Is the reason (Sony Unified Retail Execution).

I don't see a reason to worry at this point of the game. Controlled pricing protects retails from gouging each other, but the consumer will suffer as a little in the short run.

Business tactics and politics is all. Remains to be seen if it will help or hurt them imo. I look long term, not short term.

Carl

As for the reason......that makes sense. However, the MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) is not MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price). Therefore, retail prices at the stores should be less then MSRP which is usual. Sony is using this mandate to keep the prices in the stores the same as their online store. Is that really fair? Yes, there should be a "Minimum Advertised Price." A base line price that retailers should not go below for retail sale (Best Buy comes to mind...he-he), but that price should not be the MSRP by no means.

Regards,
Niko

I really don't think its a very good idea at all.

You wont ever hear me complain about cheap prices, I tried to sell my girlfriend once ;-)

And without being a business guy, I have no idea if the following is true or not, but I wonder if it is best for retailers to be able to do what that have been doing overall for the market.

To me it seems like Sony is trying to establish a reputation with the big retailers so they don't get stuck with a lot of extra product while smaller retailers undercut them. It really levels the playing field for all the retailers by making even prices.

But really I don't know all that retail stuff, just seems fair offhand. Sony makes just as much on their product from purchases from the retailers, so they don't stand to really make any more money, the retailers actually do. And if Sony loses business, they lose out.

So for B&H etc, they have to be liking this, right?

Carl

Carl,

I don't think there is much empirical evidence that it's the smaller retailers who are undercutting the larger retailers. On the contrary, I think most local independent camera shops will be delighted that their customers can no longer order Sony products cheaper online from the B&H Photos and Adoramas of the world--or run into Best Buy and buy an A700 for $839 or less. (Will all those people who purchased one of those $839 A700s but believe that using MAP is fair now return their A700s to Best Buy?)

Our whole economy is based on the somewhat theoretical notion of free enterprise and the idea that everyone benefits from competition. Protecting small, local retailers from the competition of larger, more powerful, national retailers is a debate that dates back at least as far back as A&P Food Stores in the 1930s and certainly continues today with Wal-Mart. Some people want to save "the little guy," while others argue that they save a lot of money shopping at Wal-Mart. Meanwhile, I don't know anybody who is very happy when every service station in town suddenly starts charging identical higher gasoline prices. (Economists call this "conscious parallel behavior," while customers call it "price-gouging.")

Andy