I do! What is battery operated and costs several thousands of dollars? :dubious:
Meh, I just assumed it was drugs.
Cartooniverse, you don’t happen to sell Mesa/Boogie guitar amplifiers, do you?
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
:x
Okay. I must say this in all seriousness. I do indeed sell what I have described, the rant is quite real. However, the guesses are brilliant- what IS that car ???
Indeed, Dead Badger, it is a rant. If I wasn’t pissed, and wanted to have a very serious debate on loss-leader laws in various states, I’d have gone to G.D. Having said that, I am very grateful to those Dopers who approached my rant with the intellectual rigor we all expect from the Straight Dope, and really have shed light on what the law is , or is not. That is quite cool. 
No, it is not drugs nor is it anything even vaguely illegal in design or use.
The company I work for enforces the same sort of rules. We consider ourself a prestige brand, and we have a minimum price. You have to buy a certain amount each month of our main product, and you can’t sell it below a certain price. Don’t want to follow those rules? You can buy one of our non-prestige lines, or you don’t have to sell our stuff. There’s always another dealer that wants to sell our product.
Yes, we actually have people that check on this for us. No, I’m not one of them. I just make sure bits flow.
Exactly, diku. The device, this mystical Widget, is at the top of the pyramid. There are many imitators, but only one Widget. You don’t want to sell by their rules? That is perfectly okay. There are always more dealers.
You can sell the El Cheapadero Brand… for less money…that sucks and doesn’t work well. And makes people look bad. You get the picture.
Could you try the tactics used by a businessman in Australia? He was selling discount cigarettes at a tobacconist in a shopping mall and the large supermarket kept undercutting his “specials”. He kept cutting prices until he drove the supermarket below wholesale. He then walked in and asked for all their cigarettes. When they refused to sell them he called the police who informed the supermarket that they had to sell him whatever he wanted. He struck a deal - no under cutting his prices and he would let it go. The supermarket manager agreed.
Ah, high-end digital cameras, of course!!
Not to sound skeptical here, but have you got a cite on that?
The supermarket isn’t required (by law) to sell anything to anyone. The advertised price is an invitation for the buyer to offer the seller that sum of money for the goods (and “invitation to treat”, in legalese), which the seller can then accept or decline. So, the supermarket in this case would have been well within their rights* to not sell all their smokes to the tobacconist.
The whole story sounds a bit like an urban myth to me…
*Unless the law is different in NSW, which it isn’t AFAIK, But IANAL etc
Ooooooooh, you are so close !
Ok, that’s excellent then. If they weren’t enforcing their own standards, I would question their ability to run an honest business. They probably should have at least a small staff to check up on their retailers performance in this regard.
I’m not sure if “moral obligation” was the right description, but I’ll stick with it, for now. My point was that, either implicit or explicit in the deal you have with WidgetCo that restricts the lower end of your pricing spectrum, there is the indication that all other dealers will follow their rules and that WidgetCo will enforce this rule universally—thus ensuring that your honesty won’t get you royally fucked by undercutters who break their contract.
Now, if the company had not been enforcing this rule to their other dealers then they would have essentially not been holding up their end of the deal to you, so, in a very real sense (to me, anyway), they would have absolved you of your contractual obligations.
But, since they are enforcing rules when it’s brought to their attention, it seems they are holding up their end of the bargain faithfully.
From all my friends who work in the music retail business, I have learned that Mesa is rigorous in enforcing their pricing scheme. Not adhering to it runs a risk of losing your seller’s license. And, given Mesa’s popularity, no retailer would risk that.
I bought my Recto used though, so I didn’t pay full price. 
Well, seems that way to me too- but because of their overall structure, they rely on… well, people like me. I’m in a nice but odd position. I am close with the corporate heirarchy. I don’t shoot pool or play golf with them, but I work extremely hard to promote their products and in return, they allow me to make use of their trademarked name and logo, and all artwork and photos on my own website.
I design things for them, either out of pleasure and whim or for money ( or both ), and promote their goodies to mutual benefit. I am not an employee but all of them know that my loyalties lie so utterly in their camp, that I might as well be.
So, I call em up and out the Assholes Inc.'s of the world. ( I am not sure if an apostrophe belongs there, and I know that we have had threads brimming with Apotostrophic Rage. If it is misplaced, forgive me? )
-grin- While "Apotostrophic Rage " might be an amusing band name, I think what I was trying to write was " Apostrophic Rage "
If the Spelling Police ever join forces with the Apostrophic Ragers, I’m fucked.
Film for digital cameras then?
-blink- How can you put film into a digital camera?
Heyyyyyyy, this is a trick question !