How We Beat Inflation

The year is 1991. A gallon of gas cost $1.14, a loaf of bread was $0.69 and an ounce of gold cost $362. EGW opened it's doors as a gunsmithing shop, hence Evolution Gun Works. In an effort to manufacture high performance guns, we needed top quality parts. There was a lack of quality, machined parts, so out of necessity, we began producing parts for our own builds. Interest in the products we manufactured started to grow and within a few years, we began production full time. Still a relatively small shop with manual machines and second-hand CNCs, our prices were based on what the market was willing to pay. Our scope mount prices specifically were dictated by what bidders were willing to pay on eBay. The average price was $39.99 - it still is to this day. However, today a gallon of gas costs $3.56, a loaf of bread is $2.68 and an ounce of gold (if you can find one) is around $1800. While prices for goods have increased across the board, our products have not seen a price increase.

Why is that?

We have invested in our business along the way and have kept up with technological advancements. Prototyping is no longer done on a manual mill or lathe, but in a 3D printer. Hand drawn sketches and prints and manually programing CNC machines have been replaced by CAD/CAM software. Improvements in tooling design and coatings have increased manufacturing speed. Newer machining techniques and faster, larger machines with pallet changers have increased production efficiency. Automated machines increase packaging speed and efficiency, allowing our employees more time for higher level tasks. Shipping, inventory, email, and website integration software has greatly increased our order fulfillment precision and efficiency. We are not a large multinational corporation, we are a local, small business that employs just shy of 30 people. One of our greatest investments has been in our employees. Among other benefits, our employees are paid competitive wages, are included in a profit sharing program, have company matched retirement and paid health insurance.

All of those improvements and investments required an upfront cost, but we were able to see that they would pay for themselves in the long run. We have not had to increase prices on 99% of our products, yet the rest of the world has faced inflation over the past 30 years due in part to seemingly unlimited money printing and horrible monetary policy. We are proud that our prices haven't increased in 30 years, but have maintained, all while we were able to improve the quality and precision of our products. There is a phenomenon known as technological deflation and we believe we have been able to take advantage of it. Although our product prices haven't decreased like TVs and other items affected by technological deflation (they are in a different market than we are, we aren't producing products offshore with planned obsolescence in mind) we have been able to invest in ourselves and increase our efficiency.