Cabela's

My wife and I stopped in Berlin today.
They have PMC .380 Auto on sale for $15.29 a box. I bought 10 boxes, and applied a $20 coupon from a past receipt survey, so end result near $0.26 a round.
That is OK considering .380 is $0.36 a round at Walmart.
But still I do not see how manufactures justify these prices, even with limited production, compared to 9mm.
 
Stopped by Cabela's in Berlin this evening determined to come home with a Browning BT-99. Plans were thwarted by a Cabela's employee equally determined not to sell me one.
 
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The fact that you paid it means any lower price would have just let money on the table, so it was an appropriate price - at least for your transaction.


That refers to the distributor and retail price not the mfg price which may or may not have been passed downstream.

Anyways, I've found plenty of .22 available for $0.05-0.06 per round, just not at Cabela's.

Walmart will eventually need to adjust its prices once it identifies the glut on the shelves as competitors pricing drops. They regularly shop competitors exactly for situations like this but since Dicks and BPS, etc. still have stupid prices...
 
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The fact that you paid it means any lower price would have just let money on the table, so it was an appropriate price - at least for your transaction.

I understand the idea of pricing for what the market will bear -- mine was a more a rhetorical lament of the situation rather than a question.
You are absolutely correct Rob, keeping in mind however that I purchased at a 15% discount to the everyday retail price.

Now one portion of the 15% was from a sale price, which may or may not have been a passed down manufacturer's incentive, or simply a lessening of the retailer's markup.
The other portion of my discount was a coupon from doing a survey for a prior purchase -- do not know whether that is a loss-leader or Cabela's thinks there is room in their general markup for that discount.

Fact is it requires that kind of deal to bring me to market as the last time I purchased .380 Auto was at a similar price-point when they had 200 round boxes of Sig FMJ for $60 and again I had a coupon.
Of course I am dealing from a position of comfort as I am sitting on 3 cases worth of .380 that I keep as a reserve, all of which incidentally was purchased piecemeal in the same sale/coupon manner.

My wife and I were having a discussion on the way home yesterday how this sort of hunt-and-peck for sales piecemeal purchase method has become almost a hobby in its self, but we have stockpiled a considerable amount of ammo and at a greater discount then if we would have bought in bulk.
 
That refers to the distributor and retail price not the mfg price which may or may not have been passed downstream.

Anyways, I've found plenty of .22 available for $0.05-0.06 per round, just not at Cabela's.

Walmart will eventually need to adjust its prices once it identifies the glut on the shelves as competitors pricing drops. They regularly shop competitors exactly for situations like this but since Dicks and BPS, etc. still have stupid prices...


Alternatively, they could stop selling ammo and use the space for goods which have a higher turnover.
 
They COULD but if their research says buyers of ammo attach other items (like accessories that tend to be high margin) to their purchase at a high rate then it makes sense to sell the ammo.
 
That refers to the distributor and retail price not the mfg price which may or may not have been passed downstream.

Anyways, I've found plenty of .22 available for $0.05-0.06 per round, just not at Cabela's.

Walmart will eventually need to adjust its prices once it identifies the glut on the shelves as competitors pricing drops. They regularly shop competitors exactly for situations like this but since Dicks and BPS, etc. still have stupid prices...

Fortunately
Walmart doesn't seem to do that because we would have been ****ed the last half of 2016
 
The fact that you paid it means any lower price would have just let money on the table, so it was an appropriate price - at least for your transaction.

With .380 the answer is simple- price insensitivity, and almost never an oversupply of ammo. The guys buying .380 don't buy a shitload of it at once. They buy a few boxes here and there to practice with.

Walmart "leaves money on the table" all the time with ammo, particularly during scares, but I actually think they have us figured out. They make money on ammunition, but I think the only real reason they sell it at all, is look at the number of people it brings into the store. There are a shitload of us right here on NES that would literally -never- set foot inside a walmart if it wasn't for the fact that they sell ammunition. It's an "attractive nuisance" that they offer that other stores like Target, etc, don't have. Someone in WM management knows this. It also explains why when they started pulling guns out of stores they still left ammunition in a lot of them.

ETA: I also think in the gun business ammo prices act as a "shit test" that a lot of consumers do when they go
into a gun shop. The further into rape territory the ammo prices are, the more likely the consumer is to skip the shop and buy it somewhere else. Just a theory of mine which might be invalid, but its difficult to measure/test it.

