You realize Hodgdon just bottle powder. They bought other brands that did the same. The shortage of nitrocellulose is the problem. Dont hold your breath that VV is going to save us from inflation of price.
Think saintmarks! They sell to Hodgson and it's bottled with a name you recognize, that's not it's birth name example h110 /win296 same powder only difference was lots and the name. I have 45# cans of SM 846 which is basically blc2 just a different name same maker blaaaa blaaaa blaaaa.
Point is get ready for the ass rape powder prices.
Yes, I understand that hodgdon makes zero powders. They are the supplier to the reloading consumer. If I had the $$$ to go directly to the powder makers I would. I'm sure I would also have to get around some contractual business arrangement that hodgdon has with them. The real question is this. We are at least 4th in line when we buy powder. That mean we are paying 4 profit margins along the way. Is one excruciatingly high? We don't know.
I do know of another popular shooting product that cost approximately $350 to manufacture. Add on marketing expense, projected warranty cost, profit, etc. Dealer cost was around $1500. Retail price (actual, MAP) was $2499. That's a significant gross margin. It's still hard to tell if the actual net profit is 200% or 2% without more info.
The other problem we have is the conglomerates. There is very little competition. Vista and feradyne have bought up what were dozens of smaller companies 20 or 30 years ago. It stops being about the brand and pride. Hell, they have eliminated several brands. It is all about $$$$. What happens to customer service and product development when it is all about $$$. If someone comes up with something revolutionary they just buy it up and control the tech. Then they don't have to compete against it over the long term. Instead of building it out as a great product, they figure out how to maximize profit. We then end up with a consumer market where good, better, best=junk, barely serviceable, and serviceable. We can clearly see it in the hunting industry in the parts where there are still a bunch of small companies competing vs the parts where the large conglomerates bought up all of the competing small companies.
This country needs some regulation. We are very close to a situation where Vanguard owns the controlling interest in everything. I'm all for capitalism, but we need real capitalism, not chrony capitalism where we tax the hell out of the middle class and hand it to big business as special interest government grants.
