President's Message: Plan for the Best

Surely you’ve heard the saying, “Hope for the best and plan for the worst?” It makes good sense when you think about it – you should always be prepared in case the plans you put in place don’t quite work out the way you expect. With a shooting sports marketplace that’s always in flux, especially in our current political environment, you just have to be ready to pivot and shift gears at a moment’s notice.

If you’re not planning for the future, and planning for what you’ll do if things change, and then planning for what to do if they change again, then I’d encourage you to spend some time and give it a sincere and honest effort. Failing to plan is planning to fail. It’s trite, but it’s true. 

For as long as I’ve been at NASGW, we’ve worked under a strategic plan. While the association is probably not as directly impacted by the market as most of you reading this, we too have to look to the future and get ready for whatever comes our way. If we weren’t doing this, it would be a gross failure to consider the needs and wants of our members. 

FEATURED ARTICLES

Registration for this year's NASGW Expo is now open for exhibitors and attendees. Take advantage of the early bird pricing and save on your badges before the prices go up. You can also purchase tickets for the Tuesday night appreciation dinner and reserve your hotel rooms, which are going fast. The Expo will be here before you know it so get ahead of the curve and register today. 

With the end of the first quarter, our Q1 SCOPE Report is now available. All NASGW members should have received the report via email. If not, click below to download the Overview report. The Overview Report consists of 23 pages of high level data while the new Detail Report provides segmentation by region and category. The Overview Report is available to all NASGW members free of charge and the Detail Report is free to current SCOPE subscribers or for purchase by NASGW members not currently subscribed to SCOPE. 

Navigating The Current Market With Data

Data analysis is becoming more crucial for businesses in today's current sales environment. In this post-COVID era, sales and shipments are down compared to the previous few years. Consumer demand continues to shift and the best place to understand these ongoing changes in the market is SCOPE. Log in to your account or schedule a demo with the SCOPE team to see how data can help you business. 

Firearms Shipments

Ammunition Shipments

Optics Shipments

The Ammunition Market in 2023

As we get farther from the pandemic and closer to a new election cycle, ammunition availability and price continue to evolve. Some things are more available, but others are not. Consumers complain the price of ammo is through the roof, but they’re still buying.

“We’re seeing a little bit of softening in the market,” observed Kevin Smith, general manager of Sprague’s Sports in Yuma, Ariz. “Prices have come down on certain ammo, but other ammo still remains a challenge to find and prices are still high on those.”

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UPCOMING EVENTS

June 12-15, 2023

POMA Business Conference

Broken Arrow, OK

August 1, 2023

NSSF Annual Import/Export Conference

Washington, DC

October 24-27, 2023

NASGW Expo

Columbus, OH

January 23-26, 2024

SHOT Show

Las Vegas, NV