If they choose to raise prices to take advantage of the situation that is there prerogative. Good for them or shame on them, according to your perspective.
Third. Maybe they are taking advantage of the liberals, and slowing down their buying, who are just now realizing that TP is not going to protect their families if the SHTF!
 
This is the way capitalism ensues that limited supply can last through short hard times.
Some will still over pay. Bust cooler heads keep their powder dry. [emoji16]
This will pass. Process will come back down.
Same thing happens when there is a threat of a new AWB.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
 
SigFreud said:
How about this?

https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/tul...-steel-case-hp-62-grains/FC-814950011197.html

View attachment 197124
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That’s what makes it even worse. They have the nerve to 1) call themselves “cheaper than dirt”, 2) say “our low price”. Last time, they even showed the regular price crossed out and the 3-10x current price in bold as if it were a bargain.

I think they’re extremely confused about what “cheap” and “low” mean with regard to pricing.
 
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Cheaper Than Dirt is not worried about the normal gun owners principles. They market to the less knowledgeable consumer. They are capitalizing on the low round count consumers who didn’t bother to prepare. I have never bought from them because of their marketing tactics and never will even if they are half price.
 
BlackGun said:
Cheaper Than Dirt is not worried about the normal gun owners principles. They market to the less knowledgeable consumer.
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Exactly. I’ve had to inform many friends about CTD and redirect them to some better companies. There will continue to be those who simply don’t know and some who just don’t care about the principals.
 
Also most business base price on replacement cost- how much it cost them to order stock to replace what they just sold. It's not based on what it cost to buy the item, but the cost to replace it with the next item. If they are trying to replace it and their supplier doesn't have any, they are going to charge higher for what they do have to make up for no product to sell.
 
But it's ok to stop the two guys in Tennessee who tried to make money. Seems like CTD are doing the same thing. Both are taking advantage of a situation.

Brothers Matt and Noah Colvin, from Chattanooga, traveled on a 1,300-mile road trip in Tennessee and Kentucky where they cleaned out the shelves of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes and amassed thousands of supplies, the article says. The two then sold the supplies for large profits.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office has ordered the brothers to stop buying and selling medical goods and products following the reports of possible price gouging while an investigation into their actions is underway.
 
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I do think that CTD's target market is the new, uniformed, and infrequent shooter. Folks that don't know any better, and don't know the companies history. Some of them may see the high prices and panic buy, thinking that this is their last chance to get ammo, without even looking at other avenues.

I don't know if they still do it, but I remember when CTD used to send out weekly catalogs. Now and then they'd have good prices, but after 2012, I've seen their true colors.

IMHO, morality and capitalism are two different things. Sometimes the best moral choice isn't the most capitalistic choice. Goes back to something my grandmother told me. "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." Charging $1.00 per round for 5.56 may be the most profitable choice for them at the moment, but they're only further soiling their already poor reputation. They might run out of noob customers one day, and its really going to bite them in the backside when it does.
 
I don't have a problem with it. Nobody is forcing me to buy overpriced ammo. If I don't like the price I move on.

If someone has no ammo at this point then maybe Darwin is working on solving the problem long term...that is a good thing. Too many overly pampered people forcing their distorted ideas about what is fair on other people...often by using the government.
If I found gold in my backyard I am certainly not going to sell it at pre-panic price.
 
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MostWanted said:
Are you open to a contrarian viewpoint?
  • Allowing the free market to set the price according to demand will allow more people to have the quantities they need, vs. a few hoarders to have it all.
  • In the case of regional disasters, like a hurricane, if you allow distributors to charge more, they can afford/are incentivized more to put generators, etc., on a truck and ship it across the country to where the need is greatest. If the price is artificially kept low, he'd just leave them where they were.
  • Sometimes the suppliers' costs go up in an emergency; they have to pay workers overtime, they can't shop around for raw materials, they have to accept whatever price the shipping companies want to charge. When there's nothing to sell, it doesn't matter what the price is. I'd rather be given the choice to buy or not vs. being told the price is low but there are none to be bought.
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Agreed. Its definitely a complicated topic though. I think there's definitely an ethical component to the business though as well. Regulation doesn't HAVE to be bad, the problem is todays reality is is dichotomous and lacks spectrum. Its all or nothing extremes on both sides because things get so politicized. We dont want buying a light bulb to be a life or death gamble, and its not because electronics have safety regulations and standards in place preventing your house from setting on fire 5x a year.

