Did you people who think paint prices will go up graduate from Karl Marx University? Where did your understanding of capitalism and markets from from?
If the paint companies are selling less of a product than they used to, the smart thing to do is not to raise prices.
Dye says, hmm, DM sales are down this year. Let's increase the price!
HP says, hmm, laptop sales are down this year, I know, let's offer the same laptop as last year but at a higher price!
Or is it more likely that.... "holy crap we are selling every last pallet of paint we can produce, we are selling the paint before we can even produce it, let's raise the price."
Which of these scenarios makes more sense?
In the vast majority of all cases, the only time you'll see price inreases is because: there is too much demand for them to fulfill or their costs have increased.
If people started using less gasoline (translation for the Karl Marx U students - petrol), it is not likely that gas prices will increase. Rather, it is the sustained constant increase in gas consumption (among other factors) around the world that is increasing prices.
I can't think of too many situations where demand/consumption has dropped and the appropriate answer was to raise the price.
Now I don't know where the manufacturers are in terms of their production capacity, but the more something is demanded the more you can justify charging more for it. The less it is demanded, the harder it is to raise the price and it makes more sense to lower the price in order to stimulate more use.
Not that I think the rate of fire rules will decrease prices, they are probably near rock bottom. But economically that should be the most likely result of people shooting less paint.
My main (insert: selfish) concerns are paint prices going up (unlikely but possible) and any effect it'll have on the inter-uni league I play in.
