Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

You guys remember about a year or so ago the folks at Mountain House told their small time dealers to go pound salt because MH was dedicating it’s output of #10 cans to other, larger vendors? The rumour at the time was that MH had a gigantic .gov contract that made MH put everyone else on the backburner (which would explain MH’s multi-million dollar capital improvements in manufacturing capacity) but denied that there was a big .gov contract that caused all this drama.

I, of course, didnt believe the denials.

And then I read this:

Many things were discussed, such as the void in the marketplace they left early last year when they slowed production of Mountain House to fulfill other private brand orders, including the military. They have since changed their focus and philosophy on order fulfillment, with the consumer Mountain House brand taking priority over all other orders.

So, yeah, there was a large .gov order alright. I knew it.

Look, in business you go where the money is. Guy wants to spend a couple hundred million bucks with you on one sale, well, the guys as Steve’s Camping Store might get their order pushed to the bottom of the list….but MH really froze their small dealers out with virtually no apologies or explanations. MH makes some great stuff, and I’ll continue to buy it as I need, but I’n, spreading my net further to other brands.

But, it’s nice to know I was right.