I'm no expert on the related topics of economics, politics or ethics, so dont know the answer. But intuitively, there seems to be a fundamental difference between, say, a retailer setting prices based on fair market value through supply chains and some @$$hole like the guy in TN who goes out and buys 25,000 bottles of hand santizer and in effect is responsible for CREATING the imbalance of supply and demand to directly profit from it. that's about as far as my mind gets unfortunately. Somewhere between normal status quo and Mr. TN Man is an ethical line.

Is regulation needed? dunno, again not the expert. It does appear free market took care of Mr. TN by closing off his portals of entry TO the market. Bravo capitalism. But now theres still 18,000 bottles not in circulation during a time where people need it. Honestly, he probably made back his money already. If I were him, I would donate the rest to hospitals, old folks homes etc.
 
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RedneckFur said:
I do think that CTD's target market is the new, uniformed, and infrequent shooter. Folks that don't know any better, and don't know the companies history. Some of them may see the high prices and panic buy, thinking that this is their last chance to get ammo, without even looking at other avenues.

I don't know if they still do it, but I remember when CTD used to send out weekly catalogs. Now and then they'd have good prices, but after 2012, I've seen their true colors.

IMHO, morality and capitalism are two different things. Sometimes the best moral choice isn't the most capitalistic choice. Goes back to something my grandmother told me. "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." Charging $1.00 per round for 5.56 may be the most profitable choice for them at the moment, but they're only further soiling their already poor reputation. They might run out of noob customers one day, and its really going to bite them in the backside when it does.
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This.

I take no issue with them charging as much as they can for their product. A corporation really doesn't have a moral code. The only true moral goal of a corporation or business is to make as much profit as it can for its shareholders. That's it.

That said, they should take into consideration their future market share as well as their current profit share. The long term health and viability of the company will most likely suffer as a result of their current pricing actions.
 
Chdamn said:
This.

I take no issue with them charging as much as they can for their product. A corporation really doesn't have a moral code. The only true moral goal of a corporation or business is to make as much profit as it can for its shareholders. That's it.

That said, they should take into consideration their future market share as well as their current profit share. The long term health and viability of the company will most likely suffer as a result of their current pricing actions.
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indeed. they lost me last time. I had purchased a few things from them early on, then stopped after 2012. Their shipping (at least at time) sucked anyway. The point being, they incentivized me to look elsewhere instead of ordered from a vendor im already familiar within already have a profile with to make purchasing easier. They are creating opportunity to lose existing complacent customers that realize there are other fish in the sea.
 
So who has 1k rounds of 9mm they’ll sell me for $169 and 1k of 5.56 for $275 right now?
 
It’s not pre 1960’s.... The current state of business in our world sadly is that the stockholders come first, not the customer.
Tarowah said:
So who has 1k rounds of 9mm they’ll sell me for $169 and 1k of 5.56 for $275 right now?
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Midway will at the end of the month.
 
Tarowah said:
So who has 1k rounds of 9mm they’ll sell me for $169 and 1k of 5.56 for $275 right now?
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I could do that and almost double my money...but I think I’ll pass. :p
 
Chdamn said:
This.

I take no issue with them charging as much as they can for their product. A corporation really doesn't have a moral code. The only true moral goal of a corporation or business is to make as much profit as it can for its shareholders. That's it.

That said, they should take into consideration their future market share as well as their current profit share. The long term health and viability of the company will most likely suffer as a result of their current pricing actions.
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Well said. Having run pricing for a large global mfg for products that every single one of us use, I can tell you that upper pricing limit discussions often end up in discussions of “what will the consumer think about this? Will we alienate our core base? They know item xyz can’t cost anywhere near $400, but they’ll still buy it, does that mean it’s OK? Our cost went up 10x, is there any price that a consumer would be OK with and we don’t lose money? Etc etc”.
You may win now but that consumer may also swear off your brand/company because of excessive pricing.

The thing working in CTD’s favor is that consumers can have a short memory.
 
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