35 for 500 that works out to 7c? yeah that's right, not sure what's going on but about a month or 2 I happened to be at wall mart early in the morning, just as I thought they don't carry 22 anymore, if memory serves I picked u a brick od Winchester white box 18 for 333, that works out a bit better, they had several there, I was actually looking for 38 specials than I noticed the old farts and one actually knew the teller by first name.
so anyways that is about as low as retail gets these days, I would assume the cost of manufacture is not much less below that, on the other hand look at it this way, say you flip burgers at Mcdonalds for a couple hours, saw an add they start at 10.50 now, that will buy you a brick at Walmart, if you can find it ( dumbass me I forgot what day and time that was, I may have paid with a card thou ), the real question is how long will it take you to reload or manufacture 333 rounds otherwise, if you look at it that way 22 ammo is pretty cheap.
I have also noticed several fair ads on armslist locally, bucket of bullets for about 110, some open for as low as 90 apparently this variety is finicky with some guns, various bricks around 8c/round, I stopped by again recently this was a Wednesday morning 5am before work, nothing, not even a price tag.
I think this is a brief period where one can find some fair deals whatever that price is, I'm keeping my eyes open, I wont buy overpriced ammo in principle and that has a lot to do with price increases.
here a question for the financial brains? instead of wondering about manufacturer direct pricing, does anyone know how to go about buying manufacturer direct? any special licensing? minimum order? group buy anyone? say 5000 rounds each I'm sure there would be say 100 takers around here, do the math, make some calls and that should get you a deal