-Mike
 
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They COULD but if their research says buyers of ammo attach other items (like accessories that tend to be high margin) to their purchase at a high rate then it makes sense to sell the ammo.

Exactly. They want to sell you a gun cleaning kit or something that has a 100% markup on it but the
consumer still buys anyways. They might have made 2 bucks on the few boxes of ammo you bought but they
made 8 or 10 bucks on that fancy cleaning kit.

If Cabelas dumped ammo an entire class of people won't set foot in the store. Not to mention that move would be perceived as political, evenif it it's just about business.

-Mike
 
I understand the idea of pricing for what the market will bear -- mine was a more a rhetorical lament of the situation rather than a question.
You are absolutely correct Rob, keeping in mind however that I purchased at a 15% discount to the everyday retail price.

Now one portion of the 15% was from a sale price, which may or may not have been a passed down manufacturer's incentive, or simply a lessening of the retailer's markup.
The other portion of my discount was a coupon from doing a survey for a prior purchase -- do not know whether that is a loss-leader or Cabela's thinks there is room in their general markup for that discount.

Fact is it requires that kind of deal to bring me to market as the last time I purchased .380 Auto was at a similar price-point when they had 200 round boxes of Sig FMJ for $60 and again I had a coupon.
Of course I am dealing from a position of comfort as I am sitting on 3 cases worth of .380 that I keep as a reserve, all of which incidentally was purchased piecemeal in the same sale/coupon manner.

My wife and I were having a discussion on the way home yesterday how this sort of hunt-and-peck for sales piecemeal purchase method has become almost a hobby in its self, but we have stockpiled a considerable amount of ammo and at a greater discount then if we would have bought in bulk.

The difference is in most of america nobody buys .380 like this, we're biased because we're enthusiasts. We like cases of ammo in EVERYTHING and EVERY caliber. MOAR!

The average .380 buyer (aka joe neckbeard redneck III with his lorcin) buys a few boxes out of necessity and then doesn't care beyond that. Hell in some gun shops a manager will tell you things like "Well, until the new .380s came out, we could buy a case or two of .380 a year and that was enough." It's just not a high volume cartridge. So less of it is produced. So the price sucks more because there's never an excess of supply.

It's kinda like the cigar industry where certain vitolas cost more (like torpedo-end cigars) literally "because they can charge more". This isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes the overpriced stuff actually will help subsidize the stuff that is more discounted.

-Mike
 
Exactly. They want to sell you a gun cleaning kit or something that has a 100% markup on it but the
consumer still buys anyways. They might have made 2 bucks on the few boxes of ammo you bought but they
made 8 or 10 bucks on that fancy cleaning kit.

If Cabelas dumped ammo an entire class of people won't set foot in the store. Not to mention that move would be perceived as political, evenif it it's just about business.

-Mike


And those people buy boots, camp everything, candy, tshirts, etc. For Cabela's the ammo isn't even a loss leader and yet it is still a huge draw for the store.
 
That refers to the distributor and retail price not the mfg price which may or may not have been passed downstream.

Anyways, I've found plenty of .22 available for $0.05-0.06 per round, just not at Cabela's.

Walmart will eventually need to adjust its prices once it identifies the glut on the shelves as competitors pricing drops. They regularly shop competitors exactly for situations like this but since Dicks and BPS, etc. still have stupid prices...

If what someone else posted here is correct (there was a rumination that walmart essentially consigns ammunition and gets a cut of the profit from the manufacturer) walmart doesn't adjust the prices at all. Which explains why they're so stable; and why prices will bump only modestly during scares (because the increase reflects an ACTUAL increase in production cost, like paying for extra labor) and then will actually snap back somewhat afterwards. The manufacturers (and/or wal mart) are simply not interested in playing the deceptive, ****y **** gouging games that mid level distributors and (some) gun shops like engaging in every time there's a supply problem in the market. That doesn't go unnoticed by the consumer. (or at least some of us have figured this out).

-Mike
 
And those people buy boots, camp everything, candy, tshirts, etc. For Cabela's the ammo isn't even a loss leader and yet it is still a huge draw for the store.

FWIW I don't think anyone, not even Walmart, sells ammunition at a loss. Walmart does OK with not raping because they're one of the few who basically entirely cut out the middleman. There's no rapey mid level distributor in walmarts supply chain. At each one of the big manufacturers, there's at least a dock dedicated to walmart trucks.

