Keeping Prices High By Keeping Products Off The Web

from the the-flintstones-never-did-this dept

A small nutritional supplement manufacturer is threatening retailers that sell its products that they'll no longer be able to stock them if they make them available for purchase or advertise pricing online. The company's essentially trying to keep prices high by forcing customers to go to local retailers to buy them -- and pay a 100% markup -- rather than being able to purchase the products online from anyone who carries them. It's a strange move, really. The company's wholesale price it charges the vendors shouldn't be impacted by their retail prices, so why wouldn't it want to expand its geographic distribution as much as possible, and make it as easy as people for end consumers to buy its product? The web has a pretty solid record of making retail markets -- both online and off -- more efficient. Ignoring this and not taking advantage of it is short-sighted.
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  • identicon
    Michal, 24 Jan 2006 @ 12:41pm

    now this is good

    The market will have no problem sorting this one out. If selling supplements on the internet is profitable someone will do it. Those pseudo-hippy stores that charge shitloads to those wanting to relive the 60's will do fine too.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Another Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2006 @ 3:17pm

      vitamins?!?

      If a company decides they are too good for the Internet, it's not like I don't have about a zillion other choices. Not online? No sale. What worries me about this article is that it suggests the EU and the WTO are actually pushing to restrict the purchase of simple vitamins!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rikko, 24 Jan 2006 @ 1:07pm

    Good riddance

    That entire farcical "medicine" industry is a scam anyways. We're better without.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      DocMenach, 24 Jan 2006 @ 1:24pm

      Re: Good riddance

      To say that the Nutrinional Suppliment industry is nothing but a bunch of neo-hippies is way out of line. Last I checked, in addition to "hippies" using nutritional suppliments, so do bodybuilders, people losing weight, athletes, the elderly, pregnanat/breastfeeding mothers, and many others. In fact, at the Gym I work at nutrional suppliments are a very good revenue generator, and we dont exactly cater to "hippies."

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Michal, 24 Jan 2006 @ 1:48pm

        Re: Good riddance

        the athletes and etc... are generally a very different market then neo-hippies. This company seams to cater to the neo hippies.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2006 @ 2:18pm

          Re: Good riddance

          they may have the idea that the desire and value of the product is based on the fact that it is only available in certain areas by certain retailers.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2006 @ 1:24pm

      Re: Good riddance

      That entire farcical "medicine" industry is a scam anyways. We're better without.

      yes, I agree with you that intelligent design is the way it all should stay!

      [/sarcasm]

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        scott, 24 Jan 2006 @ 1:40pm

        Re: Good riddance

        The car stereo industry has been fighting this, too. Go to http://mobile.jlaudio.com/jlaudio_pages.php?page_id=111
        and see what one manufacturer has to say about internet sales.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Kasapo, 24 Jan 2006 @ 3:58pm

        Re: Good riddance

        now, now; perhaps you should quell your sarcasm a bit...note that he says 'medicine INDUSTRY,' not just medicine. Have you watched TV lately? I haven't, but last I checked pharmeceutical companies were attempting to shove their drugs down the throats of the nation through advertising consisting of something like this: "Do you ever feel sad or in anyway unhappy? You may be depressed. Talk to your local pill-pusher (over-enthusiastic doctor) about Sulprema HDNXKLSKFJ today." Followed by a list of unattractive side-effects.

        The truth of the matter is that modern science isn't really sure what the net effects of many of the drugs we so willingly advertise...they just notice a correlation in experimental groups where some effect is witnessed that may seem beneficial to some people some of the time.

        Medicine: ok; Pharmillionaire (more like billion/trillion today) companies: evil greedy effects of the competition intrinsic to a capitalist society.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Howard, 24 Jan 2006 @ 1:40pm

    As a retailer....

    I can sympathize with the effort to keep the retailers from competing with each other on the web. The vendor fears that if he allows price competition on the web, he will 1) piss off the other retailers who don't want to sell on the web, who will then stop buying his stuff, and 2) give his product "commodity" status. Whether that's true doesn't really matter -- he doesn't want to take the chance. He is basically trying to protect his customers (the retail stores).

    You can pull this off if you have a unique product that has good demand; it's a bit harder for commodities. As a prior poster pointed out, the market will sort this out quite efficiently. As another prior poster pointed out, the nutritional supplements industry is so full of useless crap that we wouldn't miss them if they went out of business (they won't, unfortunately).
    --
    Violins and Accessories

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    haggie, 24 Jan 2006 @ 1:41pm

    No Subject Given

    That's what happens when an RIAA employee quits to start his/her own nutritional supplement business.

    Probably afraid that if they sell it over the 'net, somone might buy it and then give it to a friend and then the supplement company would have to sue because the friend didn't buy his own bottle of the supplements.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2006 @ 3:56pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      lol @ haggie

      finally a decent contribution to this shitty (oops, i meant muddy) site.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sum Dum Guy, 24 Jan 2006 @ 2:50pm

    Lots of examples

    A lot of companies don't want their products listed on the web. There's no particular rhyme or reason, since they simply end up losing sales to the companies who do list online.

    For example, Specialized Bicycles won't allow their retailers to show prices online. They'd rather you go in person to a bike retailer and get it. To some extent, they want to make sure you're fitted with the right size frame, but once you know that, who cares where you get it from?

    Even eye doctors don't always give you a copy of your contact lens prescription. Their claim is that can ensure quality, which most of the time is never an issue.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rolex Lover, 24 Jan 2006 @ 3:40pm

    Re: online items

    Rolex has had the same policies for years.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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