Right after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, online retailer Cheaper than Dirt announced they would no longer be selling firearms. What they actually did was hold back their inventory, wait until other retailers sold out in the panic, then release the inventory at inflated prices. In case you don’t remember, I took a screenshot of their site at the time.
It was a cheap and dishonest way to take advantage of a stressful situation, and because the gun culture forgave and forgot, they’re at it again. This time, they’ve at least dropped the outright deception. I suppose that’s something, but they’re still gouging on their prices.
That’s about three times what retail pricing should be on that ammunition.
They are not our friends. They do not deserve your business.
One thought on “Cheaper Than Dirt, Again”
First, that’s actually more in line with 2-2.25 times the normal retail prices for that ammo. Small boxes of defensive ammo (i.e. 20-25 rounds per box) typically retail for ~$20-35 per box. Hornady in particular usually retails for ~$24-29 per box. That price is right around 2 times the upper end of that range, and about 2.25 times the lower end.
Second, trying to control the sale prices of goods, particularly when there is a massive distortion in demand, is how you end up with a massive shortage. Prices are how markets communicate: during a shortage, a price spike discourages customers from consuming more than they need, encourages increased production, and encourages distributors to distribute goods where they’re most in demand.
By trying to control prices, what we are actually doing is ensuring that there is no incentive not to over-consume, while also ensuring that there is no major incentive to massively increase production.
That’s how we end up with major multi-year distortions in the ammunition market, like the one that lasted from late-2012 through mid-2017. TLDR: Criticizing “price gouging” is bad, and we need to stop doing it.
On the whole, I don’t object to CTD raising their prices on in-stock inventory. What I do object to is businesses canceling pre-panic orders in order to then re-sell unshipped inventory at panic prices. That’s a deceptive practice that should absolutely be actionable.