I doubt they sent the Savage police to every single hardware store in the United States and made sure no Savages were sold under list. The retailers weren't going weren't going to cook them and eat them if they didn't move. Paid inventory has to move, it can't sit indefinitely. If Savage tried to strong arm them all they had to do was call Winchester, Marlin and Remington. All manufactures of all products try to keep the retail price up, but when push comes to shove, they can say you have to do this and do that, but in reality they have no leverage in a competitive market. Been there. At then end of the day Savage, like any company, can only control the wholesale price. Microeconomics hasn't change that much in the last 100 years.
Just sayin....
