Re: Best Repeater Deals

[Mark <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

We come upon the old question of price fixing, which is illegal.  Electrix 
may
be able to stipulate an advertised price, but legally it can't say anything
about what the dealer actually sells it for.  Frankly, I think the problem 
lies
with the big volume discounts.  Notice that you NEVER see Peavy gear blown 
out
at Musician's friend.  I'm not even sure if they deal it.  It's because 
Peavy
refuses to play that little game, making the prices the same for mom & pop
stores as it is for huge box movers.  Frankly, I applaud them for this 
policy.
It totally makes for a level playing field, giving small stores the 
ability to
match price AND offer the personalized service of Musician's Fiend.  Try 
talking
to someone at Sam Ash about Repeater features vs. Echoplex, as I did at 
Bananas
at Large.  I sure bet it would be a very short conversation.

Mark Sottilaro

Mark Pulver wrote:

> Tim Nelson (06:16 PM 08.31.2001) wrote:
>
>  >At 05:27 PM 8/31/01 -0700, TG wrote:
>  >
>  >>If anyone finds a cheaper price, be sure to post it!
>  >
>  >Wasn't there some sort of, um, unwritten etiquette thing about not 
>posting
>  >the prices on group buys/special discounts?
>
> Yeup, on this list or not, it is generally a bad idea to disclose any 
>form
> of special pricing.
>
> Most manufacturers will have a Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) rule in 
>place
> which basically sets the lowest price that a dealer can advertise. This 
>is
> to help protect the smaller dealers than may not be able to buy in
> quantities great enough to get a better price break.
>
> A smaller store may be granted one-time special pricing in order to help
> promote a specific item and get it's feet off the ground. That pricing 
>can
> often be the same that a large _distributor_ might buy the product at. If
> that pricing gets out, then it tends to cause a good deal of friction
> between the larger stores and the manufacturer (not to mention the
> distributor and the manufacturer) since they would have had to normally 
>buy
> huge quantities to get the same price breaks.
>
> Special pricing happens all the time in all sorts of business. In the 
>music
> business, you saw it for a long time with Mackie products where dealers
> wouldn't print _any_ price at all, and ask you to call or come in to get 
>it.
>
> When public notice is made about a dealer selling at a very low price on 
>a
> special deal, it will tend to kill the deal for the dealer.
>
> When you see a dealer asking you to NOT mention a price on a list like
> this, it's best to heed to his wishes or everyone may lose.
>
> Mark