Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>> Wonder what the R8 "street price" will be? > >It seems to me that every authorized leica dealer advertises new Leica >prices that are exactly the same -- leading me to believe that Leica >in some way influences the prices that the dealers sell for. Now I >believe if Leica were controlling the dealer's end user pricing, it >would be considered an unfair trade practice, so I'm not sure what is >going on here. It's been my experience that high end products in a variety of areas are sold at retail price per agreement with the manufactor. Sales or other special deals must be authorized or instigated by the manufactor. This is true of much of high end audio, although it seems to be less so in the past few years. I believe the idea is that the dealer promises to provide a certain level of service and does not have to worry about a mail order or warehouse kind of places undercutting him. It's a way of ensuring that the kind of shops that provide the level of service that Leica prefers are able to stay in business. Michael Bell MBell@mail.utexas.edu