Anyone who has ever owned their own business or even worked in retail can understand how this works. A local firearms dealer calls his distributor and orders 1, 2, or 10 guns. He might be able to work a little better price ordering 10 vs 1. Wal-Mart goes direct to Remington (or whichever), and orders a traincar full. They're ordering by the hundreds, if not thousands, direct, not through a wholeseller/distributor. Thats how they get better prices, not by selling lesser quality firearms.
Yes Walmart buys in larger quanitities to get a break on price. Manufacturer has to make more guns and faster to supply Walmart and find ways to make his gun cheaper in order to be able to sell that volume, that means hiring more people and increasing facilities, at this point Walmart has them by the ahem. Walmart knows this and then demands further price cuts, where do you think the manufacturer will cut..(A) outsource to another country (B) spend less time possibly finishing the item (C) making a line just for Wallyworld or (D) telling walmart where to go. They can't do D because they already have probably purchased machinery and facilites for the increased workload..to dump Walmart would mean layoffs and plant closings. Since Walmart has already been sued multiple times for making suppliers cut their prices or threatening to drop them if they don't meet them this is a proven fact just look it up., They copied this from GM who was also sued when they did it. Bottomline if the good old American way of making money was practiced Walmart wouldn't be in business , they are simply throwing their weight around and punishing manufacturers(ie Deal with the Devil) who in turn deliver more and more substandard items.