Inflation has a lot to do with it, but other factors are limiting purchases too. The manufacturers themselves should be to blame for some of it.
The market is somewhat stagnant. The lack of product innovation is taking its toll. Consumers are begging for new quality product and it’s falling on deaf ears. In Smith’s case, there are still some revolvers in demand and the debacle with Thompson Center left a hole in their portfolio. Guys are simply growing weary of the same old commodity firearms - plastic pistols, plastic rifles….everything that’s shipping regularly is a “budget” gun. Those guns will always have their place, but can’t consume the market.
Without new innovations and upper end offerings, shoppers are fatigued. They’re not churning and trading for the latest and greatest. The rifle market is really lacking, as is the shotgun market. Hardly anything upper end available in mass quantities from Beretta, Benelli, Winchester, Browning, Remington, Kimber…the list goes on. And upper end is now defined as models that were previously available as standard offerings. Stainless rifles, wood stocked rifles, wood stocked shotguns are all slow to ship.
It’s a different time and the manufacturers own a bunch of that blame. I don’t feel sorry for them. Publicly traded companies are slow to react because of all the hoops. Too many levels of approval and individuals trying to justify their jobs. If they spent more time building what the consumer wanted instead of building what they wanted to build, things might be a little different.
I’m home with flu and bored. I’m also tired of manufacturers not owning the blame for a soft market.
