I've been following this thread for a little while and have decided to chime in on this. Good post.
I have spent the past twenty years of my career in manufacturing Supply Chain Management and speaking from a pure cost-accounting/ manufacturing standpoint, part of manufacturing (Purchasing) anything is beating your supplier base to death to obtain the best component or raw material price. The fancy schmancy term of late that the consultant guru's like to drop is "cost-down initiatives" We go through it at my company continually and it is typically in folks annual goal objectives for those of us that work in this type of capacity. Any pricing reductions hit the standard cost of the item being manufactured/assembled and thus, in theory at least. the gross profit.
Obviously, negotiating these cost-downs vary upon different scenarios such as volume, delivery, warehousing, and payment terms. If a company can find components that match form, fit, and function, along with delivery- they don't care where they get it from.
The sad fact is that most folks at Walmart buy on price and price alone. If an item is truly crappy, I don't care how much of a deal that someone got on it-the item will not survive if the product does not function properly. A business turns out enough crap-it too will succumb to competitors. I can go on and on but I won't.
I do not know if Walmart actually has any models engineered and manufactured specifically for it's stores but if the volume and pricing points support it, I certainly do not see why a firearms manufacturer wouldn't build cheaper product lines if it is cost-effective to do so and they are a profitable line.
Personally, I have never purchased a firearm from Walmart (hell, I'm lucky if I can find an occassional box of target shells for my shotgun!) but wouldn't even try to special order because of the woes that I have read about over the years from other buyers.
I would do whatever you can to support the local shops because I believe they will at least stand for your Second Amendment rights. The Walmarts around me are crap and have succumbed to local ordinances and restrictions over the past decade in the surrounding area. I am all for business but as a sportsman, I try to support businesses that support what I believe in when possible.
