Vista Outdoors starting a new ammo subscription service.

Ttuck · Jun 6, 2021

Vista Outdoors owner of CCI, Federal and Remington ammo will be starting an ammo subscription service direct from the factory.

Biz Bits: Ammo subscriptions coming soon

Customer feedback heavily shaped a plan Vista Outdoor has unveiled to provide monthly ammunition deliveries to gun owners who purchase subscriptions.

lmtribune.com

TTSX · Jun 6, 2021

The real question is, what's the cost, frequency of delivery and time commitment? I'd be ok with spending $30-50/month to get a couple/few boxes delivered but I'd imagine it's closer to $200/month and you get 5 boxes with a year commitment prepaid

Flymph · Jun 7, 2021

Hopefully this becomes an economical choice, but I have my reservations as well.

Member 52301 · Jun 7, 2021

^^^

I wonder about the costs, details and small print too.

I hope that VISTA does NOT start shipping LESS ammunition to smaller stores, small FFL dealers and to other larger gun stores.

Some states do not allow people to ORDER ammunition online.

Smaller - old fashioned gun stores and smaller operations - FFL men may be willing to ORDER directly from VISTA to eliminate a FEW of those middle men too.

A customer may be able to go to them, order the ammo, pay for the ammo with a small FEE added on, have the ammo sent to the small store or one man FFL dealer and PICK IT UP from them.

Some smaller stores and some good - old fashioned FFL men made MANY types of special orders for CUSTOMERS when many LARGE gun stores could not do this or were NOT interested in making a SALE or their big time company policies changed.

I had and still have some good FFL men and one of them is on this forum.

From what I read online...

SOME people who ordered from some famous ONLINE AMMO COMPANIES got screwed in the past and recently when it came to their MEMBERSHIP FEES and orders.

Their orders never came through, ZERO STOCK as we all know went on, NO BO, long time orders were cancelled after waiting forever and NONE of their membership FEES were reimbursed for basically PAYING A FEE and not being able to get any product.

I read this online in several places and some people were pretty upset. Especially when their orders were CANCELLED after a long, long wait - they were willing to wait on a BO but that did not happen after a time frame. Their ORDER went POOF into thin air.

LACK of competition, buy outs, mergers, failing companies, failing companies that got bought up, companies that split, etc. HAVE HURT gun people in my opinion.

Market manipulation, only having 1 or 2 main companies in any one INDUSTRY, etc. is a monopoly when it comes to ALL factory ammunition and ALL reloading supplies. IT is like holding a consumer or small dealer HOSTAGE.

Now if the consumer who is buying ANY product in life decides to play the game IF it works for HIM - it may pan out.

But if ANOTHER consumer does not want to play the game - wants to buy in person ANY product and that product continues to not be STOCKED in stores or you can hardly find it - the consumer may just STOP playing the game aka BUYING any product and not just in gun stuff.

My husband reloads. He has stock on hand. We have our RF ammunition on hand.

WE planned ahead as always too.

I hope that PRODUCTS continue to FLOW into small and large stores. I hope that this is not a sign of LESS products being SHIPPED TO STORES with some other marketing deal - manipulation by one BIG and powerful company.

I hope that GUN CONTROL FREAKS on the local, state and national levels are NOT doing some more sly things on the SIDE where people will only be able to buy x, y or z ONE WAY and not all ways.

I hope that they are not convincing some BIG stores to keep LESS ammunition and reloading supplies in their stores too.

Disclaimer: We do not order RF (Or CF.) ammunition online and we have never done that. Ever.

We buy products from LOCAL stores and we use our good FFL man or men.

I am not knocking people who CHOOSE to order ammunition or their reloading supplies online. If some people find that THIS works for them whatever this new marketing ploy - deal IS - I wish them well. Be happy with what you buy and use.

Cate

Alexx1401 · Jun 7, 2021

Will be interesting to see how it shakes out. For the sky is falling crowd, relax, it will mean nothing. No matter how they set this up and how many sign up, the pipe line still fills back up. Sooner or later people grabbing every box as fast as it hits has to end. Then the shelves fill again. What happens next is the metric tons of ammo people who re sell are holding watching the market gets dumped in a very short time. Price tanks, shelves fill more, stuff is on sale weekly again. Just like every time before this time. Some will have learned and will lay in a supply for the next panic, which will happen. Most will go back to sleep and ignore the sales until the next panic hits and the shelves are bare again. Now at this point those who signed up for a regular shipment? That will be fun to watch if they really do keep sending them what they contracted to buy. This could be fun to watch shake out and see how it goes. I already know what I will do. When price drops back to "normal" I will order by the case till I have at least enough to hold me a couple years. Then watch for the next fun panic to hit.

Member 52301 · Jun 7, 2021

^^^

We do not need anything. We PLANNED AHEAD as always.

My husband still shoots 4 to 5 days a week too. He even shot on Sunday and he watched some OVER 50 YEARS OLD PEOPLE learning how to shoot 22lr rifles at our range too.

Take care.

Cate

Yarome · Jun 7, 2021

I dunno. I've never been big on any kind of subcription type "deal". They always seem to work more in favor of the seller than the buyer. When availablity is minimal I can see a possible advantage, but getting tied into a fixed expense and possibly putting yourself in a position to have to take a pass on a truly fantastic, and temporary, deal... because your ammo budget is already blown... might be shooting yourself in the foot making a long term commitment.

IMHO, it sounds more like the MFG trying to take advantage of the public fear and current availability shortages to pad their sales with a fixed and ongoing income flow with basically... "pre-sales".