Lawrence Woods wrote:
> Well, I hesitated, and the price has risen by 20%. Could the price rise
> since the beginning of March be personal punishment for not heeding the word
> of the mighty AG Schnozz?
>
$333.38 w/free shipping @ Amazon today. Let's face it, that's only the
tip on a half decent dinner for two more than $310 plus shipping. Is it
really worth fussing about?
A couple of thoughts about pricing:
This is the slow time of year for techie toys - cameras, computers,
electronics, optics, etc. Holidays over, new toys still sorta new,
spenders remorse in full swing, weather still not spring in much of the
country, and so on. Even worse this year, of course.
Retailers and the retail supply channels have been dealing with this
forever. They know sale prices, rebates, etc. this time of year just
don't much boost volume, just reduce gross. They figure most sales are
to people who just want or need whatever it is now, and that small %
differences in price won't make a lot of difference.
There are some very sophisticated pricing models out there in the big
retailers. I think airlines started it with their demand driven pricing
of discount tickets, but it has spread. Say you are a retailer of
something that sells 60% of yearly volume in Nov- early Jan, 10%
Feb-May. Further, your supplier has significant discounts for volume
purchases and you account for the costs of carrying inventory, so there
is a large $ incentive to buy in volume, but not to carry much inventory
very long. It may actually increase your net profits to raise prices
during the slow time if inventory of a particular item is going out a
bit too fast to last until the next order. Worst case, you lose a few
sales on which you would have made no profit. Best case, a few folks who
aren't especially price sensitive buy anyway, and you make a bit of profit.
It appears that Amazon may be engaging in demand based pricing more like
the airlines, at least for bigger ticket items. I had researched a
$1,400-1,600 ish electronics item. Amazon had the best total price,
including shipping. I put it in my shopping cart and checked on it a
couple of times a day. Sure enough, one day it dropped about $75 and I
quickly bought it. The next day, it was back above the price it had been
sitting at for at least a couple of weeks. Sure sounds like at least
semi-automated demand driven pricing.
I got it at the lowest total price I'd seen by maybe $150. It shipped
quickly, the shippers called to make a delivery appointment, showed up
right on time, unboxed it in my living room, put it on the table I had
ready, turned it on to make sure it worked and had me sign that they had
done so. They also offered to take away the packaging.
It appears to me that at least B&H and Adorama are experimenting with
pricing strategies and Adorama with additional channels. On some items I
recently looked at, B&H prices were lower, but Adorama had free
shipping. Net cost was very close. A few weeks ago, I found an item I
wanted cheaper from Adorama through Amazon than directly from Adorama -
go figure. Some TigerDirect items have been cheaper through Amazon, too.
Retail Shopper Moose
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