Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
The fast way to tell who sets the price is if the price is the same across the stores then the manufacturer sets the price.
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Exactly.
And "same pricing" means "same pricing *everywhere*" not "same pricing at big retailers".
Suppliers don't control the pricing at groceries any more than publishers control pbook pricing. When you see the same prices at big chain supermarkets it is the *result* of big retailers squeezing suppliers, price-matching, and negotiated deals, *not* suppliers dictating the retail price.
Groceries is not generally a priced-fixed business (though some suppliers do from time to time engage in price fixing. Soap vendors in Europe a couple years back, for example) and even though some supermarket chains in a given region maintain similar or even identical prices those are merely the *lowest* prices in that region. Plenty of other retailers in the same region will carry the exact same product at different prices; inner city groceries, Convenience stores, gas stations, chain drug stores...
No supplier mandated prices.
Not like agency ebooks where the supplier sets the exact same price for *every* retailer everywhere, big or small.
In groceries, and most other product lines (say pbooks), the supplier negotiates wholesale prices with distributors or retailers and the retailer sets their own prices according to their market and their business model. It may be higher than the wholesaler price or it may be lower depending on the role the product plays in the retailer's basket pricing model. They are not automatically obligated to sell it at any specific MSRP.
Horizontal price maintenance by suppliers is a rarity and it is a rarity because until relatively recently it was illegal. Hopefully it soon will be again; it is never good for consumers and rarely good for retailers.