I'm glad y'all never go swimmin' in the ocean. A shark could come up and not only pull your leg, but bite it clean off, and y'all would bleed out before you knew.
I say that, but at the same time there is probably some truth to it-- not at our level of course (the shaman smirks). However, if you have a beginner going to his LGS, his eyes are going to catch the red box first. That is a huge advantage. Those relationships between customer and brand form early and they can persist for generations. Take that from a guy who has been partying with Proctor & Gamble folks his whole life.
By the way, if you think red boxes are a stretch, look at P&G. They revolutionized the laundry detergent world by putting blue speckles in their Oxydal about 50 years ago. It was just food coloring, but the housewives went nuts over "Power Crystals." You and I can think that's absurd, but then you start looking at our own brand loyalties, and you see the same dynamics.
Even more to the point as to why there is less love for Speer, is the distribution aspect. Those red Hornady boxes generally dominate the shelves. There is a bigger selection, and ( I think most importantly) a stable selection of Hornady offerings than any other. At least that is how I've seen it here in Cincinnati over the past (takes off his socks) thirty-some years. If I go to the store and look for a new bullet for a new load, I usually can find something in a red box. There is usually more than one box too. When I go back in a few months to replenish, those same bullets are there.
I'll pull your leg once more and then get on with my afternoon. I had been loading using my buddy's press here and there, but did not load on my own until 2000. At that time I got a RCBS kit, as recommended by some of y'all over at shooters.com. It came with a Speer manual. I went to my LGS with my manual, with Post-its marking the loads I wanted to try. The old guy behind the reloading counter saw what I was doing and asked if he could help. There I was, all ready to buy Speer so it would match the loads in the manual, and 3 for 3 they were out and I ended up walking out with red boxes. To this day, I've never tried to buy Speer equivalents for those loads.
