On 4/25/05, Cesar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > He has been told time and again from a major camera manufacturer - who > shall remain nameless - that the price he is charged for a camera body > is the same that they charge the large stores i.e. B&H, Ritz, ... > He even showed me the invoices, and we cannot understand how such large > companies can sell all those cameras for a lot less than what the local > shop is charged. And, I am not talking about a $50 difference. > Cesar, Being not too terribly familiar with the economics of the camera industry (other than it's all over-priced), I would venture to say that your local retailer is being charged the same as the big box retailers. He's just not getting the same 'incentives' they are. Manufacturers and distributors are often willing to make deals after, or beside, the sale, in the form of rebates, 'dealer cash', promotional products, etc. Many higher volume retailers will get very deep discounts on old inventory if they buy it all. eg. Epson's distributor has a few crates of photo paper that are getting stale. B&H, knowing they can move the paper, negotiates to buy all the crates for cheap (this is sometimes called a 'take all'). Instead of discounting the paper, they charge full price for it. The money they saved allows them to be very competitive with other products, such as by cutting the price on the *istDS, and undercut your local retailer. This may not be a realistic example productwise, but this type of thing certainly happens all the time.
-- Scott Loveless http://www.twosixteen.com
