Quote:
Originally Posted by carpetmojo
One wonders what might happen if an approved outlet built up a stock and then started belting it out at a "non-premium" price ?  |
One "solution" in the US is gray market distributors. A lot of electronics manufacturers set their wholesale prices by volume so one way the smaller players compete is by offloading part of their orders to distributors or online discounters. Most manufacturers grin and bear it because to clamp down is to lose the order altogether. And it is a very common practice. EBay practically lives off that stuff.
Another reason the manufacturers tolerate it is because they clamp down, their stuff doesn't move.
Most notably, for the last few years the big asian HDTV vendors (Sony, Sharp, Samsung, LG, etc) instituted a "Unilateral Pricing Policy" to limit discounting. Every spring, the new models ship with a MSRP and a suggested maximum discount. Violators find reorders take extra time... The invariable result: Vizio sales surge, slow quarterly sales numbers for the UPP models, inventories pile up, big discounts are grudgingly allowed in early fall. Happened in 2012, and 13.
http://hdguru.com/whats-upp-more-hdt...price-program/
Haven't checked to see if the message has gotten through yet for 2014.