Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 12:17 PM 07/18/2001, you wrote: >I think Henry was a bit short on his explanation for the standard advertised >prices on Leica (MAP).... I was trying to be brief . . . Several manufacturers/importers have MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) programs. They are voluntary and have no effect on the selling price so they're not restraint of trade nor collusion nor price fixing and are legal. An MAP agreement basically states (and the particulars vary from vendor to vendor) that no matter what we SELL an item for, there's a number below which we may not ADVERTISE the item. B&H participates in most MAP agreements because the vendor makes doing so attractive for the retailer. We get "preferred customer" status, or whatever. Any retailer who's authorized to sell the merchandise has the same opportunity. The MAP price is 99.999% of the time not a little higher than our selling price. If we advertised the selling price, we'd be in violation of MAP and lose our "preferred customer" status. If we advertised the MAP price, someone reading our ad who was unaware of the MAP situation might think we were considerably higher in price than the marketplace and would shop elsewhere. Can't have that, you know. <s> We know this is a hassle. On the phone, our sales associates simply say the selling price, but our ads and web site are another matter. Most MAP contracts were written pre-web, and vendors have been scrambling for the past year over what's "kosher" and what isn't. As a result, some MAP agreements now prohibit "Call for price;" some permit us to e-mail a selling price or show one in a pop-up window or put the selling price in the shopping cart, or whatever. We have worked hard to make the web site conform, item by item and vendor by vendor in a manner that's as convenient as possible. - -- regards, Henry Posner Director of Sales and Training B&H Photo-Video, and Pro-Audio Inc. http://www.bhphotovideo.com