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Tamiya Minimum Advertised Price controls?


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1 hour ago, ChesshireCat said:

I very rarely buy from over seas sources but with one exception. Even then it's aftermarket. Domestically I buy from a LHS 80% of the time. They treat me well, and are there when I need help with something. Yet we see many local shops going under because they are not making a profit. Then we cry because we have to pay a few dollars shipping because we can't find the right paint colors. Perhaps we are the reason this happens! I have no problem with Tamiya placing a MAP price if it helps the little guy survive. I fly fish extensively, and we see this everyday. Yet have little issues with it. You learn to deal with it, and move forward. With Tamiya, you will also learn to deal with it an move forward. 

gary

You're more than entitled to do what you will, but there isn't anything wrong with looking at the practise and deciding you don't like it; you don't have to "deal with it". Tamiya makes good models, but I don't do business with companies if I don't like their practises. See also: Apple. Live and let live and all that jazz.

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I guess I don't understand the logic here.

 

I do understand the concept of price discounts and markups all up and down the distribution chain.  At least I think I do (per Dave Roof's post in a similar thread).

 

If Tamiya's MRP is dictating a "street retail" price then I assume Tamiya is not changing (raising) the price they charge distributors. So it is the retailer charging MRP that is reaping additional profits from any price increase to the consumer, not Tamiya.

 

I don't see how this affects Tamiya, or why they care.  What am I missing here?

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What you are missing is that it's MAP, not MRP. Minimum ADVERTISED Price, not Minimum Retail Price. A retailer can't ADVERTISE below a certain price, but they can SELL it at whatever they want to.
What I'm seeing are a couple big time online retailers using fear to drive up their sales, and a whole lot of people who are both unclear on how wholesale/distribution/retail works and that this exists in a lot of other cases, even in the hobby industry. It's there to prevent a huge conglomorate doing to Tamiya like Walmart did to 20th Century toys. Eventually Walmart was the sole customer for them, as Wally World was buying huge amounts of heavily discounted products, then one day Walmart pulled the plug, and 20th Century didn't have the liquid assets to hold on while they built up their consumer base.
But hey, let's all be mad at Tamiya for "being greedy" and ignore the rapaciousness of the consumer demanding things for as cheap as possible and screw the consequences.  

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5 hours ago, Alvis 3.1 said:

What you are missing is that it's MAP, not MRP. Minimum ADVERTISED Price, not Minimum Retail Price. A retailer can't ADVERTISE below a certain price, but they can SELL it at whatever they want to.
What I'm seeing are a couple big time online retailers using fear to drive up their sales, and a whole lot of people who are both unclear on how wholesale/distribution/retail works and that this exists in a lot of other cases, even in the hobby industry. It's there to prevent a huge conglomorate doing to Tamiya like Walmart did to 20th Century toys. Eventually Walmart was the sole customer for them, as Wally World was buying huge amounts of heavily discounted products, then one day Walmart pulled the plug, and 20th Century didn't have the liquid assets to hold on while they built up their consumer base.
But hey, let's all be mad at Tamiya for "being greedy" and ignore the rapaciousness of the consumer demanding things for as cheap as possible and screw the consequences.  

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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Thanks for the explanation.  I guess this explains the online sites (amazon etc) that don't show a price and say something like "place item in cart to see price". 

 

Then again, if it is that easy to circumvent (e.g.place item in cart) it seems like Tamiya's MAP policy is a paper tiger.

 

I guess it does prevent online search engines from showing the "lowest sale price" in search results.

 

Not a fan of Walmart or their tactics, but I do think their success speaks volumes about the financial state of the non-2%-ers who do shop there.  But I digress.....

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On 5/31/2018 at 3:24 PM, habu2 said:

 

Why punish Hobbylinc?  MRP is not their policy.

 

I have ordered from Hobbylinc many times and always had a good experience. 

 

If you don’t like Tamiya’s MRP then don’t buy Tamiya from anyone.  

Well I'm not in the US so it doesn't affect me. This sort of thing is illegal here

 

That said this seems to have come only from Hobbylinc.. so I guess I'm dubious of what it actually means.

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I have  Question's. Is this just for the USA?   What are Master Distributors paying? I'm thinking they get the kits at about a 60% discount direct from Tamiya. so that 100.00 MSRP cost them maybe $40.00.   Another question, Are these Distributors selling at the same price to all shops or do they offer discounts to bulk buyers. From first hand experience when I was in retail they offer bulk discounts. That makes me ask is Tamiya trying to pressure those distributors to end a bulk discount practice as well. There are a lot of moving parts in this and I guess Tamiya feels they have the power in the hobby(think all hobbies) industry to pull it off.  In short amount of time I think they will know if it's working or not. If product is still flying out of Tamiya's  warehouses' it's working if it slows to a trickle, Time to rethink the strategy... 

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Am I correct in saying that Minimum Advertised Price (ing) has the net effect of (online) vendors saying "prices to low to advertise, add to cart to see price"...or "too low to print, please call for price"......?

 

I have seen this with Asics Running shoes as well as other "pew pew" related items.

 

MAP does not compel vendors to sell at a minimum, they just cannot advertise the (assumedly low) price, correct?

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