Powders available at hodgdon com

[Varmint Hunter]

Best bet is to buy @ locally owned stores whenever possible...even if it's 10-15% more expensive. These mom and pops are the only thing that keep the big box, e-commerce, and DTC retailers in check.

It doesn't always work that way. My LGS told me that they sell all their components on the internet at the prevailing (scalper) rate. They made no bones about it. Sometimes loyality doesn't work both ways.
BTW - the store was packed with gun buyers when I was there looking for a few components.

 

[Mattbowen61990]

It has to be more aggravating for hodgdon to ship small quantities of powder from a logistics standpoint. They don't want the extra work, but the extra dollars probably pays for an employee to handle it.

 

[lhp63190]

It doesn't always work that way. My LGS told me that they sell all their components on the internet at the prevailing (scalper) rate. They made no bones about it. Sometimes loyality doesn't work both ways.
BTW - the store was packed with gun buyers when I was there looking for a few components.

There's definitely some of that going on right now, but those local store owners and managers remember the guys that support them during normal or tough times as well. I recently just got 8lbs H1000, 8 lbs of H4350, 210m primers, and a bunch of hard to find bullets, from a local store. It took them about a month to put it together but they did and charged me their normal prices.

That said, none of it was on the shelf bc they aren't going to let someone who has never shopped there before come in and wipe them out knowing that person will never return. Same type person that is probably trying to flip it online. However, they are taking good care of their repeat clientele very well.

 

[acourvil]

Hogdgen is also limiting direct sales to 5 units of a given sku and one order per month.

 

[Mike Matteson]

I kind of wonder about that. I did see that Hodgdon is selling direct, but the price is about $20.00 higher for 8lbs containers, than like say Midway and others.

 

[Alamo Brass]

I'm about 8 months into reloading my own ammo and the price gougers is what had me say f*** it and start my small company down here in Texas focused on reloading because there was no one local. I started with just brass but over the 1.5 months since I've been open. I've slowly added bullets and few other items as I've gotten distributor accounts. I have had a ton of local people call me asking about powder and primers which I have on order but as a small fish compared to some of the other bigger e-commerce guys, I'm lower on the food chain to get an order in. Heck even some of the distributors wont sell powder and primers unless I have an ffl(which is in the works) because it seems some yahoos started a "business" just to get powder to flip it.

 

[MAD10]

This is intentional. Dealers are already complaining about not getting enough inventory. Hodgdon wants to cash in on the extra margin by selling direct but doesn't want to loose the wholesale support when the "craze" is over so they tell the dealer, "were going to sell it direct, but we won't compete with you on price." This is how it starts.....eventually most it will be sold direct to consumer via their e-commerce platform and they their wholesale business will shrink to just shelf inventory.

Hodgden will make a lot more margin (and hopefully re-invest it) and the local dealers wont care cause they'll continue to stock what they always have. The wholesale ecommerce guys (Powder Valley, Midway, Brownells, Mid South, Creedmoore, etc) are the ones that will get killed if it goes this direction.

I've been a part of a lot of these conversations in my professional career....they're aren't fun and its typically the consumer that looses in the long run. Its not a great scenerio if a "brand" has too much control of their distribution. The exceptions would be brands like Kuiu that only distribute direct to consumer, but its really hard to do it if you have an established wholesale business.

A brand having too much control over their inventory? I'd like to know what business school you went to where that is taught as a bad thing lol?

 

[INVICTUS]

This is intentional. Dealers are already complaining about not getting enough inventory. Hodgdon wants to cash in on the extra margin by selling direct but doesn't want to loose the wholesale support when the "craze" is over so they tell the dealer, "were going to sell it direct, but we won't compete with you on price." This is how it starts.....eventually most it will be sold direct to consumer via their e-commerce platform and they their wholesale business will shrink to just shelf inventory.

Hodgden will make a lot more margin (and hopefully re-invest it) and the local dealers wont care cause they'll continue to stock what they always have. The wholesale ecommerce guys (Powder Valley, Midway, Brownells, Mid South, Creedmoore, etc) are the ones that will get killed if it goes this direction.

I've been a part of a lot of these conversations in my professional career....they're aren't fun and its typically the consumer that looses in the long run. Its not a great scenerio if a "brand" has too much control of their distribution. The exceptions would be brands like Kuiu that only distribute direct to consumer, but its really hard to do it if you have an established wholesale business.

I wonder if it's easier and creates
Less overhead for a company like Hodgdon to sell large quantities to one or two customers rather than hundreds to individuals.
maybe that extra cost goes to overhead.
hmm I wonder .
Question is, if they want to make more profit why don't they just charge what people on the auction sites are getting for their product? They might as well, since it's obvious people will support that price point.

 

[MAD10]

I wonder if it's easier and creates
Less overhead for a company like Hodgdon to sell large quantities to one or two customers rather than hundreds to individuals.
maybe that extra cost goes to overhead.
hmm I wonder .
Question is, if they want to make more profit why don't they just charge what people on the auction sites are getting for their product? They might as well, since it's obvious people will support that price point.

I think Hodgdon is bound by fair trade laws and would be sued for price gouging vs a private sale asking whatever the market will demand.

 

[lhp63190]

I wonder if it's easier and creates
Less overhead for a company like Hodgdon to sell large quantities to one or two customers rather than hundreds to individuals.
maybe that extra cost goes to overhead.

10+ years ago this might have been true. But as ecommerce & DTC has grown, so have the logistics companies companies that make it easier to serve those individual customers. From a purely accounting perspective, its a really easy answer and it almost always makes sense to pursue these high margin sales even with respect to additional overhead costs. At this point, you could hire a 3rd party logistics company (3PL) and completely outsource (storage, packing, shipping, etc) the "individual" process for and still be more profitable than you are via wholesale. Once the volume is big enough, you bite the bullet and bring it all in house.....and print money.

To the second part of your question on increasing prices....its a short tem vs long term issue. You can bet your bottom dollar that the AUR (average unit retail) for everything in the shooting sports arena is going to go up faster than inflation over the next 5 years, but companies cannot over-react to short term demand spikes.....that's how you end up bankrupt when things slow. -- A lot of shooting sports companies (retailers, suppliers, etc) got burned when Trump beat Hillary as demand literally dried up overnight..

 

[Shtmagnet]

They have 5744 right now. Got 8 lbs.

 

[lhp63190]

A brand having too much control over their inventory? I'd like to know what business school you went to where that is taught as a bad thing lol?

My intention was to say that its a bad thing for consumers relative to price. Less competition and highly controlled inventory generally equals higher prices.

 

[fnlights]

Anyone ever order from Hogdon's Site? How long does it take for them to ship it? It has been a week and I have not gotten any notifications or anything

 

[MAD10]

My intention was to say that its a bad thing for consumers relative to price. Less competition and highly controlled inventory generally equals higher prices.

To an extent....in a previous post I pointed out "Hodgdon is bound by fair trade laws and would be sued for price gouging vs a private sale asking whatever the market will demand" Plus Hodgdon is going to ask for a bit more per unit just to ensure they don't burn their distributors so that they may continue to sell at previous crisis prices.

In other words, we laws to protect consumers from predatory business practices but not private sales.