-Mike
 
If what someone else posted here is correct (there was a rumination that walmart essentially consigns ammunition and gets a cut of the profit from the manufacturer) walmart doesn't adjust the prices at all. Which explains why they're so stable; and why prices will bump only modestly during scares (because the increase reflects an ACTUAL increase in production cost, like paying for extra labor) and then will actually snap back somewhat afterwards. The manufacturers (and/or wal mart) are simply not interested in playing the deceptive, ****y **** gouging games that mid level distributors and (some) gun shops like engaging in every time there's a supply problem in the market. That doesn't go unnoticed by the consumer. (or at least some of us have figured this out).

-Mike


I would consider that a possibility except for the little problem with some of the ammo Walmart bought at the end of the hype at stupid prices. This ended up being discounted below cost simply bc some idiot supply clerk paid too much for it. Now whether that was a Walmart corporate supply clerk, a distributor, or an ammo company clerk ... well idk.
 
I would consider that a possibility except for the little problem with some of the ammo Walmart bought at the end of the hype at stupid prices. This ended up being discounted below cost simply bc some idiot supply clerk paid too much for it. Now whether that was a Walmart corporate supply clerk, a distributor, or an ammo company clerk ... well idk.

I agree that happened a few times, but with the sheer amount of ammo that walmart sold during the scares, those losses probably amount to something resembling a dude farting outside during a hurricane. [laugh]

-Mike
 
I have it on good authority that WM required a minimum % profit margin (think double digits) to carry ammo. So they weren't losing money selling ammo to us.
 
Stopped by Cabela's in Berlin this evening determined to come home with a Browning BT-99. Plans were thwarted by a Cabela's employee equally determined not to sell me one.

Same store --last week, the employees must be anti 2A or something. I filled out my 4473 and accidentally checked one of the boxes wrong. "Denied" flashed up on the screen. They made a big fuss and called over the manager and stated, no , sorry we can't sell you the gun based on your answers. I'm getting pissed, (but still trying to keep calm) and explained I screwed up and asked to fill out the form again. The manager and staff seemed to be gloating and enjoying denying me my gun and stated I needed to go to my local police and have them write a letter stating I am not a criminal, before they would sell me the gun. I say OK and I leave the store, very pissed, of course.

I went down to the local PD, they couldn't believe how asinine Cabela's was being. The nice lady at the desk stated she has been working there 37 years and had never heard of anything as ridiculous as this. The nice lady at the desk ran my CORI, wrote a letter, and had the COP sign off on it.

While I was at the police station, a gentleman had just picked up his LTC, and had overheard my conversation and asked "What should I know about buying guns at Cabela's", I turned around and said "DON'T" --we both had a chuckle and I suggested Four Seasons in Woburn and gave him the web address (I would have gone to FS myself but I called and they did not have what I wanted in stock).

The whole atmosphere at Cabella's was negative with many posters warning you not to make straw purchases with pictures of jail cells and people in handcuffs. I went back and gave the manager my "hall pass" and eventually left the store with my gun. Can I have that 4 hours of my life back, please ?
 
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I have it on good authority that WM required a minimum % profit margin (think double digits) to carry ammo. So they weren't losing money selling ammo to us.

That would be easily attainable for them, too, given they cut out the distributors.

-Mike
 
Same store --last week, the employees must be anti 2A or something. I filled out my 4473 and accidentally checked one of the boxes wrong. "Denied" flashed up on the screen. They made a big fuss and called over the manager and stated, no , sorry we can't sell you the gun based on your answers. I'm getting pissed, (but still trying to keep calm) and explained I screwed up and asked to fill out the form again. The manager and staff seemed to be gloating and enjoying denying me my gun and stated I needed to go to my local police and have them write a letter stating I am not a criminal, before they would sell me the gun. I say OK and I leave the store, very pissed, of course.

I went down to the local PD, they couldn't believe how asinine Cabela's was being. The nice lady at the desk stated she has been working there 37 years and had never heard of anything as ridiculous as this. The nice lady at the desk ran my CORI, wrote a letter, and had the COP sign off on it.

While I was at the police station, a gentleman had just picked up his LTC, and had overheard my conversation and asked "What should I know about buying guns at Cabela's", I turned around and said "DON'T" --we both had a chuckle and I suggested Four Seasons in Woburn and gave him the web address (I would have gone to FS myself but I called and they did not have what I wanted in stock).

The whole atmosphere at Cabella's was negative with many posters warning you not to make straw purchases with pictures of jail cells and people in handcuffs. I went back and gave the manager my "hall pass" and eventually left the store with my gun. Can I have that 4 hours of my life back, please ?

