tntfuller Posted November 17, 2005 Posted November 17, 2005 I'm in Northwest Arkansas, that's Wal-Mart country! The laptops are $488 here. I already have the ad at my house. I'm skeptical about the varying prices theory because none of the Bentonville people seem to know anything about it. If that's what they're truly doing, then it sucks that we're not getting the lower price here. You'd think Wal-Mart would take care of the people in its area. Most of us around here get our bread buttered by that company!
doorbuster Posted November 17, 2005 Posted November 17, 2005 Did some research for my state and thought it might be helpful to others. Apparently, some sales-below-cost laws apply to general merchandise and others apply to gasoline only. Thankfully, my state only has an SBC law for gasoline, so I should be enjoying sales prices at the lower end of the spectrum. Good luck in checking your own below! :) TABLE A: STATE SALES-BELOW-COST LAWS The following states have a General SBC Law: Arkansas California Colorado Hawaii Idaho Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Minnesota Montana Nebraska North Carolina North Dakota Oklahoma Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Utah Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
daz Posted November 17, 2005 Posted November 17, 2005 well this is the below cost wording of the law "Most state statutes provide that fixing the price of a product or service in agreement with another individual or business is illegal. The general rule provides that a vendor may not in combination with another vendor agree to set a certain price thereby creating a fixed price within a certain market. A business acting on its own and not in concert with another may use legitimate efforts to obtain the best price they can, including their ability to raise prices to the detriment of the general public. Also, conformity of prices within a given product is not illegal unless such conformity was created by a combination of vendors agreeing on a set price. For example, where competitors agree to sell their goods or services at a specified price, minimum price or maximum price and they receive profits from such an agreement, they are in violation of price fixing. Additionally, setting a price to be charged only within a certain area in order to get rid of competition or to create a monopoly is generally illegal under most state laws. A majority of states have also enacted a "Below-Sales-Cost" law wherein businesses may not sell goods below cost if they do so with anti-competitive intent or effect." another part: " it is unlawful where the intent is to injure competition" to sell a product with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice of selling [below-cost]." A 6 hour sale would NOT fall under this law. I would challenge it and win.
stevens322 Posted November 17, 2005 Posted November 17, 2005 Just talking out loud here...I am all for the theory that Walmart used several different printers with different prices. Not only could they smell out the rat(good little rat;) ), but seeing how Walmart ad was one of the first out, possibly made the competition do something different? Although these retailers do arrange a lot of these deals months beforehand....
saturnboy01 Posted November 17, 2005 Posted November 17, 2005 I'm in Northwest Arkansas, that's Wal-Mart country! The laptops are $488 here. I already have the ad at my house. I'm skeptical about the varying prices theory because none of the Bentonville people seem to know anything about it. If that's what they're truly doing, then it sucks that we're not getting the lower price here. You'd think Wal-Mart would take care of the people in its area. Most of us around here get our bread buttered by that company! and now they are sticking to their own people!!
DaleMul17 Posted November 19, 2005 Posted November 19, 2005 I am in NY (not NYC) and my Wal*Mart flier says laptop & PC are $488. I was disappointed--since I heard it was gonna be $388. Bummer. (And for those who were curious, yes we have Best Buy, Circuit City, etc around...so it's not that the price is higher due to lack of competition.) I hope the Best Buy flier has the Toshiba laptop for $379..but that will probably be higher too.
favdog Posted November 19, 2005 Posted November 19, 2005 If this SBC thing is right. We seen the LOW PRICE version of the WM ad, wouldn't it be possible that we have seen the HIGH PRICE version of some of the other ads CC BB ect.
Cwilliams Posted November 19, 2005 Posted November 19, 2005 Every Walmart store is linked to corp. When you purchase something and they scan it. It goes right to corp. and pulls it out of inventory for that store. All ordering is done from corp. Managers in stores do nothing with the orders or really ever know what will be on the next truck. As well all price scans are entered from corp. I will tell you this saying Walmart can not sell below cost in Wisconsin is not right. I have a receipt right now where I saves 19.82 dollars on Roundup concentrate. I bought 4 bottles at 2 dollars a piece. these are well over 20.00 dollars a bottle. My wife and I owned a small gift shop for awhile and I can tell you I sold stuff to good customers all the time for under cost. It can and will be done.
amdskip Posted November 19, 2005 Posted November 19, 2005 Cwilliams, you are partially right. Blitz items are not ordered by management but normal items can and are ordered by management. Corporate controls everything about Blitz. I am going to check into this the next couple days to see if I can get any real information instead of all these rumors.
friholic Posted November 20, 2005 Posted November 20, 2005 Wow! This is really going to be interesting when the ad comes out. I live in PA. Within 15 minutes of my house are 3 Walmarts. All 3 have different prices EVERYDAY. You can go to one where a toy is 24.99, but then go to another Walmart the same day and the same toy is $19.99. They match other stores ads but will not match the price of another Walmart. That stinks. So on one side of town a computer could be $488 and 10 minutes away in the same state like $500. It's crazy!
kypdr Posted November 23, 2005 Posted November 23, 2005 Unfortunately in Wisconsin they are very strict on pricing and constantly watch large companies like Wal-Mart because the Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act( Wis. Stat. Ann. § 100.30) was put into effect to help the Small Businesses(look it up on the internet and you will see lots of recent things about gas but it also deals with other merchandise). The current Wisconsin law discourages competitive pricing. Over the past few years they have tried to ammend and/or remove this law from the books which has been on the books in some way shape or form since the 1930's but unfortunately it has never happened. However the Act permits a handful of exceptions, including ones for clearance sales and meeting the competition. I only know a lot about this becaust I just had to study it for my economics class about 2 weeks ago. Stuck in the middle of WIKypdr
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