Personally I wouldn't have gone back there. I also double-check everything before hitting send (online) or handing over the form, so I can correct any mistakes in advance.

Big box stores are just not the place to buy guns, period!

I would have called FS and asked Carl "how long would it take you to order xxx", probably a better price and the wait of a few days/week would be well worth it in customer service . . . bonus is helping the little guy stay in business.



That would be easily attainable for them, too, given they cut out the distributors.

-Mike

And they squeeze the mfr for price as well, since they buy by the rail car load. My source is in WM management so should know what he is talking about.
 
Personally I wouldn't have gone back there. I also double-check everything before hitting send (online) or handing over the form, so I can correct any mistakes in advance.

Big box stores are just not the place to buy guns, period!

I would have called FS and asked Carl "how long would it take you to order xxx", probably a better price and the wait of a few days/week would be well worth it in customer service . . . bonus is helping the little guy stay in business.





And they squeeze the mfr for price as well, since they buy by the rail car load. My source is in WM management so should know what he is talking about.


ROFL, you kill me. Seriously.
 
ETA: I also think in the gun business ammo prices act as a "shit test" that a lot of consumers do when they go
into a gun shop. The further into rape territory the ammo prices are, the more likely the consumer is to skip the shop and buy it somewhere else. Just a theory of mine which might be invalid, but its difficult to measure/test it.

-Mike
I certainly do this. If I walk into a new (to me) shop and see a box of 9mm at $16 I immediately assume the prices are going to be high on everything and will browse skeptically. I've found a few shops where their prices on certain items are lower than everyone else on a couple things, and then way higher on everything else. So, I just buy said calibers only at that shop, and get others elsewhere. I.e., one shop I frequent sells a popular type of .22 for just under six cents a round. Other popular shops send emails with the same product at 9-10 cents per round. I'm guessing that some shops buy way more of one ammo type and get lower price costs, and less of the things they are high on? Just a theory. Either that or they are out of touch with the prices of some items and haven't raised/lowered them accordingly. Beats me.
 
Any further word on shipping ammo for store pickup? I wanted to get some brass and bullets and could not have them shipped to the store, it got rejected every time. I eventually found somewhere else to ship it.

On another note I don't know if anyone on here has tried the site Active Junkey? It's one of these places that offers cash back on orders if you click through from their site to a retailer's site and place an order. They pay 10% on non gun or ammo purchases (guns are 1% ammo 2%) at Cabela's so I tried it with some other stuff I was looking at getting and it seems legit. That seems to be the consensus elsewhere online as well. If you want to check it out and use this link we both get an additional $10 after a $25 purchase: https://www.activejunky.com/invite/231268

Not trying to spam folks here, I can pull the link if it violates the rules.
 
That was my first reaction as well, but upon reflection, I could just see these clowns sending the 4473 out and then getting me jammed up with the FEDS. Lesson learned on the big box stores, and I think it's time for an eyeglass upgrade. [laugh]
Sometimes (not always but sometimes) it's best to swallow real hard and go through with the sale despite the infuriating and time-wasting BS. You learn stuff like this in old age. [thinking]
 
Used the $100 gift card tonight. No issues. 500 rds of CCI SV on sale for 39.99, 500 rds of Aquila Super Extra SV 44.99, Desantis Nemesis $19.99.

Besides the $10 off on the CCI, also running a 2A rebate so another $10 plus a t-shirt inbound. Winning! :D
 
I was there today and picked up over a thousand rounds of 22 but never saw the CCI SV bricks. Say, you didn't take the last one did you. Lol.
Used my $100 gift card (thanks Chet) and a Christmas gift card. The clerk said that I have two $10 rebates coming but she did not know what they were on. I will check that out tonight.
Powder section did not have anything I was after today but picked up primers for the 6.5 Creedmoor. Just waiting for the back ordered Lupua brass to arrive.
Anyone looking for Berger Bullets, they are 15% off.
 
I was there today and picked up over a thousand rounds of 22 but never saw the CCI SV bricks. Say, you didn't take the last one did you. Lol.
Used my $100 gift card (thanks Chet) and a Christmas gift card. The clerk said that I have two $10 rebates coming but she did not know what they were on. I will check that out tonight.
Powder section did not have anything I was after today but picked up primers for the 6.5 Creedmoor. Just waiting for the back ordered Lupua brass to arrive.
Anyone looking for Berger Bullets, they are 15% off.

No, haha. It was make your own brick day.

Don't forget your t-shirt
 
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